The Third Cartridge

[Ernst Bitterman]

This will probably not be news to everyone here, but it startled me. I had been lumbering about, thinking that there were two styles of cartridges for Watermans; the old style C/F with its bullet-shaped front end and (usually) a metal fitting at the base. and the new international pattern. This week, I got what I tentatively identify as a Facette, and I find an other sort of cartridge in it! Here it is, next to an international short.

 

http://ravensmarch.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/watfaccart.jpg

 

It's not quite as exciting as chasing Orson Wells down a Viennese sewer, but it did give a brief jolt. If anyone wants to comment on the time frame for this pattern, or indeed on my identitfication of the pen it was living in (see below-- it's got 20 sides!), I'm all ears!

 

http://ravensmarch.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/dscn2607.jpg

Edited October 6, 2012 by Ernst Bitterman

[Xof72000]

Yes, this is a Waterman Facette.

The longer cartridge is a "23" model one.

[Uncle Red]

Ugh, what were they thinking? :bonk: I take it this is a seventies pen?

 

BTW Ernst, I loved that movie. I even have a copy of the novel. I did get a bit tired of the music though.

[Xof72000]

Here are some pix of a box of theses cartridges (sorry, bad quality, low light...).

As written on the box, those flexible cartridges had "molecular orientation" ... :embarrassed_smile:

Don't know really what it means but this was certainly a good marketing argument...

 

http://i1092.photobucket.com/albums/i404/Xof72000/SAM_1456.jpg

http://i1092.photobucket.com/albums/i404/Xof72000/SAM_1458-1.jpg

 

I would rather say 80's than 70's, but I'm not sure ...

[Ernst Bitterman]

Just imagine the tiny little comb one would need to get molecules to line up.... :hmm1:

 

I incline to think '70s based on the fact that one of the Super Masters I have has the same square-angled W on it as the Facette, and I have direct experience of the SM being and early '80s item (with the potential of late '70s existence) and using international cartridges. The point is much the same shape as that in the Executive, too, and that one was definitely present in the last half of the 1970s and using international cartridges.

[esteroids]

I took a look in my cartridge collection and found that I have a box of 23s. I'm sure it came with one of the seventies Master type pens I have such trouble identifying.

 

But now I'm even more confused about the habits of these seventies era pens. The 23 looks just like yours. I've got a Facette just like yours. But the 23 cartridge doesn't fit; it's very loose.

Now I remember why I don't use this pen - the only converter I could find to fit was an old brown plastic slide piston (like Parker) that came out of a used Pro Graduate.