THE HISTORY OF WRITING The history of writing instruments and inks by which man, from ancient to modern times, has recorded and conveyed his thoughts is the history of civilization itself. To trace the evolution of modern fountain pens and their inks, the histornian has carefully and tediously pieced together the story of man's attempt to keep records through drawings, signs and eventually alphabets. As man evolved into homosapiens, his intelligence developed, he conceived ideas and thereby set himself apart from animals. He discovered the sharpened stone to be a more effective weapon than a club. He discovered that he could also use it to record his stored crops, or his conquests of beasts. Inarticulate because of his massive jaws arld thick lips, prehistoric man naturally turned to picture-writing in an effort to convey what was in his primitive mind. Gradually, as man became more human, his pictures became more intelligent and intel- ligible. He refined these early story-pictures into various systems of "written" communication that could be understood and used by others within the narrow world he knew. "Ideographs" -- pictures or symbols representing objects or ideas -- developed into systemized symbols, then into strokes and curves of various combinations which formed words and sentences. Pictures slowly lost their detail and became abstract figures representing sounds in spoken communication. The alphabet is said to have replaced pictographs between 1700 and 1500 B.C. in the Sinaitic world. To evaluate fully the importance of hand tools for writing, it is necessary to note developments such as these: 1) The early Middle East merchant's use of clay tokens with pictographs to record quantities of materia]s traded or shipped. These tokens date back to 8,500 B.C. and have been found in ruins from Egypt to the Indus Valley. 2) Excavations at sites in ancient Sumer in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) and the city of Ebla in Syria reveal cuneiformed letters wedged on wet clay tablets dating back as far as 5,000 years ago. Tablets at Ebla proclaim that the scribe of that day was considered the most esteemed professional in the city, enjoying as much influence as generals. 3) The ancient Greeks' employment of a stylus to mark upon wax-coated tablets made of boxwood, ivory or metal. Other ancient peoples carved their writ- ings on stone, as did the Egyptians of the time of Moses. The instrument used by the Egyptians, incidentally, was similar to the chisel of our modern tombstone cutters. 4) The hollow reed in the form and size of a lead pencil used by the Egyptians before 4000 B.C. 5) The spreading of green sand upon a table by the Romans for the teaching of arithmetic and writing. 6) The use of the "sand box" in India in which figures and forms were traced in the sand by use of the fingers. There are differences of opinion among historians regarding which was the first method of handwriting. Handwriting appears, however, to have been first exercised in Greece about 1800 to 1500 B.C., and, like all arts, was slow in progressing. Greek histor- ians of the period, in any event, named Cadmus as the inventor of written letters. It is definitely known, however, that the earliest means of writing that approach pen and paper as we know them today were found among the Greeks. They employed a stylus to mark upon wax-coated tablets. These tablets were made in pairs, hinged together so they could be closed to protect the scribe's notes. The stylus was made of metal, bone or ivory. A genuine forerunner of the modern pen used at that time was made from the hollow, tubular stem of qrasses growing in marshy places. The hollow joints of the bamboo were also employed for writing purposes. The reed pen was used extensively until the superior qualities of the quill became known. Early Inks: Of course, when writing advanced beyond the stage of stone inscription or clay tablet, a substance for marking with the reed or brush was necessary. The origin of ink be- longs to an era following the invention of writing. About 1200 B.C., the Chinese had invented and perfected "Indian Ink" ostensibly for blacking the surfaces of raised hierog]yphics. Its mixture contained soot produced by the smoke of pines and the oil of lamps mixed with gelatin of donkey skin and musk to correct the odor of the oil. Other historians claim that the "Indian" or India ink of the Chinese dates back to 2697 B.C. and that its inventor was Tien-Lcheu. Ancient colored inks used dyes and pigmentary colors derived from berries, plants and animals. I pre-Christian times, values and symbols were attached to the various colored inks. (Green denoted freshness, vigor and prosperity; blue, revelation; purple, royalty; and crimson and scarlet, blood and human life. The Christian era brought forth such colored ink symbols as the union of all rays of light in white ink; fire and love in red; life and hope in green; sorrow in violet; and death and destruction in black. It must be realized that the one great distinction between ancient and modern inks is this: The inks of old were paints; the inks now in use by all nations (except those of southern Asia) are dyes. Early Paper and Pens: The introduction of paper as a common material upon which characters were to be marked also was of great impact in changing the composition of the liquid employed in making the marks. The early Egyptians used papyrus and parchment papers. Both parchment and papyrus were also used by the early Romans, Greeks and Hebrews. One of the oldest pieces of writing on papyrus known today is the Egyptian prisse papyrus which dates back to 2000 B.C. With the advancement of inks and papers there was a logical progression in the develop- ment of the writing instrument itself. The Romans converted bamboo stems into a form of fountain pen, the forward part cut into the form of a pen nib or point. When in use, a writinq fluid was poured into the stem which, through adhesion, was held against too free a flow. To establish circulation of the "ink," the reed was squeezed, forc- ing fluid to the nib. Who made the first metal pen will probably never be known. A bronze pen was found in the ruins of lava-devastated Pompeii, proving that the Romans knew the pen as well as the improved stylus. Beginning with 200 A.D., the employment of inks became more and more constant and popular, and consequently the stylus and waxed tablet gave way to this newer mode of writing. Rediscoveries of ancient ink formulas and the innovation of new and better inks also lent special impetus to the movement. In 400 A.D., the tanno-gallate of iron inks made its appearance. The ink, a composite of iron salts, nut-galls and gum, proved so successful that its basic formula remained in use for centuries. During the 500 to 1,000 years of history called the Dark Ages, ink-written literature, with the exception of church literature, was swept aside. Most people could neither read