A brief history of the pen

Author:Strongink Pen Kits, 2021-07-18


The ancestor of the pen should be the brush which is regarded as one of the "Four Treasures of the Study" by Chinese literati. For thousands of years, writing brushes have left countless treasures of calligraphy "like a dragon and floating like a dragon" for the Chinese nation. Perhaps it is because European writing has more curves and is not suitable for writing with soft Chinese writing brushes. Therefore, writing brushes did not spread to the West like other ancient Chinese inventions. Europeans have their own unique writing tool-quill pen. The quill was invented by the ancient Egyptians. Its history is also quite long and long. With a quill pen, you can write thicker strokes with more force, and write thinner strokes with lighter force. The quill can not only be dipped in ink, but also can write continuously for a long time. However, once used for a long time, the nib will be worn out, which is not convenient for long-term use.
  In 1829, the British James Bailey successfully developed the pen nib. It has been specially processed, smooth and flexible, and it can be written quite smoothly, which is very popular among people. However, this pen must be dipped in ink for writing, which is very troublesome. The British Brahma used silver to make a pen barrel, and then put ink in the pen barrel to make it flow out of the pen tip, which seems to be able to write smoothly. However, the ink that lacks control always does not listen to it, and it is easy to mess up the paper. Brahma added an ink bag to the pen barrel, and someone installed a thin metal needle on the nib to control the ink channel. However, the water leakage problem was still not completely solved.
  It is said that on one occasion, Waltman, a salesman of an insurance company in the United States, finally negotiated a big deal in the competition with several colleagues. When signing the contract, Waterman handed the client a beautiful fountain pen and asked him to sign. Unexpectedly, when the client lifted the pen to sign, a large pool of ink dripped from the tip of the pen, which stained a good contract. Just as Waterman hurriedly turned around to get another new contract, the competitors around him took advantage of it, signed the contract with the customer, and took away this considerable amount of business. This was a great stimulus to Waterman, and despite his disappointment, he determined to design a fountain pen in the true sense that could freely control the water.
  After 4 years of hard work, Waterman finally invented a more practical fountain pen in 1884, which is an indispensable fountain pen in people’s lives today, based on summing up the failure experience of the predecessors.
  In 1888, four years after Waterman invented the fountain pen, Lauby of the United States proposed a new concept pen. It was different from the fountain pen. Instead, a ball was installed on the tip of the pen. Rolling, leaving the ink on the paper, this is what people call "ballpoint pens" today. Regrettably, Robbie’s attempt failed. On the one hand, the ball was unable to roll properly and could not write characters; on the other hand, the ink flowing out of the ball could not be controlled and would leak a lot. The invention was delayed. |
  More than half a century later, in 1943, a proofreader named Lazlo Joseph Bick in a Hungarian printing company found that the proof sample printed on the machine had a lot of moisture. Correcting it with a fountain pen would cause blurry infiltration. phenomenon. For this reason, he often wondered what way to make improvements.
 Once, Piccolo found a round tube, filled it with oily paint, and changed the nib to a steel ball. Thus, the world's first ballpoint pen was born. Later, Piccolo provided this invention to the Royal Air Force. Soon, a British aircraft manufacturer launched the first commercial ballpoint pens.
  At that time, a businessman named Renault in the United States saw this ballpoint pen, just like a hound with a keen sense of smell found its prey. With the unique sensitivity of the businessman, he believed that it was a new product with great promise.
  At that time, at the end of World War II, the atomic bomb was successfully manufactured in the United States! In order to sensationalize and attract customers, Renault ingeniously called his ballpoint pens "ballpoint pens". Renault claims that his ball pen can write underwater, can be used in the cold North Pole, can write for a long time, and is easy to carry.
  If writing brushes and quill pens condensed the splendid ancient civilization, then the advent of fountain pens has the color of modern civilization, and the ballpoint pens that appeared in the atomic age are the fruits of modern civilization.

