Pen

A luxury pen

A pen is a writing instrument used to apply

ink to a surface, usually paper, for writing
or drawing.[1] Historically, reed pens, quill
pens, and dip pens were used, with a nib
dipped in ink. Ruling pens allow precise
adjustment of line width, and still find a
few specialized uses, but technical pens
such as the Rapidograph are more
commonly used. Modern types include
ballpoint, rollerball, fountain and felt or
ceramic tip pens.[2]

Types
Modern

The main modern types of pens can be

categorized by the kind of writing tip or
point on the pen:
An inexpensive Bic Cristal ballpoint pen

A ballpoint pen dispenses an oil-based

ink by rolling a small hard sphere,
usually 0.5–1.2 mm and made of brass,
steel, or tungsten carbide.[3] The ink
dries almost immediately on contact
with paper. The ballpoint pen is usually
reliable and comes in both inexpensive
and expensive types. It has replaced the
fountain pen as the most common tool
for everyday writing. (There are certain
ballpoint pens combining multiple
 colours in a single barrel; the writer or
artist may depress the tip with the
desired colour.)

A luxury ballpoint pen

A rollerball pen dispenses a water-

based liquid or gel ink through a ball tip
similar to that of a ballpoint pen. The
less-viscous ink is more easily absorbed
by paper than oil-based ink, and the pen
moves more easily across a writing
surface. The rollerball pen was initially
designed to combine the convenience of
a ballpoint pen with the smooth "wet
ink" effect of a fountain pen. Gel inks are
available in a range of colors, including
metallic paint colors, glitter effects,
neon, blurred effects, saturated colors,
pastel tones, vibrant shades, shady
colors, invisible ink, see-through effect,
shiny colors, and glow-in-the-dark
effects. Refillable rollerball pens have
recently become available using
cartridges of fountain pen ink.
A fountain pen uses water-based liquid
ink delivered through a nib. The ink flows
from a reservoir through a "feed" to the
nib, then through the nib, due to capillary
action and gravity. The nib has no
moving parts and delivers ink through a
thin slit to the writing surface. A
fountain pen reservoir can be refillable
or disposable; the disposable type is
called an ink cartridge. A pen with a
refillable reservoir may have a
mechanism, such as a piston, to draw
ink from a bottle through the nib, or it
may require refilling with an eyedropper.
Refill reservoirs, also known as cartridge
converters, are available for some pens
which use disposable cartridges. A
fountain pen can be used with
permanent or non-permanent inks.
A Marker pen or felt-tip pen, has a
porous tip of fibrous material. The
smallest, finest-tipped felt-tip pens are
used for writing on paper. Medium-
tipped felt-tips are often used by
children for coloring and drawing. Larger
types, often called "markers", are used
for writing in larger sizes, often on other
surfaces such as corrugated boxes,
whiteboards and for chalkboards, often
called "liquid chalk" or "chalkboard
markers". Markers with wide tips and
bright but transparent ink, called
highlighters, are used to highlight text
that has already been written or printed.
Pens designed for children or for
temporary writing (as with a whiteboard
or overhead projector) typically use non-
permanent inks. Large markers used to
label shipping cases or other packages
are usually permanent markers.
A gel pen uses ink in which pigment is
suspended in a water-based gel.[4]
Because the ink is thick and opaque, it
shows up more clearly on dark or slick
surfaces than the typical inks used in
ballpoint or felt tip pens. Gel pens can
be used for many types of writing and
illustration. Gel pens often come in
bright or neon colors.
A stylus pen, plural styli or styluses,[5] is
a writing utensil or a small tool for some
other form of marking or shaping, for
example, in pottery. It can also be a
computer accessory that is used to
assist in navigating or providing more
precision when using touchscreens. It
usually refers to a narrow elongated
staff, similar to a modern ballpoint pen.
Pens exist which contain a ballpoint tip
on one end and this sort of touchscreen
stylus on the other.
A ruling pen, a drawing tool with
adjustable line thickness.
 A technical pen, derivative of ruling pen
for technical drawings.
A fudepen, a fountain pen version of ink
brush.
A Skin pen, used to create images on
skin.
A digital pen, is a digital input device.

