writing instruments
The main materials used for writing are products of natural origin. In ancient times, olive and palm leaves and bark were used in the Mediterranean countries. In China, these were wooden planks and cut bamboo stalks, and in Asian countries - birch bark. Other widely used writing implements are used, including linen and stone in Rome. Commemorative, tombstone and religious inscriptions are engraved on the marble. In Mesopotamia at that time, clay tablets were the most popular. Find out how writing tools have evolved over time in the article below.
ancient times The primary materials used for writing purposes are products of natural origin. In antiquity, olive and palm leaves and bark (including linden and elm trees) were used in Mediterranean countries. In China, they were wooden signs i dissected bamboo stalksand other Asian countries birch bark.
Miscellaneous, common writing materials used, among others in Rome were canvas i stone. Commemorative, tombstone and religious inscriptions are engraved on the marble. In Mesopotamia, the most popular during this period were clay tablets. On the other hand, in Greece, inscriptions were made on the shells of earthenware.
Writing tools they have also evolved over time. Their use depended on the material used at the time. Initially, hard materials were often used, so the inscriptions had to be engraved, hammered or stamped. Used for forging in stone chisel, stylus for engraving in metaland an obliquely cut cane for imprinting signs on clay tablets. For soft materials (papyrus, linen, parchment, and then paper) were used in order: reed, brush, and pen.
1. A double inkwell from the time of ancient Rome
antiquity - middle ages It was necessary to write on soft materials ink (one). Black was the most commonly used color, but colored inks were also produced - mostly red, but also green, blue, yellow or white. They were used in the titles or initials of manuscripts or in the signatures of dignitaries. Gold and silver paint was also often used for documents of value.
In antiquity and the Middle Ages, carbon ink was mainly used. It was made by combining carbon black and a binder (usually a resin, but also gum arabic or honey) to form a powder that was dissolved in water when it was intended to be used. Another type is called hibir in liquid form, made from jelly beans. Salt, a binder and beer or wine vinegar were added to it. Later inks (the so-called ink) were not so durable and could destroy parchment or paper due to their corrosive properties.
XNUMXrd millennium BC Papyrus was known in ancient Egypt (2). The oldest preserved writings on papyrus date back to around 2600 BC. Around the XNUMXth century BC, the papyrus reached Greece, and around the XNUMXrd century BC it appeared in Rome. The papyrus was popularized in the Hellenistic era.
The main center of papyrus production was Egyptian Alexandria from the XNUMXth century BC, from where it was distributed to other Mediterranean countries. It was the main material in the creation of books and documents (in the form of scrolls). Papyrus production in Egypt continued until the XNUMXth century. In Europe, papyrus was used for the longest time, until the middle of the XNUMXth century, in the preparation of documents in the papal office. Currently, papyrus is used only to make more or less exact copies of ancient documents that are sold as souvenirs.
3. Cai Lun on a Chinese postage stamp from 1962
VIII vpne - II vpne According to Chinese chronicles, paper it was invented in China by Cai Luna (3), a chancellor in the court of Emperor He Di of the Han dynasty. The clerk experimented with tree bark, silk and even fishing nets until he found the right method (handmade paper) using silk and linen rags.
However, the results of archaeological research show that paper was known earlier, at least in the 751th century BC, so it is likely that Cai Lun invented only a way to mass-produce paper. After the Battle of the Talas River in XNUMX, the Arabs took over Chinese paper manufacturers, which made paper popular in the Arab lands. Paper was produced depending on the availability of raw materials - incl. hemp, linen rags or even silk. He came to Europe through Spain conquered by the Arabs.
II wpne - VIII wne In late antiquity, papyrus was gradually replaced glassine, more suitable for the new form of the book that the codex has become. Parchment (membrane, parchment, charta parchment) is made from animal skin. It was already used before our era in Egypt (the Book of the Dead from Cairo), but it was not widely used there.
However, already in the XNUMXth century, it competed with papyrus and became the main material for writing. In the XNUMXth century, he reached the Frankish Chancellery. It spread in the XNUMXth century, and entered the papal offices in the XNUMXth century. The production technique and the name are probably associated with the Greek city of Pergamon, where parchment was not invented, but its production was significantly improved.
ok IV wne It becomes popular for writing on parchment (later also on paper). bird feather predominantly descended from the swan or geese. The pen had to be properly sharpened (thin and sharp or flat) and forked at the end. Goose quills were the main writing instrument until the XNUMXth century.
antiquity - 1567 History a pencil it usually begins with antiquity. The Polish name comes from lead which was used to write in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. Until the 1567th century, European artists used lead, zinc, or silver rods to create light gray drawings known as silverpoints. In XNUMX, the Swiss, Konrad Gesner, described a writing rod with a wooden holder in a treatise on fossils. Three years earlier, pure graphite had been found in Borrowdale, England, which was soon used in place of lead, but the name pencil remained.
1636 German inventor Daniel Schwenter he created what laid the foundation for modern fountain pens. It was a skillful modification of the solutions used earlier - in a piece of wood with a sharp edge in the bird's feather had a supply of ink. A silver pen with a supply of ink inside, for 10 francs, was first described in Paris by two Dutch travelers in 1656.
1714 British engineer Henry Mill obtained a patent for the design of the device, which was the nucleus of the later developed and an improved typewriter.
1780-1828 Englishman Samuel Harrison constructs a prototype of a metal pen. In 1803, the British manufacturer Wise of London replaced nib patent, but due to the high cost of production, it was not widely used. The situation changed around 1822, when they began to be produced by machines thanks to the same Harrison who built the prototype 42 years earlier. In 1828, William Joseph Gillott, William Mitchell, and James Stephen Perry developed a method to mass-produce strong, cheap nibs (4). Thanks to them, more than half of the pen tips produced in the world were made.
