Business & Finance: Pen Man

W. A. Sheaffer Pen Co. boasts the largest dollar sales of any pen manufacturer in the U. S. When it was founded in a Fort Madison, Iowa jeweler's shop in 1913, most fountain pens clogged, scratched, leaked or had to be filled with a medicine dropper. Jeweler Walter A. Sheaffer patented one of the first important improvements—a lever bar filling device. With a capital of $35,000 he started manufacturing Sheaffer pens in the back room of his jewelry shop.

Soon money began to pour into Walter Sheaffer's ink-stained hands. His crowning achievement was an...

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