Pen
What were the earliest writing tools used by the Chinese and Egyptians?
Who invented the first practical fountain pen?
What is significant about Lázló Bíró’s invention?
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Pen, tool for writing or drawing with a colored fluid such as ink.
Historical developments
The earliest ancestor of the pen probably was the brush the Chinese used for writing by the 1st millennium bce. The early Egyptians employed thick reeds for penlike implements about 300 bce. A specific allusion to the quill pen occurs in the 7th-century writings of St. Isidore of Sevilla, but such pens made of bird feathers were probably in use at an even earlier date. They provided a degree of writing ease and control never realized before and were used in Europe until the mid-19th century, when metallic pens and pen nibs (writing points) largely supplanted them. Such devices were known in Classical times but were little used (a bronze pen was found in the ruins of Pompeii).
John Mitchell of Birmingham, England, is credited with having introduced the machine-made steel pen point in 1828. Two years later English inventor James Perry sought to produce more-flexible steel points by cutting a center hole at the top of a central slit and then making additional slits on either side.
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Types
The inconvenience of having to continually dip a pen to replenish its ink supply stimulated the development of the fountain pen, a type of pen in which ink is held in a reservoir and passes to the writing point through capillary channels. The first practical version of the fountain pen was produced in 1884 by American inventor L.E. Waterman. In 1890, American inventor William B. Purvis improved upon the design, developing a pen that included a reservoir to hold ink, thereby eliminating the need to carry a bottle of ink.
Ballpoint pens date from the late 19th century. Commercial models appeared in 1895, but the first satisfactory model was patented in 1938 by Lázló Bíró, a Hungarian living in Argentina. His ballpoint pen, commonly called the “biro” or “birome,” became popular in Great Britain in the 1940s, when the British government licensed the design and Miles Martin Pen Co. (derived from Miles Aircraft Ltd.) began manufacturing it for the Royal Air Force for use at high altitudes (fountain pens tended to leak at high altitude, owing to changes in atmospheric pressure). Ballpoint pens subsequently became widely used throughout much of the world. The writing tip of a ballpoint pen consists of a metal ball, housed in a socket, that rotates freely and rolls quick-drying ink onto the writing surface. The ball is constantly bathed in ink from a reservoir, one end of which is open and attached to the writing tip.
Soft-tip pens that use points made of porous materials became commercially available during the 1960s. In such pens a synthetic polymer of controlled porosity transfers ink from the reservoir to the writing surface. These fiber-tipped pens can be used for lettering and drawing as well as for writing and may be employed on surfaces such as plastic and glass.