4. Gillot feathers of the nineteenth century
1858 Hymen Lipman patents pencil with eraser seated at one end. An entrepreneur named Joseph Reckendorfer predicted the invention would become a hit and bought the patent from Lipman. Unfortunately, in 1875 the US Supreme Court revoked this patent, so Reckendorfer did not make a fortune on it.
1867 For the creator of the practical typewriters American is considered Christopher Latham Sholes (5), who built his first utility model. The device he built had keys, an ink-soaked tape, and a horizontal metal plate with a sheet of paper on top of it. The machine was started by pressing the pedals, because Scholes used a drive similar to the sewing machines of the time. Sholes began its production in 1873 in collaboration with the American arms factory Remington. Even then, the QWERTY keyboard layout used to this day was created, which was designed to avoid blocking fonts.
5. Engraving by Henry Mill with an early version of the typewriter he designed.
1877 it's patented mechanical pencil with a structure similar to modern ones - with a rod fixed in sponges clamped by a spring.
6. Illustration of Waterman's patent
1884 First patents on A fountain pen were provided as early as around 1830, but they were impractical - the ink either came out too quickly or did not come out at all. The modern fountain pen as we know it today, with adjustable ink supply, was invented by the American insurance agent Lewis Edson Waterman (6).
The Waterman founder developed a "channel feed" system that prevented ink blots by regulating the ink supply. A decade later, the pen was perfected by George Parker from the USA, who built a system that eliminates blots, based on a solution that prevents spontaneous ink dripping off the nib.
1908-29 The American Walter Sheaffer was the first to use the lever on his side to fill the pen - the ink was sucked inside the pen through the nib. They soon appeared rubber ink pumpsinstalled inside the pen, and replacement glass cartridges. In 1929, the German Pelikan factory invented the ink plunger.
1914 James Fields Smathers develops an electric motorized typewriter. Electric typewriters entered the market around 1920.
1938 Hungarian artist and journalist László Bíró (7) invents the pen. After the outbreak of the war, he fled his homeland and reached Argentina, where he and his brother George (a chemist) perfected the invention. The first production started during the war in Buenos Aires. In 1944, Bíró sold his shares to one of his shareholders who started producing on a mass scale.
7. Laszlo Biro and his Vinalazek
40-50 years old. The twentieth century First pens they were just modified feathers. Instead of the nib, they were equipped with a kind of wick on which the ink dripped. Sidney Rosenthal from the USA is considered to be the father of the invention. In 1953, he combined the ink cartridge with a wool felt wick and a writing tip. He called the whole "magic marker", that is magic marker pen, because it allowed drawing on almost any surface (8).
OK. 1960-2011 The American concern IBM is developing a new type of typewriter, in which fonts mounted on separate levers were replaced with a rotating head. Later, they replaced their mechanical counterparts. The last generation of typewriters (around 1990) already had the ability to save and later edit text. Then machines were replaced by computers equipped with editors or word processors and printers. The last typewriter factory closed in March 2011 in India.
Types of writing tools
I. Autonomous tools - They have an inherent functionality in the sense that their useful life corresponds to that of their physical existence.
- Without the use of dyes. The oldest known examples of writing without the use of a dye were created by cutting a flat surface with a stiff tool. An example is the Chinese inscriptions of jiaguwen engraved in turtle shells. The ancient Sumerians and their successors, such as the Babylonians, produced their cuneiform writing by pressing a triangular stylus into soft clay tablets, creating the characteristic wedge-shaped characters.
- With the use of dye. The original form of the "pencil" was a lead stylus used by the ancient Romans who also used it to write on wood or papyrus, leaving dark streaks where soft metal rubbed off the surface. Most modern «pencils» have a non-toxic core of gray-black graphite mixed with clay in varying proportions to obtain different consistencies. Simple tools of this type include white chalk or black charcoal, used by artists today. This category also includes wooden crayons and wax crayons, used mainly by children. A common feature of these tools is that their use is closely related to their physical existence.
II. Auxiliary tools - These require added dye to be written and cannot be used when 'empty'.
- feathers
a) Immersion with capillary action. Initially, pens were made by carving natural material, which, due to capillary action, could retain a small reservoir of writing ink. These reservoirs, however, were relatively small and required the pen to be periodically dipped into an external inkwell to refill. The same is true for steel immersion nibs, although some solutions have been able to hold slightly more ink than natural nibs.
b) pens. They consist of a nib assembly, an ink reservoir chamber, and an outer housing. Depending on the design of the pen, the ink tank can be refilled directly by forcing from the outside, by suction, or by using disposable refilled cartridges. Only certain types of ink can be used in the fountain pen to avoid clogging of the mechanism.
c) Pens and markers. The pen consists of a body and a tube filled with thick ink and ending in a pen. A ball with a diameter of about 1 mm is placed in the holder. As you write, the ball rolls across the paper, distributing the ink evenly. The ball sits in a socket, which allows it to rotate freely and prevents it from falling out. There is a small space between the ball and the socket for ink to drain. The space is so small that capillary action keeps the ink inside when the pen is not in use. A marker pen (also: marker, marker, marker) is a type of pen with a porous core soaked in ink. The pen is also porous, allowing ink to slowly drip onto the surface of paper or other media.
- Mechanical pencils
Unlike the traditional wooden construction of a pencil around a solid graphite core, a mechanical pencil feeds a small, moving piece of graphite through its tip.
- Brushes
For example, Chinese script characters are traditionally written with a brush that is perceived to lend itself to a graceful, smooth stroke. A brush differs from a pen in that, instead of a stiff nib, the brush has soft bristles. The bristles are gently slid over the paper with sufficient pressure. Some companies now produce "brush pens", which in this respect are similar to a fountain pen, with an internal ink reservoir.
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