The source of the pen

     The birth of inkstone, pen, and ink is like twin brothers, born almost at the same time, connecting, influencing each other, and promoting each other. They originated in the late Neolithic Age, formed in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, grew up and developed in the Qin and Han Dynasties, prospered in the Tang and Song Dynasties, the Ming and Qing Dynasties were their heyday, and they have been in use today. With the development of the times, they are gradually becoming practical and exquisite works of art, showing different characteristics in different eras, and producing some glorious representative figures and works of art.
  The brush in ancient my country is the writing brush. When did it originate in the late Neolithic period? There is still no definite conclusion. However, in the Yangshao cultural relics, many painted pottery were found. The patterns painted on them are clear and smooth, with appropriate thickness, and saturated in color and water. This is not something that can be expressed with a pen made of ordinary bamboo and wood, but must It can only be done with a lot of water storage, soft and elastic bundled hair. The embryonic form of the brush may appear at this time.
  In the Yin and Shang dynasties, there are traces of writing with pens in the pottery excavated in Anyang, Henan. In 1932, a piece of pottery with the word "Si" was excavated, with a clear pen. In 1936, another piece of pottery written with a red brush and some inscriptions on oracle bones that were first written (also with a red brush) and then carved were unearthed. This shows that our country's brushes originated in the late Neolithic period, and have been used in painting and writing in the Shang Dynasty.
  The raw materials of ancient pen-making were mainly animal hair. People used to make pens from various animal and livestock hairs, such as chicken feather, goose feather, pheasant hair, wool, deer hair, pig hair, leopard hair, tiger hair, and even more. Employing beard and lanugo. But long-term practice tells people that rabbit hair is the best raw material for making pens, especially mountain rabbit hair in autumn and winter is better, because of its strong and healthy quality, rabbit hair in spring and summer is not good for use.
  The earliest brushes we can see at present are those of the Warring States Period unearthed in Hunan and Henan. The pen tube is made of bamboo, painted with lacquer juice, and the rabbit arrow hair is wrapped around the outer periphery of the bamboo porch with hemp silk to form the tip of the pen with a strong and strong pen point. A brush unearthed in a Warring States tomb in Zuojiagong Mountain, Changsha, Hunan Province in 1954. The body of the brush is set in a small bamboo tube. The bamboo barrel is 18.5 cm long, 0.4 cm in diameter and 2.5 cm in length, which is excellent. Made of hare arrow hair, it is extremely suitable for writing bamboo slips. There is also a brush unearthed from the Tomb of Qin at Suihudi, Yunmeng, Hubei in 1975. Its shape is roughly the same as that of the Warring States period, and has been improved on this basis. The pen is chiseled into a cavity at the end of the bamboo tube to accommodate the pen tip. The pruning brush is placed in a thin bamboo tube equal to the length of the brush. On the two sides of the middle of the bamboo tube, there are 8.5 cm rectangular hollows for easy access to the brush. The bamboo tube is painted with black lacquer and painted with vermilion lines.
  There is also a legend of "Meng Tian made pens" in ancient my country. Meng Tian, a famous general of Qin, was ordered to descend south to Chu Chu in 223 BC. He passed through Zhongshan (now Anwei Xuancheng area). Seeing that the mountain rabbit hair was suitable for making pens, he ordered craftsmen to make a number of improved pens, known as "Mengtian pens". ". Sima Qian's "Historical Records" contained: "General Meng allocated the cents of Zhongshan, and the city was named by the first emperor, and the world became famous." So "Guancheng" became an alias for the pen. It shows that the brush at this time has been basically finalized and decorated. During the Warring States period, the names of pens were different, Chu called "Yu", Wu called "Buli", Yan?quot;Fu, and Qin unified the six countries before they unified it as "Pen".

