From cave paintings to the quill pen -- how ink, paper and pens were all were
invented.
The history of writing instruments by which humans have recorded and conveyed
thoughts, feelings and grocery lists, is the history of civilization itself.
This is how we know the story of us, by the drawings, signs and words we have
recorded.
The cave man's first inventions were the hunting club (not the auto security
device) and the handy sharpened-stone, the all-purpose skinning and killing
tool. The latter was adapted into the first writing instrument. The cave man
scratched pictures with the sharpened-stone tool onto the walls of his cave
dwelling. The cave drawings represented events in daily life such as the
planting of crops or hunting victories.
With time, the record-keepers developed systematized symbols from their
drawings. These symbols represented words and sentences, but were easier and
faster to draw and universally recognized for meaning. The discovery of clay
made portable records possible (you can't carry a cave wall around with you).
Early merchants used clay tokens with pictographs to record the quantities of
materials traded or shipped. These tokens date back to about 8,500 B.C. With the
high volume of and the repetition inherent in record keeping, pictographs
evolved and slowly lost their picture detail. They became abstract-figures
representing sounds in spoken communication. The alphabet replaced pictographs
between 1700 and 1500 B.C. in the Sinai tic world. The current Hebrew alphabet
and writing became popular around 600 B.C. About 400 B.C. the Greek alphabet was
developed. Greek was the first script written from left to right. From Greek
followed the Byzantine and the Roman (later Latin) writings. In the beginning,
all writing systems had only uppercase letters, when the writing instruments
were refined enough for detailed faces, lowercase was used as well (around 600
A.D.)
The earliest means of writing that approached pen and paper as we know them
today was developed by the Greeks. They employed a writing stylus, made of
metal, bone or ivory, to place marks upon wax-coated tablets. The tablets made
in hinged pairs, closed to protect the scribe's notes. The first examples of
handwriting (purely text messages made by hand) originated in Greece. The
Grecian scholar, Cadmus invented the written letter - text messages on paper
sent from one individual to another.
Writing was advancing beyond chiselling pictures into stone or wedging
pictographs into wet clay. The Chinese invented and perfected 'Indian Ink'.
Originally designed for blacking the surfaces of raised stone-carved
hieroglyphics, the ink was a mixture of soot from pine smoke and lamp oil mixed
with the gelatine of donkey skin and musk. The ink invented by the Chinese
philosopher, Tien-Lcheu (2697 B.C.), became common by the year 1200 B.C. Other
cultures developed inks using the natural dyes and colours derived from berries,
plants and minerals. In early writings, different coloured inks had ritual
meaning attached to each colour.
The invention of inks paralleled the introduction of paper. The early Egyptians,
Romans, Greeks and Hebrews used papyrus and parchment papers. One of the oldest
pieces of writing on papyrus known to us today is the Egyptian "Prisse Papyrus"
which dates back to 2000 B.C. The Romans created a reed-pen perfect for
parchment and ink, from the hollow tubular-stems of marsh grasses,
Especially from the jointed bamboo plant. They converted bamboo stems into a
primitive form of fountain pen. They cut one end into the form of a pen nib or
point. A writing fluid or ink filled the stem, squeezing the reed forced fluid
to the nib.
By 400 A.D. a stable form of ink developed, a composite of iron-salts, nutgalls
and gum, the basic formula, which was to remain in use for centuries. Its colour
when first applied to paper was a bluish-black, rapidly turning into a darker
black and then over the years fading to the familiar dull brown colour commonly
seen in old documents. Wood-fibre paper was invented in China in 105 A.D. but it
only became known about (due to Chinese secrecy) in Japan around 700 A.D. and
brought to Spain by the Arabs in 711 A.D. Paper was not widely used throughout
Europe until paper mills were built in the late 14th century.
The writing instrument that dominated for the longest period in history (over
one-thousand years) was the quill pen. Introduced around 700 A.D., the quill is
a pen made from a bird feather. The strongest quills were those taken from
living birds in the spring from the five outer left wing feathers. The left wing
was favoured because the feathers curved outward and away when used by a
right-handed writer. Goose feathers were most common; swan feathers were of a
premium grade being scarcer and more expensive. For making fine lines, crow
feathers were the best, and then came the feathers of the eagle, owl, hawk and
turkey.
Quill pens lasted for only a week before it was necessary to replace them. There
were other disadvantages associated with their use, including a lengthy
preparation time. The early European writing parchments made from animal skins,
required much scraping and cleaning. A lead and a ruler made margins. To sharpen
the quill, the writer needed a special knife (origins of the term "pen-knife".)
Beneath the writer's high-top desk was a coal stove, used to dry the ink as fast
as possible.
Plant-fibre paper became the primary medium for writing after another dramatic
invention took place: Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press with
replaceable wooden or metal letters in 1436. Simpler kinds of printing e.g.
stamps with names, used much earlier in China, did not find their way to Europe.
