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Pen-shaped

A pen (Latin penna, feather) is a writing instrument that applies ink to a surface, usually paper. Pens can be used with inks of many colors but commonly make use of inks in shades varying between black and blue, red is sometimes used for titling, bullets and numbering etc. more...

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Types of pen

Pens may be categorized by the kind of tip on them. The main modern types are:

Ballpoint pen; Rollerball pen; Fountain pen; Felt-tip pen; Porous Point Pen;

Historically, pens also came in the form of:

Quills; Dip pens;

History

Reed pens

The Ancient Egyptians had developed writing on papyrus scrolls when scribes used thin reed brushes or reed pens from the Juncus Maritimus or sea rush . 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 as ago as the First Dynasty or about 3000 BC. Reed pens continued to be used until the Middle Ages although they were slowly replaced by quills from about the 7th century.

Quills

The Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in 1947 on the northwest bank of the Dead Sea date back to around 100 BC. They were written in Hebrew dialects with bird feathers or quills. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Europeans had difficultly in obtaining reeds and began to use quills. There is a specific reference to quills in the writings of St. Isidore of Seville in the 7th century. Quill pens were used until the nineteenth century.

Metal nibs

Metal nibs appear to have very early origins. A pen with a bronze nib was found in the ruins of Pompei showing nibs must have been in use in the year 79. There is also a reference in Samuel Pepys' diary for August 1663. A metal pen point was patented in 1803 but the patent was not commercially exploited. John Mitchell of Birmingham started to massproduce pens with metal nibs in 1822. During the 19th century metal nibs replaced quill pens. By 1850 the quality of steel nibs had improved and dip pens with metal nibs came into generalized use.

Fountain pens

While a student in Paris, the Romanian inventor Petrache Poenaru invented the world's first fountain pen, an invention for which the French Government issued a patent on May 25, 1827. Lewis Edson Waterman, a New York insurance broker invented the capillary feed fountain pen in 1884 producing a much more reliable flow of ink.