Pen

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For other uses, see Pen (disambiguation), Pens (disambiguation), and PEN (disambiguation). For the comic,
see Ink Pen.

A luxury pen
A pen is a common 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]

Contents

 1Types
o 1.1Modern
o 1.2Historic
 2History
 3See also
 4Notes and references
 5External links

Types
Modern
The main modern types of pens can be categorized by the kind of writing tip or point on the pen:
An inexpensive 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). Lá szló Bíró  patented the first commercially successful ballpoint pen.

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 felt-tip pen, or marker, 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.
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 so-called 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.
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'ā d 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, Lá szló 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]

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.
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. ^ Jump up to:a b 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. ^ Gu