During the centuries, many newer printing technologies were developed based on
Gutenberg's printing machine e.g. offset printing.
Articles written by hand had resembled printed letters until scholars began to
change the form of writing, using capitals and small letters, writing with more
of a slant and connecting letters. Gradually writing became more suitable to the
speed the new writing instruments permitted. The credit of inventing Italian
'running hand' or cursive handwriting with its Roman capitals and small letters,
goes to Aldus Manutius of Venice, who departed from the old set forms in 1495
A.D. By the end of the 16th century, the old Roman capitals and Greek
letterforms transformed into the twenty-six alphabet letters we know today, both
for upper and lower-case letters.
When writers had both better inks and paper, and handwriting had developed into
both an art form and an everyday occurrence, man's inventive nature once again
turned to improving the writing instrument, leading to the development of the
modern fountain pen.
inventors.about.com
The History of the Fountain Pen
Lewis Waterman patented the first practical fountain pen in 1884. Writing
instruments designed to carry their own supply of ink had existed in principle
for over one hundred years before Waterman's patent. For example, the oldest
known fountain pen that has survived today was designed by a Frenchmen named M.
Bion and dated 1702. Peregrin Williamson, a Baltimore shoemaker, received the
first American patent for a pen in 1809. John Scheffer received a British patent
in 1819 for his half quill, half metal pen that he attempted to mass
manufacture. John Jacob Parker patented the first self-filling fountain pen in
1831. However, early fountain pen models were plagued by ink spills and other
failures that left them impractical and hard to sell.
The fountain pen's design came after a thousand years of using quill-pens. Early inventors observed the apparent natural ink reserve found in the hollow channel of a bird's feather and tried to produce a similar effect, with a man-made pen that would hold more ink and not require constant dipping into the ink well. However, a feather is not a pen, only a natural object modified to suit man's needs. Filling a long thin reservoir made of hard rubber with ink and sticking a metal 'nib' at the bottom was not enough to produce a smooth writing instrument. Lewis Waterman, an insurance salesman, was inspired to improve the early fountain pen designs after destroying a valuable sales contract with leaky-pen ink. Lewis Waterman's idea was to add an air hole in the nib and three grooves inside the feed mechanism. A mechanism is composed of three main parts. The nib, which has the contact with the paper. The feed or black part under the nib controls the ink flow from the reservoir to the nib. The round barrel that holds the nib and feed on the writing end protects the ink reservoir internally (this is the part that you grip while writing).
All pens contain an internal reservoir for ink. The different ways that
reservoirs filled proved to be one of the most competitive areas in the pen
industry. The earliest 19th century pens used an eyedropper; by 1915, most pens
had switched to having a self-filling soft and flexible rubber sac as an ink
reservoir. To refill these pens, the reservoirs were squeezed flat by an
internal plate, then the pen's nib was inserted into a bottle of ink and the
pressure on the internal plate was released so that the ink sac would fill up
drawing in a fresh supply of ink.
Several different patents issued for the self-filling fountain pen design:
• The Button Filler: Patented in 1905 and first offered by the Parker Pen Co. in
1913 as an alternative to the eyedropper method. An external button connected to
the internal pressure plate that flattened the ink sac when pressed.
• Lever Filler: Walter Sheaffer patented the lever filler in 1908. The W.A.
Sheaffer Pen Company of Fort Madison, Iowa introduced it in 1912. An external
lever depressed the flexible ink sac. The lever fitted flush with the barrel of
the pen when it was not in use. The lever filler became the winning design for
the next forty years, the button filler coming in second.
• Click Filler: First called the crescent filler, Roy Conklin of Toledo
commercially produced the first one. A later design by Parker Pen Co. used the
name click filler. When two protruding tabs on the outside of the pen pressed,
the ink sac deflated. The tabs would make a clicking sound when the sac was
full.
• Matchstick Filler: Introduced around 1910 by the Weidlich Company. A small rod
mounted on the pen or a common matchstick depressed the internal pressure plate
through a hole in the side of the barrel.
• Coin Filler: Developed by Lewis Waterman in an attempt to compete with the
winning lever filler patent belonging to Sheaffer. A slot in the barrel of the
pen enabled a coin to deflate the internal pressure plate, a similar idea to the
matchstick filler.
There are nine standard nib-sizes, with three different nib-tip cuts: straight,
oblique and italic. The early inks caused steel nibs to quickly corrode and gold
nibs held up to the corrosion. Iridium used on the very tip of the nib replaced
gold because gold was too soft. Most owners had their initials engraved on the
clip. It took about four months to break in a new writing instrument since the
nib was designed to flex as pressure was put on it (allowing the writer to vary
the width of the writing lines) each nib wore down accommodating to each owner's
own writing style. People did not tend to loan their fountain pens to anyone for
that reason.
