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2000 BCE
Reed Pen
Created in Egypt was the first nib pen that was made from bamboo. The tip of the bamboo was sharpened to a point and then ink was filled into the tool and ink would flow to the tip of the pen when squeezed. -
600 BCE
The First Writing Utensils
The first writing utensil was ink free and was often a sharpened tool or weapon that would be used to carve into clay to create pictographs and hieroglyphics -
600
Quill Pen
This pen consisted of a bird feather that would be dipped into ink and because of how fragile it was, it would have to be sharpened daily. A quill pen would not be usable today because its tip would be worn down very quickly by the harshness of today's paper. -
Steel Dip Pen
A steel version of the quill pen was invented by John Mitchell. The pen was similar in use to the quill pen as you still had to dip it into ink in order to write, but the steel pens were much sturdier and required less maintenance than the quill feather pens. They also became very popular because they were cheap, so they quickly took over from the quill pen. -
Fountain Pen
There were 2 versions of the fountain pen but only one of them was successful. The first unsuccessful version of the pen was designed by Petrache Poenaru to have a direct barrel of ink leading into the dip of the pen, which ended up producing no ink or too much ink. -
Fountain Pen
The successful version of the fountain pen was created by Lewis Edson, and unlike the first version of the fountain pen, this one contained a 3-way channel that could smoothly flow ink into the pen. -
Ballpoint Pen
The ballpoint pen was invented by John Loud with the intention on writing other surfaces such as wood or or wrapping paper, which were surfaces that were not possible to write on with fountain pens. The pen was designed to have a softer point so that it wouldn't rip through or damage surfaces that a fountain pen would. This is the most common and modern type of ink pen that is still used today. -
Gel Pens
Gel pens were created by a Japanese supply company called Sakura Color Products Corp. through a line called Gelly Roll. The ink used in these pens were gel rather than traditional ink, and allowed for the ink to be more opaque than transparent, and also allowed for smoother writing. -
Future of Pens
For the future of pens i would like to see a writing tool that is similar to the click pens that offer multiple colors, but instead if different colors I would like to see a pen that has different sized writing tips. When doing precise lining it is important to have the right size pen point, however having the right size may result in having 10 to 20 different pens. If there could be a sleek pen that could transform into different sizes of points that would be nice.
