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A
History of writing instruments.
Ink storing pens such as fountain pens did not appear until
the 19th century. The quill, a long bird’s feather, with the
end sharpened had the disadvantage of having to be
continuously dipped in ink. So the idea of adding a
reservoir was experimented with. The period 1880 to 1900 saw
a proliferation of fountain pen inventions from the world's
inventors, many were not practical but over 400 Patents were
granted. The first practical fountain pen was designed by a
middle aged American insurance salesman, Lewis Waterman, who
time and again was disappointed by the pens with ink
reservoirs that were available that either leaked in the
pocket or failed to write at a critical time, such as
signing an order or contract. Having an inventive mind
Waterman designed a pen that would give an even smooth blot
free flow.
Fountain Pens held sway for the first half of the 20th
Century as day to day writing implements as well as luxury
gift items. However the advent of the Ball Point pen started
the demise of the Fountain pen. Today they have formed a
niche in the writing instrument market with significant
sales but which are a small percentage of total writing
instrument sales.
Ball Point Pens
The principle of the Ball Point pen is that within the
writing tip a metal ball housed in a socket rotates freely
and rolls quick drying ink onto the writing surface. The
writing ball being continuously fed by ink from the
reservoir which generally is the pen barrel or a tube
within. Although the idea had been around for a while a
Hungarian refugee living in South America, Laszo Biro,
designed the first satisfactory ball pen that wrote smoothly
in 1943. They were firstly used by British aircrew because
they wrote at high altitude, unlike the fountain pen.
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Fibre Tip Pen
Although the original fibre tip pens were used in the 1940's
with coarse wool felt tips these were little more than crude
applicators of ink being predominantly used for labelling
and artistic work. The modern fibre tip pen, as we know it
was invented in the 1960’s in Japan. The product was ideally
suited to the strokes of Japanese 'picture' writing, which
is traditionally produced with a pointed ink brush. The pens
had lower viscosity inks than Ball Point pens and this ink
flowed more easily and was available with brighter colours.
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Roller Ball pens
Other pens that have been developed include a variation on
the Ball Point pen where ink is drawn from the fibrous
reservoir by a tip which then feeds the ink to the rear of a
writing ball and subsequently rolls it onto the paper. These
are usually referred to generically as Roller Ball pens.
In parallel to the development of Fibre Tipped pens a wide
range of markers have been developed. Generally these are
just larger versions of the pen products with tips up to an
inch in width. As well as water based inks for colouring and
permanent inks for indelible marking, inks are produced for
writing on white boards which can be removed with water or a
dry tissue.
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Pencil History
Pencils are generally referred to as lead pencils which is
somewhat of a misnomer as the “lead” in modern pencils is
graphite.
The name “lead” came form the instruments that artists used
in the middle ages to outline their drawing which did have a
fine strip on lead which marked the surface that they were
about to draw or paint on. But the discovery of graphite
(pure black carbon) in Northern England allowed a strip to
be held in a wooden case for writing and drawing. The
problem was that this pure graphite was so expensive that
the development of the pencil was limited to those that
could afford them.
But further developments occurred in the late 18th Century
when the black carbon was mixed with clay and this allowed
the resulting material to be classified in harnesses. In the
mid nineteenth century, after the American Civil war was
over, industrialisation saw the beginning of massed produced
pencils and allowed for the development of a high degree of
speciality in the quality of the “leads”, with American
pencils being exported worldwide. As people became more
literate and the need for a cheap writing tool was demanded,
pencil manufactures prospered in meeting the demand.
Calligraphy
The name Calligraphy comes from the Greek words for
beautiful writing.
Calligraphy ranges from functional inscriptions and hand
lettering to fine art pieces.
In the Western World calligraphy continues to flourish in
the forms of wedding and event invitations, font design/
typography, original hand-lettered logo design, commissioned
calligraphic art, testimonials, maps, and other works
involving writing.
Special pens are available in a wide variety of pattern of
nib to allow fine, italic or broad strokes to be drawn for
example.
The World’s most expensive pen!
In 2004 Italian pen manufacturer Montegrappa unveiled what
is reputed to be the world's most expensive pen.
The "Peace Pen" is fashioned from platinum and comes with
Baccarat crystal panels and an array of fine diamonds
totalling more than 1,200.
It is priced at a staggering £679 000.
International artist David Monalto di Frangito designed the
Peace Pen, which has a central motif of a dove, the symbol
for peace.
The pen had been fashioned using techniques derived from
years working in the industry. Montegrappa collections are
realized using sophisticated jewellery techniques such as
deep drawing, low relief engraving, hand-etching,
die-casting, vitreous enamelling, hot enamelling on
materials such as gold, silver, precious stones and
celluloid. Thanks to the passion of the professional
craftsmen the pen is transformed into a fine writing jewel,
a unique and rare piece, an emotional object that has the
capacity to distinguish its owner.
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