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PENTOOLING.COM
EDITOR’S PICKS
3
42 •
PPB
• DECEMBER 2014
GROW
“I bought a
$7 pen
because I
always lose
pens and I
got sick of
not caring.”
—Mitch Hedberg
4,000 B.C.
Early scribes
craft writing
instruments
from hollow
straws or reeds
filled with liquid
to lay down
the rules on
papyrus.
500 B.C.
Writers reach
for bird feath-
ers, whose
porous shafts
can soak up
ink, and cut
the tips to
ensure applica-
tion on writing
surfaces. Quill
pens remain
the go-to
instrument for
the literate for
centuries.
1800s
Steel nibs are
invented to
help prevent
excessive
bleeding and
smearing on
paper; blotting
paper
becomes the
pen’s wing-
man.
1888
The first patent
for a ballpoint
pen is granted
to a designer
who used it to
mark leather
fabric. This
patent, along
with a second
one issued in
1916, lapses
without
improvement
renewal.
1939
Ballpoint pens
receive
renewed atten-
tion by World
War II pilots,
who notice the
pens don’t
leak at high
altitudes.
1883
Insurance salesman L.E.
Waterman is inspired (or aggra-
vated) to make a self-contained
ink pen after an incident with a
traditional pen-inkwell combina-
tion ruins a sale. Waterman
applies capillary attraction to his
design, which helps ensure ink
hits the paper in a uniform flow.
The first practical fountain pen is
born—and patented a few
months later.
1945
Milton Reynolds introduces a
ballpoint pen containing heavy
gelatin ink. It sells well, despite
its $10 price tag and clunky
operation, thanks in part to the
slogan: “It writes under water.”
By the 1960s competition forces
the price tag for ballpoints down
to 60 cents, and the Reynolds
pen has gone the way of the
quill as smoother versions
emerge.
VINTAGE PEN COLLECTIBLES
Pen Progression
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