A pen that shuttles between civilizations

    For thousands of years, mankind has left its mark. The drawings of people and animals in some caves are at least 25,000 years old. However, the time for humans to record history with notes is much shorter. The development of pen-making technology for more than two thousand years is the best embodiment of human creative thinking.
    2000 BC: The Chinese write with a brush made of rat hair. The ink is made by mixing soot, lamp oil and gel.
    1200 BC: The Egyptians extracted natural dyes and colors from berries, plants and minerals to make black water. "Pen" is a thin reed. 600 years later, the Egyptians invented papyrus.
    AD 400: Many civilized societies have invented more stable inks. It is a mixture of iron salt, oak tree gall and gum arabic. This basic formula has been used for centuries.
    700 AD: The Romans invented the quill, which used the feathers on the wings of a large bird. The quill pen became the main writing tool (in the West) in the next 1000 years.
    1548: Spanish calligrapher Juan de Iciar first mentions bronze pens in his handbook of calligraphy.
    1700: Nicolas Bihon (the French musical instrument maker in the era of Louis XIV) first left a drawing for a fountain pen. He has 5 pens handed down.
    1803: British engineer Brian Donkin obtained the patent right for the first steel nib.
    1809: Peregrin Williamson obtained the first patent for pen-making in the United States, which was a fountain pen with ink in its barrel. But his design has many flaws.
    1830: British steelworkers William Joseph Gillot, William Mitchell and James Stephen Perry invented the method of mass production of pen nibs. Due to the improvement of steel quality in the following 20 years, fewer and fewer people use quill pens.
    1884: Lewis Edson Waterman, an insurance salesman in New York, invented the first practical fountain pen after losing an important customer because the pen broke.
    1888: John Lauder of Weymouth, Massachusetts, USA obtained the patent for the first ballpoint pen, but it was not mass-produced until the patent expired.
    The first ten years of the 20th century: 4 fountain pen manufacturers dominate the market, they are Parker, Sharp, Will Yi Yongfeng and Wootman.
    1912: Sci-Filip Pen Company added a pull-bar water-absorbing device to the pen barrel of the fountain pen. Before that, people used a dropper to add ink to the fountain pen.
    1935: Woodman introduced the ink sac, which was a small glass tube with a cork.
    1938: Hungarian journalist Ladiszlo Biro and his brother Georg invent the first practical ballpoint pen. It uses printing inks that dry quickly. The British government later permitted them to make ballpoint pens for British Air Force pilots. Ballpoint pens will not leak oil at high altitudes, while fountain pens will leak ink.
    1945: Chicago businessman Milton Reynolds redesigned Biro's invention and introduced it to the United States. At that time, Biro's invention was not patented in the United States. Yongfeng Company, which holds the patent right of Biro's invention, soon brought their products to the market. The new fountain pen made a sensation and sold very well.
    1950: The French Baron Marcel Bisch founded the Piccolo company. His company is good at mass production of ballpoint pens. (Today, BAK is the largest pen company in the world, selling 21 million pens every day, 7.6 billion a year.)
    1951: After the initial enthusiasm, the public found that ballpoint pens were expensive and unreliable. Sales of ballpoint pens have fallen sharply. The fountain pen made a comeback.
    1954: Parker Pen Company introduced the "Jotter" ballpoint pen. The writing time of this more reliable new ballpoint pen is 5 times longer than that of the most popular similar products. Sales of ballpoint pens have rebounded again.
    1962: Horie Oseki of Tokyo Stationery Company became famous for inventing felt-tip pens.
    1966: Fisher invented the space pen for NASA. The ink bag of this pen is pressurized and can write in a weightless state.
    1979: Gillette introduced a new type of fountain pen, which can erase the characters in 10 hours. The trick is to use rubber glue to make ink.
    1984: Japanese Sakura Company launched the neutral ink pen, which is an intermediate product of ballpoint pens and marker pens, using gel-ink.
    1996: The American Pentel Company launched the "Milkys" neutral ink pen, which was very popular among American children.

Author: Strongink Pen Kits

Translated from ChinaZhibiXiehui