nor write, and those who did try wrote crudely. The quill, so widely used until the advent of the metal pen, was adopted as early as the 7th century. For a thousand years, the quill was the writing instrument of the civilized world. Goose quills were the most common, although other kinds of quills, including crow and swan, were also favored. Quills could be used for only a week or so before it was necessary to replace them, but they were the writing instrument used during the longest period of history. There were other disadvantages associated with their use. Before the era of paper, when parchment and skin were used, an amazing amount of writing equipment and preparation was necessary before a quill pen owner could make use of one of these instruments. A razor and knife were used to scrape pages of parchment, and pumice was used to clean the sheets of writing material. Another implement was needed to level them. Margins of the writing material were ruled with lead and a ruler. To sharpen the quill, the writer needed a knife -- later to be called a "pen-knife." To polish the parchment so the ink wouldn't run, a boar's or goat's tooth was used. Beneath the writer's high-top desk was a stove with coal in it to cause the ink to dry as fast as possible. With this new-found writing instrument, the quill, the better inks, coupled with the return of scholarship, man's handwriting began to change. He had written in printed letters until scholars began to use a form of writing similar to the running hand. Capitals took on forms as we know them. Small letters, patterned after capitals, assumed slant and occasionally connecting strokes. Gradually writers turned to an easier form more suitable to speed and to a less stiff and studied form to permit writing instruments to slide along with their thoughts. Thus, handwriting became simplified and loosened to an easy angle. People began to write with freedom and individuality. Nationality, too, began to show itself in script. Italian formations took on a florid aspect; German, a heaviness; Spanish, a grave gra- ciousness but a lightness in design. Gallic writing assumed a precise elegance which was to become distinctively French, and in English there was ease, freedom and indi- viduality. The invention of the fluid, flowing "Italian running hand," with its Roman capitals and small letters, is credited to Aldus Manutius of Venice, who departed from the old set forms in 1495. This is believed to be the origin of the writing used in most of Europe, the British Isles and the Americas. By the end of the 16th century, the art of writing had made rapid strides. It had become an ordinary accomplishment with the old Roman Capitals and Greek letter forms transfused into twenty-six forms, both for capitals and for small letters. Once man had realized an easier form of handwriting and had developed better inks which flowed readily frorn the pen, he again set out in search of a better writing instrument. His inventive curiosity led to the development of the fountain pen. Generally early fountain pens consisted of a barrel, usually of hard rubber, into which was fitted a pen, often of gold. One type of pen was designed to use steel points which could, if necessary, be replaced. Besides the pen and barrel there was a feed bar under the pen to hold the ink as it was supplied from the barrel. The principle governing the feed was based on gravity or capillary attraction. The Pen Industry In America: On November 22, 1809, Peregrin Williamson, Baltimore shoemaker and shot manufacturer, officially began an industry that today not only meets the writing equipment needs of millions of Americans, but a major portion of the world's demands as well. Although Williamson is credited with the first American pen patent, little else is known about him. An advertisement in the October 27, 1806, FEDERAL GAZETTE stated that he offered a "three-slit, elastic" pen. What happened to him is not known, but what has happend to the American pen industry since then is little short of remarkable. In 1830, a man named Hyde from Reading, Pennsylvania, took out a fountain pen patent, but it wasn't until the 1880s that the fountain pen became a practical writing instru- ment. Even then pens were not widely used, and as recently as the 1920s as little as five percent of the population in the United States owned a fountain pen. However, the use of fountain pens during World War I was stimulated by the letter- writing of soldiers away from home. Fountain pen sales in 1920 were about one million units. Five years later, sales were 25 million units a year, a startling change brought on when Parker introduced a radically different pen (the Duofold) that broke with tradi- tion because it was colored (a vivid orange), had a greatly increased ink capacity, and was more durable than previous pens. Before that, pens had been black, reed-slender and easily broken. The fountain pen business had mushroomed during the 1930s and 40s. It was estimated that some 135 American companies were manufacturing pens or pen parts, and that these American firms or their foreign subsidiaries were providinq about 75 percent of the world's pens. Today, Parker is the world's largest writing instrument maker and marketer in terms of total sales volume. The industry has shrunk to a dozen or so well-known brand names. In the mid-1940s, the first ball point pens were offered to the American public. Less than satisfactory in performance, ball pens didn't become a major factor in the market until improvements in materials, methods and inks were engineered into the products in the mid 1950s. Parker entered the ball pen race with its now-famous Jotter in 1954, and, with the addition of the tungsten carbide textured ball in 1957, brought on stream the technology that helped make the ball point pen currently the most popular writing mode in the United States. According to statistics compiled by the Writing Instru- ment Manufacturers Association, ball pens accounted for $245 million in sales in the U.S. at the manufacturer's level on 1.56 billion units in 1977. Within the last 10 years, the Japanese are credited with introducing the two most recent generic innovations in writing -- the soft tip and the liquid-ink roller pen. Major American manufacturers now incorporate these modes in their writing instruments. What does the future hold for handwriting? Already on the drawing boards are "dream pens of the future" such as pens that write a raised line with a thick ink that can be "touch-felt" permitting the visually handi- capped to "read" handwriting. Or there's the laser beam pen that can etch the surface of hard materials, or pens that include such miniaturized circuitry that they can serve as a timepiece and calculator as well as something to write with. As the world of writing moves into the future, Parker plans to be there with precision instruments and perform to standards that have long characterized Parker.