Pens

Reed was the first real "pen" (c 3000 BC) and the first inks contained a gelatin derived from boiled donkey skin, which gave the ink its viscosity - but also a very unpleasant odor that had to be perfumed with musk oil. Around the 6th century BC and for more than a thousand years thereon, the quill reigned as the standard writing instrument for people of many civilizations. Swans, turkeys, and geese's large wing feather made the best quill pens. Archaeologists discovered bronze pen points embedded in the ruins of Pompeii but not until the late 1700s were stell-point pens used. A century later, fountain pens were developed - the name chosen because the ink of these pens flowed continuously, like water in a fountain. L.E. Waterman, a New York stationer, devised the practical ink reservoir system. Lazlo Biro relied on improved methods for grinding ball bearings for machines and weapons and produced the first ball-point pens suitable for writing on paper around 1944. The Pentel, introduced by Tokyo's Stationery Company, was the world's first felt-tip pen, c 1960.