What is the origin of the pen?

1. Brush:

Began in China, the earliest brush, dating back to about two thousand years ago. Generally thought to be the qin dynasty mengtian, "mengtian began to make qin pen" said. In 223 B.C., Meng Ten, a general of the Qin Dynasty, was fighting with his troops outside, and he had to write war reports to the King of Qin on a regular basis. At that time, people used bamboo sticks to write, it is very inconvenient, dipped in the ink did not write a few times to dip again. One day, while hunting, Mengtian saw a rabbit's tail dragging out blood on the ground, and was inspired. He immediately cut off a rabbit tail, inserted in the bamboo tube, and tried to use it to write. However, the rabbit's fur was so shiny that it did not absorb the ink. Mengtian tried a few more times, the effect is still not work, so casually threw the "rabbit hair brush" into the lime pit in front of the door. One day, he accidentally saw the brush that he had thrown away. After picking it up, he realized that the wet rabbit hair had become whiter. He dipped the brush into the ink tray, and the rabbit's tail became very "obedient", writing very smoothly. It turned out that the water in the stone pit contained lime. Soaked in alkaline water, the rabbit hair grease removed, became smooth. Legend has it that this is where the brushes came from.

But the test of Yinxu unearthed on the oracle bone fragments left on the Zhu Shu and ink, is written with a brush. It is clear that the brush was used before Yin and Shang, and that Mengtian was an improver of the brush. Traditional brushes were not only necessary for the ancients, but also had a distinctive charm in expressing the special flavor of Chinese calligraphy and painting. However, due to the brushes are fragile, not good preservation, so the ancient brush is a rare one.

2. Pencil:

In 1564, a catastrophic hurricane struck the English island, the more heavily affected areas of Queensland many large trees were uprooted. After the storm, a black mineral was found under the roots of the trees. As long as gently scratched on the object, you can leave a black mark, it is "graphite". Local shepherds often used it to draw marks on their sheep for easy identification. Soon, King George II simply Barrowdale graphite mine for the royal family, it is designated as a royal specialty. But writing with graphite strips is easy to get dirty hands, but also easy to break.

In 1760, the Frenchman Falbert developed the world's first perfect wooden pencil.

In 1781, the German chemist Faber, after many experiments, mixed graphite powder with sulfur, antimony, rosin, made into a paste and then extruded into a bar, which is the prototype of the pencil. This pencil has a certain degree of hardness, writing is much better than graphite sticks.

In 1790, the French painter to analyze the material of graphite, test, respectively, made the drawing and writing with two kinds of pencils. These were the first pencils.

3. fountain pen:

1809, the United Kingdom issued the first patents on the reservoir pen, which marks the official birth of the fountain pen. In the early reservoir pen, the ink can not flow freely. The writer presses the piston, the ink begins to flow, write a while later and have to press, otherwise the ink will not flow out. It was certainly inconvenient to write in this way.

In 1829, the Englishman James Bailey successfully developed a fountain pen nib. It has been specially processed, smooth and flexible, writing up quite smooth, popular among people. However, this pen must be dipped in ink to write very troublesome.

Until 1884, an American named Waltman once his ink pen leaked, accidentally dirty a contract. But by the time he had drawn up another contract, a competitor had already taken the business, and he lost an important opportunity to make a profit. In order to make this kind of thing does not happen again, Waltman according to the principle of capillary liquid transportation in the plant body invented a modern ink pen. This ink pen is equipped with a new inking device, the end of the pen can be removed, the ink is injected with a small dropper, so it is also called a tap pen, commonly known as fountain pen. And all this was carefully made by him with a knife, saw and file as tools and a dining table as a lathe. Until the early 19th century, a patent for a fountain pen that stabilizes the accelerated flow was invented in the production process. There were only 3 key inventions that made the fountain pen a widely popular writing instrument. These inventions were: the iridium gold steel nib, hard rubber, and free-flowing ink.

4. Ballpoint pen:

In 1888, an American journalist named John Lauder, inspired by Waltman's tap pen,

designed a pen that utilized a roller ball as a nib, laying the groundwork for the later ballpoint pen, but he was unable to make it into an easy-to-use commodity.

In 1916, someone in Germany also designed and produced a new type of ballpoint pen, its structure is closer to today's ballpoint pen, but the performance is poor, failed to attract widespread attention. Later, a Hungarian journalist, Ladislaw Bilow, was visiting a newspaper when he came up with the idea of replacing the traditional ink pen with one that used fast-drying ink. The ink used in newspapers dries almost instantly and leaves no smudges. Biro vowed to apply a similar ink to a new writing instrument. To prevent the sticky ink from clogging his pens, he proposed installing small metal balls capable of rotating at the top of the tube containing this fast-drying ink. The metal ball would have two functions: act as a cap to prevent the ink from drying out. To allow the ink to flow out of the pen at a controlled rate.In June 1943, he and his brother Georg, a chemist, filed a new patent with the European Patent Office and produced the first commercialized ballpoint pen, the Biro ballpoint pen.