| Pen is a writing instrument with the help of which, it is possible to leave the ink traces on the surface (usually paper). The following types of pens are available:
- Ballpoint pens;
- Fountain pens;
- Rollerball pens;
- Markers;
- Felt-tip pens;
- Gel pens;
- Technical pens.
Sometimes, ballpoint pens, fountain pens and gel pens have “erasable” inks.
Term and history:
Writing feathers are popular from long back, approximately from around 3000 BC and were cut out from reed stems. English word "pen" (hand, bird's feather) originated from Latin "penna" (feather of a bird) since widespread popularity was acquired by goose feathers, which were squared at the root. Since VIth century BC, feathers were used for more than thousands of years by many civilizations. Best samples were made from feathers of swans, turkey-cocks and goose, which had big sized feathers in wings. Archaeological findings in ruins of Pompei include bronze variants of feathers; however, they gained popularity only at the end of XVIIIth century. After 100 years, fountain pens appeared, capillary system for which was invented by L.E. Waterman, New York’s seller of stationary goods. Relying on latest manufacturing methods of ball bearings for machines and weapons, Laszlo Biro added ball bearing mechanism to capillaries and thus ball pen was introduced to the world around 1944. Felt-tip pen was for the first time introduced in 1960 by Tokyo’s stationary company “Pentel”.
Ball pen:
Ball pen was invented by Hungary’s newspaper editor Laszlo Biro. In Argentinean city, where the journalist lived for many years, such pens were called “Biros” in his honor and eponymic name “Biro” was even popular in Europe.
Initially, ball pens were meant for Royal Air Force of Great Britain since regular feather fountain pens did not function in aircrafts at greater heights.
Two types of ball pens are available: “Use n throw” and “Refill”.
Culture:
- From 1960s, Fischer developed pens “Space”, which could work even at zero atmospheric pressures, in weightlessness conditions and extreme temperatures. Before development, American space agency NASA used pencils for its lunar program, however, pencils frequently broke and presented danger to the cosmonauts (chips could fall into the eyes of cosmonaut). Besides, wood posed danger of catching fire in oxygen atmosphere. It is necessary to note that, “Space” pens are not the only pens which work in space but also a regular ball pen can also be used without much difficulty.
- Pens with an attachment at the end of pen to erase own ink, became "favorite" since the beginning of 1980 till the beginning of 1990s. Pens were manufactured with blue, black and red inks. Such pens almost disappeared from use because of poor quality of the ink, non guarantee "erasability" and absence of specific area of use.
Computer with data input using pen-tip:
Special manipulator, visually resembling a pen, allows input of handwritten (manuscript) data into computer. Further, input specimens can be integrated by OCR (optical character recognition) system.
Pencil is a writing tool in the form of wooden rod with graphite core (lead).
Types of pencils:
It is accepted to divide pencils into simple and color groups. Simple pencil writes, as a rule, in gray color. Color pencils are also available. Prior to first use, new pencil needs to be sharpened. Besides single-use wooden pencils, mechanical pencils are also available with replaceable leads.
Pencils are distinguished with respect to hardness of lead, which as a rule, is mentioned on pencil and is designated in letters М (or B) — soft & Т (or H) — Hard. Standard (hard-soft) pencil in spite of combinations ТМ & HB is designated by letter F.
In contrast to Europe, numeric scale is used to mention the hardness in USA.
Earlier, special type of graphite (lead) pencils was manufactured — copying pencils (usually called “Chemical”). Copying pencils were meant for filling the documents with carbon paper — ink pens could not be pressed hard enough to produce a carbon copy on paper. To obtain indelible traces, water-soluble colorants were added in core of copying pencils (eosin, rhodamine or auramine).
Copying pencils were widely used even as cheap and practically replacement for ink pens.
Invention and widespread distribution of ballpoint pens decreased and even halted the production of such type of pencils. |
News from Cambridge this week - a priceless
Zulu pen was stolen from Cambridge University Library. The pen was used to sign the Zulu Treaty which ended the war between Zulu tribes and the British, portrayed in the film "Zulu" with Michael Cane.