Historic

These historic types of pens are no longer

in common use as writing instruments, but
may be used by calligraphers and other
artists:
A dip pen

A dip pen (or nib pen) consists of a

metal nib with capillary channels, like
that of a fountain pen, mounted on a
handle or holder, often made of wood. A
dip pen usually has no ink reservoir and
must be repeatedly recharged with ink
while drawing or writing. The dip pen
has certain advantages over a fountain
pen. It can use waterproof pigmented
(particle-and-binder-based) inks, such as
India ink, drawing ink, or acrylic inks,
which would destroy a fountain pen by
clogging, as well as the traditional iron
gall ink, which can cause corrosion in a
fountain pen. Dip pens are now mainly
used in illustration, calligraphy, and
comics. A particularly fine-pointed type
of dip pen known as a crowquill is a
favorite instrument of artists, such as
David Stone Martin and Jay Lynch,
because its flexible metal point can
create a variety of delicate lines,
textures and tones with slight pressures
while drawing.
The ink brush is the traditional writing
implement in East Asian calligraphy. The
body of the brush can be made from
either bamboo, or rarer materials such
as red sandalwood, glass, ivory, silver,
and gold. The head of the brush can be
made from the hair (or feathers) of a
wide variety of animals, including the
weasel, rabbit, deer, chicken, duck, goat,
pig, tiger, etc. There is also a tradition in
both China and Japan of making a brush
using the hair of a newborn, as a once-
in-a-lifetime souvenir for the child. This
practice is associated with the legend of
an ancient Chinese scholar who scored
first in the Imperial examinations by
using such a personalized brush.
Calligraphy brushes are widely
considered an extension of the
calligrapher's arm. Today, calligraphy
may also be done using a pen, but pen
calligraphy does not enjoy the same
prestige as traditional brush calligraphy.
A quill is a pen made from a flight
feather of a large bird, most often a
goose. Quills were used as instruments
for writing with ink before the metal dip
pen, the fountain pen, and eventually the
ballpoint pen came into use. Quill pens
were used in medieval times to write on
parchment or paper. The quill eventually
replaced the reed pen.
A reed pen is cut from a reed or
bamboo, with a slit in a narrow tip. Its
 mechanism is essentially similar to that
of a quill. The reed pen has almost
disappeared but it is still used by young
school students in some parts of India
and Pakistan, who learn to write with
them on small timber boards known as
"Takhti".

History

M. Klein and Henry W. Wynne received US

patent#68445 in 1867 for an ink chamber and delivery
system in the handle of the fountain pen
system in the handle of the fountain pen.

Ancient Egyptians had developed writing

on papyrus scrolls when scribes used thin
reed brushes or reed pens from the Juncus
maritimus or sea rush.[6] In his book A
History of Writing, Steven Roger Fischer
suggests that on the basis of finds at
Saqqara, the reed pen might well have
been used for writing on parchment as
long ago as the First Dynasty or about
3000 BC. Reed pens continued to be used
until the Middle Ages, but were slowly
replaced by quills from about the 7th
century. The reed pen, generally made
from bamboo, is still used in some parts of
Pakistan by young students and is used to
write on small wooden boards.[7]

Historic pens

The reed pen survived until papyrus was

replaced as a writing surface by animal
skins, vellum and parchment. The
smoother surface of skin allowed finer,
smaller writing with a quill pen, derived
from the flight feather.[8] The quill pen was
used in Qumran, Judea to write some of
the Dead Sea Scrolls, which date back to
around 100 BC. The scrolls were written in
Hebrew dialects with bird feathers or
quills. There is a specific reference to
quills in the writings of St. Isidore of Seville
in the 7th century.[9] Quill pens were still
widely used in the eighteenth century, and
were used to write and sign the
Constitution of the United States in 1787.

