1. By: Sneha Ramprasad and Morgan
Brauer
Period: 3

2.  Cavemen first discovered this sharpened tool stone
 Etched drawings onto the cave (their home) walls
 Represented events that happened in their daily
life
-Ex.: planting of crops and hunting victories

3.  Greek invented
 Made of metal,
bone, or ivory
 Used to make marks on wax coated tablets
(made of clay)
 Fun Fact: in 400 B.C. the Greeks developed
the first alphabet
 They were also the first to write left to right

4.  Chinese invented
 Invented by
Tien-Lcheu in 2697 B.C.
 Originally designed for blacking the
surfaces of raised stone-carved
hieroglyphics
 Mixture of soot from pine smoke and lamp oil
with gelatin of donkey skin and musk

5.  Created by the Romans
 Made by the hollow
tubular-stems of marsh grasses
(ex. Bamboo plant)
 Cut one end into the form of a pen nib/ point
 Ink filled the stem to squeeze the reed forced
fluid to the nib

6.  400 A.D
 Iron-salts, nutgalls and gum
 Color: Bluish-Black Dark Black
Dull Brown

7.  700 A.D.
 Lasted for more than 1 thousand years
 Made from a bird feather
 Strongest Quills from…
› Living Birds in the Spring
› From 5 outer left wing
feathers
› Goose: most common
› Swan: premium
 Lasts for 1 week
 To sharpen the quill, you need
a special tool

8.  Louis Waterman
patented the first practical one
 1884
 Use: carry their own supply of ink
 Early models were plagued by ink spills and
other failures
 His was different because he added
 An air hole
 Grooves inside the feed mechanism

9. Nib: Has contact
with the paper
Feed: Black part
under the nib that controls the
ink flow from the reservoir to
the nib
Barrel: the part you
grip while writing

10.  Laszlo Biro- Hungarian
journalist
 1938
 Used newspaper ink (because it dried
quicker)
 Created a new tip
› Had to add a rotating ball to make the thicker ink
go through
 As the pen wrote, the ball rotated picking up ink
from the ink cartridge

11. Pen
Pencil
 Made out of metals, plastics, and other
chemicals
 Most are made out of brass because of
strength and appealing appearance
 Ink is made by the pen manufacturer
› Pigments and dyes are used to produce the color
 Lead: Graphite and Clay
 Outer Layer:
› Original Pencil: Wood painted yellow because the
graphite is too fragile and needs something
surrounding it
› Mechanical Pencil: Plastic outer
 Eraser: Synthetic rubber

12.  Pencils are biodegradable
 Pencil made out of 20-33% recycled blue
denim jeans that have been ground up
 Rest is recycled post-consumer paper
 In addition, a blue eraser is added
 You can also make a pencil from recycled
dollar bills

13.  Reynolds copies the product and sells it in
America
 Reynolds is sued by Eversharp (who bought
the rights of Biro’s product)
 Reynolds’ and Eversharp’s pen leaked and
sometimes failed to write
 They both received many returns

14.  Company: Parker Pens
 Qualities
 Variety of point sizes
 Rotating cartridge
 Large capacity ink refills
 IT WORKED
 Wrote 5 times longer than previous ball-point pens
 Sold 3.5 million @ $2.95 to $8.75 in 1954

15.  1950: Bich (drops the “h”) starts selling pens
 Late 1950s: BIC holds 70% of European
market
 1958: BIC buys 60% of Waterman Pens
(New York based)
 1960: BIC buys out Waterman Pens
› Sell ballpoint pens in U.S. for 29-69 cents

16.  Writing has become more convenient and
easier with the improvements of the writing
utensil
 BIC dominates the market
 Parker, Sheaffer, and Waterman
› Small market of…
 Fountain tip pens
 Expensive Ballpoints

17.  The pencil first originated from
the ancient Roman writing
instrument, the stylus.
 Early styluses were made out
of lead, but nowadays, pencils
are made of non-toxic graphite.
 Graphite was widely used when it was discovered
in Borrowdale, England in 1564.
 It left darker marks than lead, and since the mineral
is very soft and brittle, it required a holder. That is
why it is wrapped around hollowed-out wooden
sticks.

18.  Also known as click pencils, automatic pencils,
propelling pencils, and technical pencils.
 They were invented in 1822 by Sampson
Mordan and Gabriel Riddle who were both from
England.
 They thought of it as a “refillable leadholder”
rather than a mechanical pencil.
 Graphite is used as lead to make these
mechanical pencils.

19. The Evolution of Writing Utensils
Sharpened Tool Stone
Writing Stylus
Mechanical
Pencils
Pencils
Ballpoint Pen
Reed Pen
Quill Pen
Fountain Tip
Pen
Both Roman
created at the
same time period