The ink cartridge introduced around 1950 was a disposable, pre-filled plastic or
glass cartridges designed for clean and easy insertion. They were an immediate
success. The introduction of the ballpoints, however, overshadowed the invention
of the cartridge and dried up business for the fountain pen industry. Fountain
pens sell today as a classic writing instrument and the original pens have
become very hot collectibles.
inventors.about.com
Part 3: The Battle of the Ballpoint Pens
"No man was more foolish when he had not a pen in his hand, or more wise when he
had" - Samuel Johnson.
A Hungarian journalist named Laszlo Biro invented the first ballpoint pen in
1938. Biro had noticed that the type of ink used in newspaper printing dried
quickly, leaving the paper dry and smudge-free. He decided to create a pen using
the same type of ink. The thicker ink would not flow from a regular pen nib and
Biro had to devise a new type of point. He did so by fitting his pen with a tiny
ball bearing in its tip. As the pen moved along the paper, the ball rotated
picking up ink from the ink cartridge and leaving it on the paper. This
principle of the ballpoint pen actually dates back to an 1888 patent owned by
John J. Loud for a product to mark leather. However, this patent was
commercially unexploited. Laszlo Biro first patented his pen in 1938, and
applied for a fresh patent in Argentina on June 10, 1943. (Laszlo Biro and his
brother Georg Biro emigrated to Argentina in 1940.) The British Government
bought the licensing rights to this patent for the war effort. The British Royal
Air Force needed a new type of pen, one that would not leak at higher altitudes
in fighter planes as the fountain pen did. Their successful performance for the
Air Force brought the Biro pens into the limelight. Laszlo Biro had neglected to
get a U.S. patent for his pen and so even with the ending of World War II,
another battle was just beginning..
Historical Outline - The Battle of Ballpoint Pens
The first pen-writing instrument was the quill pen dipped into dark paint. There
became a need to lengthen the time between dips, eliminate splatter, eliminate
smearing and improve pen handling.
• Early 1800s: The first designs for pens that could hold their own ink
patented.
• 1884: L.E. Waterman, a New York City insurance salesman, designed the first
workable fountain pen; the fountain pen becomes the predominant writing
instrument for the next sixty years. Four fountain pen manufactures dominate the
market: Parker, Sheaffer, Waterman and Wahl-Eversharp.
• 1938: Invention of a ballpoint pen by two Hungarian inventors, Laszlo Biro and
George Biro. The brothers both worked on the pen and applied for patents in 1938
and 1940. The new-formed Eterpen Company in Argentina commercialized the Biro
pen. The press hailed the success of this writing tool because it could write
for a year without refilling.
• May 1945: Eversharp Co. teams up with Eberhard-Faber to acquire the exclusive
rights to Biro Pens of Argentina. The pen re-branded the “Eversharp CA” which
stood for Capillary Action. Released to the press months in advance of public
sales.
• June, 1945: Less than a month after Eversharp/Eberhard close the deal with
Eterpen, Chicago businessman, Milton Reynolds visits Buenos Aires. While in a
store, he sees the Biro pen and recognizes the pen’s sales potential. He buys a
few pens as samples. Reynolds returns to America and starts the Reynolds
International Pen Company, ignoring Eversharp’s patent rights.
• October 29, 1945: Reynolds copies the product in four months and sells his
product Reynold's Rocket at Gimbel’s department store in New York City.
Reynolds’ imitation beats Eversharp to market. Reynolds’ pen is immediately
successful: Priced at $12.50, $100,000 worth sold the first day on the market.
• December, 1945: Britain was not far behind with the first ballpoint pens
available to the public sold at Christmas by the Miles-Martin Pen Company.
The Ballpoint Pen Becomes a Fad
Ballpoint pens guaranteed to write for two years without refilling, claimed to
be smear proof. Reynolds advertised it as the pen "to write under water."
Eversharp sued Reynolds for copying the design it had acquired legally. The
previous 1888 patent by John Loud would have invalidated everyone's claims.
However, no one knew that at the time. Sales skyrocketed for both competitors.
Nevertheless, the Reynolds’ pen leaked, skipped and often failed to write.
Eversharp’s pen did not live up to its own advertisements. A very high volume of
pen returns occurred for both Eversharp and Reynolds. The ballpoint pen fad
ended - due to consumer unhappiness.
• 1948: Frequent price wars, poor quality products, and heavy advertising costs
hurt each side. Sales did a nosedive. The original asking price of $12.50
dropped to less than 50 cents per pen.
• 1950: The French Baron called Bich, drops the h and starts BIC and starts
selling pens.
• 1951: The ballpoint pen dies a consumer death. Fountain pens are number one
again. Reynolds folds.