A copper nib was found in the ruins of

Pompeii, showing that metal nibs were
used in the year 79.[10] There is also a
reference to 'a silver pen to carry ink in', in
Samuel Pepys' diary for August 1663.[11]
'New invented' metal pens are advertised
in The Times in 1792.[12] A metal pen point
was patented in 1803, but the patent was
not commercially exploited. A patent for
the manufacture of metal pens was
advertised for sale by Bryan Donkin in
1811.[13] John Mitchell of Birmingham
started to mass-produce pens with metal
nibs in 1822, and after that, the quality of
steel nibs improved enough so that dip
pens with metal nibs came into general
use.[14]
Deliciae physico-mathematicae, 1636

The earliest historical record of a pen with

a reservoir dates back to the 10th century
AD. In 953, Ma'ād al-Mu'izz, the Fatimid
Caliph of Egypt, demanded a pen which
would not stain his hands or clothes, and
was provided with a pen which held ink in
a reservoir and delivered it to the nib.[15]
This pen may have been a fountain pen,
but its mechanism remains unknown, and
only one record mentioning it has been
found. A later reservoir pen was developed
in 1636. In his Deliciae Physico-
Mathematicae (1636), German inventor
Daniel Schwenter described a pen made
from two quills. One quill served as a
reservoir for ink inside the other quill. The
ink was sealed inside the quill with cork.
Ink was squeezed through a small hole to
the writing point. In 1809, Bartholomew
Folsch received a patent in England for a
pen with an ink reservoir.[15]

While a student in Paris, Romanian

Petrache Poenaru invented the fountain
pen, which the French Government
patented in May 1827. Fountain pen
patents and production then increased in
the 1850s.
The first patent on a ballpoint pen was
issued on October 30, 1888, to John J
Loud.[16] In 1938, László Bíró, a Hungarian
newspaper editor, with the help of his
brother George, a chemist, began to design
new types of pens, including one with a
tiny ball in its tip that was free to turn in a
socket. As the pen moved along the paper,
the ball rotated, picking up ink from the ink
cartridge and leaving it on the paper. Bíró
filed a British patent on June 15, 1938. In
1940 the Bíró brothers and a friend, Juan
Jorge Meyne, moved to Argentina fleeing
Nazi Germany. On June 10 they filed
another patent, and formed "Bíró Pens of
Argentina". By the summer of 1943 the
first commercial models were available.[17]
Erasable ballpoint pens were introduced by
Papermate in 1979 when the Erasermate
was put on the market.

1915 advertisement for "Vulcan" Ink Pencils

Slavoljub Eduard Penkala, a naturalized

Croatian engineer and inventor of Polish-
Dutch origin from the Kingdom of Croatia-
Slavonia in Austria-Hungary, became
renowned for further development of the
mechanical pencil (1906) – then called an
"automatic pencil" – and the first solid-ink
fountain pen (1907). Collaborating with an
entrepreneur by the name of Edmund
Moster, he started the Penkala-Moster
Company and built a pen-and-pencil
factory that was one of the biggest in the
world at the time. This company, now
called TOZ-Penkala, still exists today. "TOZ"
stands for "Tvornica olovaka Zagreb",
meaning "Zagreb Pencil Factory".

Modern marker pens

In the 1960s, the fiber or felt-tipped pen
was invented by Yukio Horie of the Tokyo
Stationery Company, Japan.[18] Paper
Mate's Flair was among the first felt-tip
pens to hit the U.S. market in the 1960s,
and it has been the leader ever since.
Marker pens and highlighters, both similar
to felt pens, have become popular in
recent times.

