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| Universal | (Universal Fountain Pen & Pencil Company, also Universal Pen & Pencil Company) A pen company located in Brooklyn, New York; founded in 1945 to supply low-priced writing instruments to department, stationery, and drug stores. Universal began by making fountain pens and mechanical pencils, expanding to the production of stylographic pens and, in the 1950s, ballpoints. Pen prices ranged from $1.00 for the Buck range of fountain and ballpoint pens (introduced in 1952) to $3.95 for the company’s top-line Uni-Flow fountain pen. ¶ In about 1959, Universal introduced the $1.49 Aqua-Pen, a fountain pen that used cartridges of dried ink (two for 29¢) and filled with water. Just to confuse things, the pen was marketed as the Empex Aqua-Pen, and the manufacturer of record was the Rohill Company of New York City, with which Universal was affiliated. The Aqua-Pen was listed on page 188 of the 1961-1962 Consumer Bulletin Annual as a novelty pen and was rated as NOT RECOMMENDED. It was still being offered into the 1990s, by which time Universal had relocated to Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania, after an earlier move to Union City, New Jersey. Shown below are a Universal V-250 fountain pen, a remarkably well made pen for its time, notable for its semi-hooded nib and polished ribbed aluminum cap (upper), and an Aqua-Pen (lower).   |