Writing Implements

I

Introduction

Writing Implements, manual devices used to make alphanumeric marks on or in a surface. Peculiar to inscription is the removal of part of a surface to record such marks. The writing tool is usually controlled by movement of the fingers, hand, wrist, and arm of the writer. The development of writing implements in the West has been determined by the interplay of the demand and skills of the writer and the writing materials available.

II

Ancient Implements

The earliest form of Western writing was cuneiform, made by pressing an angular stick of three or four sides into soft clay that was then baked, making these wedge-shaped marks permanent. The next major developments in writing tools were the use of the brush and of the mallet and chisel by the Greeks. Writing found on ancient Greek pottery was done with a small round brush, and early Greek letters were incised on stone with a metal chisel driven by a mallet. Neither form of Greek writing shows any variation in the thickness of the lines of individual letters; the Romans, using broad-edged tools, introduced variations in the width of alphabetic marks.

By the beginning of the 1st century ad, Roman writing implements varied according to both the purpose of the writing and the surface used. Ephemeral writing and school exercises were often done with pointed styluses made of metal or bone on small wax-coated wooden tablets. Letters were scratched on the waxed surface with the pointed end of the stylus and erasures were made with the other, blunt end of the same tool. Permanent writing was done on papyrus with a reed cut to a point and dipped in ink. The rough surface of papyrus was suited to this pointed tool, and the writing produced was similar to that found on waxed tablets. Flat brushes and reeds cut with a broad edge were used on smooth surfaces, such as specially prepared animal skins (vellum or parchment) and plaster or stone walls (see Graffito; Parchment and Vellum). Inscriptional writing was done with mallet and chisel, but the style of these inscribed letters, with their variations from thick to thin strokes, shows their origin in the use of a broad-edged tool.

III

Pens

The rise and spread of Christianity increased the demand for permanent written religious documents. As the size of writing became smaller, both writing tools and surfaces changed. Vellum or parchment books replaced the papyrus roll, and the quill replaced the reed pen. Although quill pens can be made from the outer wing feathers of any bird, those of goose, swan, crow, and (later) turkey, were preferred. The earliest reference (6th century ad) to quill pens was made by the Spanish theologian St. Isidore of Seville, and this tool was the principal writing implement for nearly 1,300 years.

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To make a quill pen, a wing feather is first hardened by heating or letting it dry out gradually. The hardened quill is then cut to a broad edge with a special penknife.

The writer had to recut the quill pen frequently to maintain its edge. By the 18th century the width of the edge had diminished and the length of the slit had increased, creating a flexible point that produced thick and thin strokes by pressure on the point rather than by the angle at which the broad edge was held. Also by the 18th century, paper had replaced vellum as the chief writing surface, and more writing was being done for commerce than for church or Crown. During this period attempts were made to invent a lasting writing tool that did not require recutting. Horn, tortoiseshell, and gemstones were tried, but steel was eventually used for permanent pen points.

Although pens of bronze may have been known to the Romans, the earliest mention of “brazen pens” was in 1465. The 16th-century Spanish calligrapher Juan de Yciar mentions brass pens for very large writing in his 1548 writing manual, but the use of metal pens did not become widespread until the early part of the 19th century. The first patented steel pen point was made by the English engineer Bryan Donkin in 1803. The leading 19th-century English pen manufacturers were William Joseph Gillot, William Mitchell, and James Stephen Perry. Use of the quill rapidly declined during that century, especially after the introduction of free public education for children; more emphasis was then placed on the teaching of writing than on teaching the skill of quill cutting.

In 1884 Lewis Waterman, a New York insurance agent, patented the first practical fountain pen containing its own ink reservoir. Waterman invented a mechanism that fed ink to the pen point by capillary action, allowing ink to flow evenly while writing. By the 1920s the fountain pen was the chief writing instrument in the West and remained so until the introduction of the ballpoint pen after World War II (1939-1945).

A

The Ballpoint Pen

As early as the 19th century, attempts had been made to manufacture a pen with a rolling ball tip, but not until 1938 did the Hungarian brothers Georg and Ladislao Biro invent a practical ballpoint pen. Its success was based upon a viscous, oil-based ink. Early ballpoint pens did not write well; they tended to skip, and the slow-drying oil-based ink smudged easily. But the ballpoint pen had several advantages over the fountain pen: The ink was waterproof and almost unerasable; the pen could write on many kinds of surfaces and could be held in almost any position for writing; and the pressure required to feed the ink was ideal for making carbon copies. Ink formulas were improved for smoother flow and faster drying, and soon the ballpoint replaced the fountain pen as the universal writing tool.

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