• January, 1954: Parker Pens introduces its first ballpoint pen, the Jotter. The
Jotter wrote five times longer than the Eversharp or Reynolds pens. It had a
variety of point sizes, a rotating cartridge and large-capacity ink refills.
Best of all, it worked. Parker sold 3.5 million Jotters @ $2.95 to $8.75 in less
then one year.
The Ballpoint Pen Battle is Won
• 1957: Parker introduces the tungsten carbide textured ball bearing in their
ballpoint pens. Eversharp was in deep financial trouble and tried to switch back
to selling fountain pens. Eversharp sold its pen division to Parker Pens and
Eversharp's assets finally liquidated in the 1960’s.
• Late 1950's: BIC ® held 70 percent of European market.
• 1958: BIC buys 60 percent of the New York based Waterman Pens.
• 1960: BIC owns 100 percent of Waterman Pens. BIC sells ballpoint pens in U.S.
for 29 - 69 cents.
The Ballpoint Pen War is Won
BIC ® dominates the market. Parker, Sheaffer and Waterman, capture the smaller
upscale markets of fountain pens and expensive ballpoints.
• Today: The highly popular modern version of Laszlo Biro's pen, the BIC
Crystal, has a daily world wide sales figure of 14,000,000 pieces. Biro is still
the generic name used for the ballpoint pen in most of the world. The Biro pens
used by the British Air Force in W.W.II worked. Parker black ballpoint pens will
produce more than 28,000 linear feet of writing -- more than five miles, before
running out of ink.
inventors.about.com
Pencil and Eraser Trivia
Graphite is a form of carbon, first discovered in the Seat Waite Valley on the
side of the mountain Seat Waite Fell in Borrow dale, near Keswick, England,
about 1564 by an unknown person. Shortly after this the first pencils were made
in the same area.
The breakthrough in pencil technology came when French chemist Nicolas Conte
developed and patented the process used to make pencils in 1795. He used a
mixture of clay and graphite that was fired before it was put in a wooden case.
The pencils he made were cylindrical with a slot. The square lead was glued into
the slot and a thin strip of wood was used to fill the rest of the slot. Pencils
got their name from the old English word meaning 'brush'. Conte's method of kiln
firing powdered graphite and clay allowed pencils to be made to any hardness or
softness - very important to artists and draftsmen.
Charles Marie de la Condamine, a French scientist and explorer, was the first
European to bring back the natural substance called "India" rubber. He brought a
sample to the Institute de France in Paris in 1736. South American Indian tribes
used rubber to making bouncing playing balls and as an adhesive for attaching
feathers and other objects to their bodies.
In 1770, the noted scientist Sir Joseph Priestley (discoverer of oxygen)
recorded the following, "I have seen a substance excellently adapted to the
purpose of wiping from paper the mark of black lead pencil." Europeans were
rubbing out pencil marks with the small cubes of rubber, the substance that
Condamine had brought to Europe from South America. They called their erasers "peaux
de negres". However, rubber was not an easy substance to work with because it
went bad very easily -- just like food, rubber would rot. English engineer,
Edward Naime is also credited with the creation of the first eraser in 1770.
Before rubber, breadcrumbs had been used to erase pencil marks. Naime claims he
accidentally picked up a piece of rubber instead of his lump of bread and
discovered the possibilities, he went on to sell the new rubbing out devices or
rubbers.
In 1839, Charles Goodyear discovered a way to cure rubber and make it a lasting
and useable material. He called his process vulcanization, after Vulcan, the
Roman god of fire. In 1844, Goodyear patented his process. With the better
rubber available, erasers became quite common.
The first patent for attaching an eraser to a pencil was issued in 1858 to a man
from Philadelphia named Hyman Lipman. This patent was later held to be invalid
because it was merely the combination of two things, without a new use.
At first penknives were used to sharpen pencils. They got their name from the
fact that they were first used to shape feather quills used as early pens. In
1828, Bernard Lassimone, a French mathematician applied for a patent (French
patent #2444) on an invention to sharpen pencils. However, it was not until 1847
that Therry des Estwaux first invented the manual pencil sharpener, as we know
it.
John Lee Love of Fall River, MA designed the "Love Sharpener." Love's invention
was the very simple, portable pencil sharpener that many artists use. The pencil
is put into the opening of the sharpener and rotated by hand, and the shavings
stay inside the sharpener. Love's sharpener was patented on November 23, 1897
(U.S. Patent # 594,114). Four years earlier, Love created and patented his first
invention, the "Plasterer's Hawk." This device, which is still used today, is a
flat square piece of board made of wood or metal, upon which plaster or mortar
was placed and then spread by plasterers or masons. This was patented on July 9,
1895.
One source claims that the Hammacher Schlemmer Company of New York offered the
world's first electric pencil sharpener designed by Raymond Loewy, sometime in
the early 1940s.
In 1861, Eberhard Faber built the first pencil factory in the United States in
New York City.
top