Rollerball pens were introduced in the

early 1970s. They use a mobile ball and
liquid ink to produce a smoother line.
Technological advances during the late
1980s and early 1990s have improved the
roller ball's overall performance. A porous
point pen contains a point made of some
porous material such as felt or ceramic. A
high quality drafting pen will usually have a
ceramic tip, since this wears well and does
not broaden when pressure is applied
while writing. Although the invention of the
typewriter and personal computer with the
keyboard input method has offered
another way to write, the pen is still the
main means of writing.[19] Many people
like to use expensive types and brands of
pens, including fountain pens, and these
are sometimes regarded as a status
symbol.[20]
Another manufacturer emerged from the
depths of marketing with "Bic pens" in
1953, named Michael Bich. He introduced
new ballpoint pens to the American
marketplace in the 1950s, and became
successful in selling his Bic pens in the
1960s when he published his campaign
slogan,"Writes The First Time, Every
Time!". The era of the 1940s-1960s was a
competitive era for every manufacture
manufacturing [pens] at this period of
time.

See also
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
pens.

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Pens

Wikiversity has learning resources about

History of the Pen

Active pen
Calligraphy
Counterfeit banknote detection pen
Digital pen
Gel pen
Ink
List of pen types, brands and companies
 Pen spinning
Pencil
Retractable pen
Ruling pen
Space Pen
Stylus
Technical pen

Notes and references

1. Pen . Merriam-Webster Dictionary
2. "pen." Word Histories and Mysteries.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004. Credo
Reference. Web. 13 September 2007.
3. "How does a ballpoint pen work?" .
Engineering. HowStuffWorks. 1998–
 2007. Retrieved 2007-11-16.
4. Schwartz, Debra A. (September 2001).
"The Last Word: Just for the gel of it" .
Chemical Innovation. 31 (9): IBC.
5. "Stylus - Define Stylus at Dictionary.com" .
Dictionary.com.
6. Egyptian reed pen Archived 2007-02-21
at the Wayback Machine Retrieved March
16, 2007.
7. "Evolution of pen - From Reed Pen to
3Doodler - Spinfold" . www.spinfold.com.
April 2013. Retrieved 2017-11-30.
8. "pen." The Hutchinson Unabridged
Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather
 guide. Abington: Helicon, 2010. Credo
Reference. Web. 17 September 2012
9. The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville ,
Cambridge Catalogue Retrieved March
11, 2007.
10. Arnold Wagner – Dip Pens . Retrieved
March 11, 2007.
11. 'This evening came a letter about
business from Mr Coventry, and with it a
silver pen to carry inke in, which is very
necessary.' Diary of Samuel Pepys, 5
August
1663:http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive
/1663/08/
12. The advertisement implies metal nibs
had been in use for some years, but had
not been generally accepted due to lack
of flexibility and tendency to rust. It refers
to 'Ivory Handles' with 'Gold Silver or Steel
Pens to each', and says that 'new pens
may be fitted in at pleasure', indicating
that only the nibs were metal. It also
claims the pens have 'well-tempered
Elasticity' and that the 'Steel Points' are
treated to be rustproof, rust being 'a
circumstance that has been long and
universally complained of in this
article'."The Times". 8 June 1792: 4.
13. He offered the patent, which had an
unexpired term of 11 years, for sale
 together with the 'utensils peculiarly
adapted to the manufacturing' of the
metal pens:"The Times". 15 August 1811:
4.
14. In 1832 a woman accused of stealing a
silver pen from a London shop said in her
defence that she had 'one of the common
metal pens' with her:"The Times". 15
September 1832: 3.
15. Bosworth, C. E. (Autumn 1981), "A
Mediaeval Islamic Prototype of the
Fountain Pen?", Journal of Semitic
Studies, XXVI (i)
16. GB Patent No. 15630, October 30, 1888
17. The Ballpoint Pen Archived 2007-04-17
at the Wayback Machine, Quido Magazin.
Retrieved March 11, 2007.
18. History of Pens & Writing Instruments ,
About Inventors site. Retrieved March 11,
2007.
19. "Losing touch with paper and pen" .
Rediff.com. 2003-05-05. Retrieved
2013-05-03.
20. Guilfoil, John M. (August 17, 2008) The
power of the pen . Boston.com

External links
Look up pen in Wiktionary, the free
dictionary.
 Writing Instrument Manufacturers
Association

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