Immigration to America (1949 ~ 1959) — Nathan Zepell

In August 1949, Nathan came to New York City to market his new pen invention, a fountain pen that can be clipped to a shirt pocket with the writing end upward to avoid the ink from leaking . Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to sell his pen idea in three months ~ and three months turned into nine years.

Nathan’s first pen invention (July 1951) — Nathan’s first pen invention (July 1951)

After about three months in America, Nathan was invited over to friend’s house for dinner. Over dinner he mentioned to his friend that he has a chronic headache. When asked for how long he has had the headaches, Nathan replied three months. The concerned friend recommended that Nathan see a doctor, and arranged for him to see Dr. Eva Farber for help. It turns out that Dr. Farber was a gynaecologist. Nathan had never been to a woman doctor and was uncomfortable when she asked him to undress for an examination - especially for treating a headache. The doctor indicated that she had another patient with a similar problem with headaches and gave Nathan a medical prescription with Rose Wasserman’s name and contact information and recommended that they should meet for a date. Dr. Farber indicated she would call Ms. Wasserman to let her know to expect a call from Nathan. The next day Nathan called Ms. Wasserman and made arrangements to meet for his first date in America. To Nathan’s surprise, Ms. Wasserman, was a very large woman being about one foot taller and over 100 pounds heavier than Nathan, which was awkward for him. Nathan was a gentleman and went out for dinner with Ms. Wasserman; however, in the future he always inquired about the size of any prospective blind dates!

Nathan’s “prescription” for chronic headaches (1949) — Nathan’s “prescription” for chronic headaches (1949)

Nathan was fluent in German, Russian, Latvian, Hebrew and Yiddish; however, when Nathan first arrived in America all he knew to say in English was “alright,” but everything wasn’t alright. After living in New York for about four months, a friend asked Nathan how he ordered food, since he barely spoke English. Nathan said he would order rice pudding everyday for lunch. His friend asked Nathan, “How long have you been ordering rice pudding?” Nathan replied, “For the past four months.” His friend asked why he liked rice pudding so much. Nathan said he couldn’t stand eating rice pudding everyday, but since rice pudding is said the same way in Yiddish and German, it was the only food he knew how to order. His friend said that it wasn’t healthy to eat so much rice pudding, which is meant to be a dessert, and wrote out how to ask for a steak in English. The next day Nathan was so excited about getting a steak he was one of the first in line at the lunch cafeteria. When the waiter asked what he wanted, Nathan replied, “Please give me a steak.” The waiter then asked, “What kind of vegetable he wanted with his steak?” There was a long line of customers waiting to be served at the lunch cafeteria, so Nathan replied with the only thing he knew to say “rice pudding.” The waiter said, “Then no steak?” Nathan not knowing what to do shook his head, so once again he got rice pudding. Nathan had tears in his eyes as they took his steak away.

Nathan pitched his pen inventions to all the major U.S. pen companies, but they thought that his pens were too complicated and not marketable. So Nathan visualized a pen with all the positive elements needed to make a pen less complicated and more marketable being displayed in a stationery store window. This made the pen real, so all he had to do was to figure out how to make it. After about ten months, he came up with a ballpoint pen that used a rocking side clip to retract and extend the writing point, instead of the conventional push button on the top of the pen. To fasten the pen in your pocket, you had to snap the clip outward from the barrel, which automatically retracted the ballpoint, thus preventing ink stains when the pen was clipped on your shirt pocket – Nathan called it the “Remember Pen.” Since all the major pen companies have their own inventors, he decided to go to the smallest pen company. Ultimately, he sold his pen invention to the Columbia Pen and Pencil Company, who renamed it the “Wingmatic” ~ that launched his successful pen inventing career.

Nathan’s Wingmatic pen invention (April 1959) — Nathan’s Wingmatic pen invention (April 1959)

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