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 $8.75 Lifetime pen, introduced in 1921. It was the first standard high-priced fountain pen launched on what had always been a low-priced market. Next Walter Sheaffer streamlined his pens. Then in quick succession he introduced the Sheaffer desk set with universal socket (which seals the tip of the pen and keeps it moist), the Feathertouch nib, the special Sheaffer pencil which "propels, repels and expels the lead," the Sheaffer Vacuum-Fil pen. By 1929 the company's gross sales had climbed to $8,000,000 and its profits, averaging more than $1,000,000, were ahead of those of one of its two rivals, Parker Pen Co. (The other, L. E. Waterman Co., has never published a financial statement.)

Depression was hard on the fountain pen business. Sheaffer had a $676,000 deficit in 1933. Common dividends stopped. Business improved the following year and for the fiscal year ending Feb. 28, 1935 the company announced a net profit of $442,000.