The Romans used pens made of reeds and later bamboo to write with, both capable of holding a small quantity of ink. The type of pen that has dominated writing through history is the quill. Much study and science has gone in to the selection of quills – feathers plucked from birds. The best quills come from living birds, and are taken from the five outer left wing feathers. Why? Because the sweep and curve of those feathers best suits the right handed writer. Geese were the usual source, but for a quality pen you needed to catch a swan. Shaping and sharpening a quill led to the production of the pen-knife.
Let’s leap forward to the recent past when fountain pens appeared. Do we have any readers who remember the ink monitors at school? Fountain pen mechanisms included little glass vials filled with ink, before various methods of squeezing and filling rubber sacks were tried. The Bash Street Kids favoured the lever or matchstick filler on their fountain pens – ideal for squirting ink on unsuspecting teachers.
1938 saw the invention of the biro by Lazlo Biro. This new leak proof pen that would write at altitude was just what the Royal Air Force wanted for its pilots and so began the biro’s rise to world domination. Daily sales are now 14 million.
Not selling in as many numbers but equally as well known are the infamous stripper pens. Hold the pen upside down to reveal the curvy lady losing her swimsuit. With the rise in equality, you are just as likely to find the male stripper pen. No one seems to write with these pens but almost every home has one.
Students carry a vast assortment of pens with them to school – feather pens, light-up pens, fruit shaped pens, multi-coloured refill pens (always popular), and some that even write!
When NASA first sent astronauts in to space they spent millions of dollars developing the space pen, a pen equipped with a mini pump that could write in space even when upside down. The Soviets, perhaps more financially limited, gave their cosmonauts a pencil.
