Fountain pen

“ Pens of the second class, which have the further advantage of being portable, are heard of under the name of “ fountain inkhorns ” or “ fountain pens ” so far back as the beginning of the 18th century, but it was not till a hundred years later that inventors applied themselves seriously to their construction. ”

“ When you press the point on paper to write, the needle falls back just enough to let out what ink is needed. The flow stops the instant the pen ceases to touch the paper. The special advantage of the stylographic is that the mere weight of the pen is sufficient pressure, and therefore many hours of writing do not tire the muscles of the hand. The advantage of the fountain pen is that it has the familiar action of the gold pen, and that it will adapt itself to any style of handwriting. ”

“ All the ink in my fountain pen leaked out when I reached the altitude of 10,000 feet—I have the kind of pen that writes under water—and I had to put my pencil between my teeth to keep them from chattering and knocking out my inlays. During my stay at the hospital, of course, I couldn't write, as I was too weak even to flirt with the nurses—which, as you know, is very weak indeed. ”

“ Can you write with a fountain pen? I prefer them myself, they’re so nice and messy. This is a non-leakable one, you know, so look out for the ink. I’ve worn out two hunks of pumice stone already this fall. ”

“ A metal pen may be sharpened on an oilstone, but the process takes so much longer that there is no saving in time: it is not easily cut to the exact shape, and it lacks the pleasant elasticity of the quill.
A gold pen is probably the best substitute for a quill, and if it were possible to have a sharp, “chisel-edged” iridium tip on the gold nib, it would be an extremely convenient form of pen. A “fountain pen” might be used with thin ink.
PEN-KNIFE, CUTTING-SLAB, &C.
Fig. ”

“ Roger said, folding the paper and stowing it carefully away again. “Stanworth had just filled his fountain pen, or it wouldn’t work or something. You know what one does with a fountain pen that doesn’t want to write. Make scratches on the nearest piece of paper, and as soon as the ink begins to flow——”
“Sign one’s name!” Alec broke in, with the nearest approach to excitement that he had yet shown.
“Precisely! On the blotting pad are the preliminary scratches to bring the ink down the pen. What happens in nine cases out of ten after that? The ink flows too freely and the pen floods. ”

“ One pen one place, is a good motto for any librarian. Of course the FOUNTAIN PEN removes a great deal of the waste of time and trouble inseparable from ink-pot filling, pen selecting, pen dipping, etc., and every librarian ought to have one as part of his ordinary equipment. ”

“ In all these years the American fountain pen has 180hardly got a start in Europe. There is no market for it. It is too handy, too inspiring, too capable, too much of a time saver. The dismal steel pen and the compass-jawed quill are preferred. And semi-liquid mud is preferred to ink, apparently, everywhere in Europe. ”

“ The smaller the circle, the more difficult it is to keep the point-leg from slipping out of the centre, and the more difficult it is to draw a clear line and true circle; hence the points should be shaped to the best advantage for drawing these small circles, by oil-stoning the pen, as already described, and then finishing it as follows:
After the oil-stoning, open the two valves of the pen-leg wide enough to admit a piece of 000 French emery paper wrapped once around a very thin blade, and move the pen endwise as described for the straight-line pen. ”

“ Line-finishings commonly echo the treatment of the initials (see p. 181) . In twelfth-century MSS. long delicate flourishes are commonly found, in red, blue, or green—matching the colours of the Versals, and probably made with the same pen. The latter being rather finer than the text pen keeps these flourishes from appearing too prominent (see e, f, fig. 126) .
Such work should be simple and characteristic pen-work, showing the thicks and thins and crisp curves, the result of the position of the pen, which is usually “slanted” (see p. 43) . ”

“ Though somewhat out of fashion for general use, the quill of our fathers is favored by many illustrators. It is splendidly adapted for broad, vigorous rendering of foreground effects, and is almost dangerously easy to handle. Reed pens, which have somewhat similar virtues, are now little employed, and cannot be bought. They have to be cut from the natural reed, and used while fresh. For many uses in decorative drawing one of the most satisfactory instruments is the glass pen, which gives an absolutely uniform line. ”

“ A good fluid waterproof drawing ink should be used. Care should be taken to procure one that will not thicken either in the bottle or in the pen. It is a great fault with some inks that, although they do not seem to thicken very much in the bottle, they do so in the pen. When this is the case, good writing is almost impossible. One cannot produce good writing if one has to stop every little while to wash out one’s pen. Besides, when the ink is beginning to thicken, clear, sharp writing becomes impossible. ”

“ Horn pens, tortoise-shell pens, nibs of diamond or ruby imbedded in tortoise shell, nibs of ruby set in fine gold, nibs of rhodium and of iridium imbedded in gold,— all have been adopted at different times, but most of them have been found too costly for general adoption. Steel is proved to be sufficiently elastic and durable to form very good pens, and the ingenuity of manufacturers has been exerted to give to such pens as many as possible of the good qualities possessed by the quill pen. ”

“ The other period was that in which written characters were made with liquids or paints of any kind or color. The liquids (inks) were used in connection with a pen manufactured from a reed (calamus) , while the paints were "painted" on the various substances with a brush. The writing executed with both of these instruments was on materials like the bark of trees, cloth, skins, papyrus, vellum, etc.
The ancient as well as modern pens, though of many sorts and kinds, are to be classified under two general heads, those which scratch and those which use an ink. ”

“ The pen seems to bear much the same relation to the brush as the lead pencil does to charcoal—not capable of such full and rich effects or such flowing freedom of line, but yet possessing its own beauty and characteristic kinds of expression. Its true province is in comparatively small scale work, and its natural association is with its sister-pen of literature in the domain of book-design and decoration, and black and white drawing for the press. Its varieties are endless, and the ingenuity of manufacturers continually places before us fresh choice of pen-points to work with ”

“ This is my general custom. Some men wipe their pens on their hair,—not a very cleanly habit, in my opinion,—besides, unless the colour of the hair is exceptionally dark, the ink shows.
I had no sooner wiped my pen on the inside of my coat than I remembered Eliza's present. Determined to show her that I appreciated it, I took a full dip of ink, stepped into the drawing-room, and wiped the pen on the new pen-wiper. Then I called up-stairs: "Eliza, I have just found your present very useful. Would you like to come and look?" ”

“ A hard pencil lasts much longer than a soft one, it does not require pointing so often, and the fact just mentioned, that writing done by its means does not blur or “set off” is an advantage not to be despised. Red and blue crayon pencils should be kept for checking purposes. Ordinary pen-holders and hard and soft pen-points are occasionally stocked in public libraries, as well as pencils, to lend out to the readers. ”

“ The capabilities of the pen as a letter-making tool should be carefully studied. The reed or quill pen should be used, and one of the best ways to become intimate with the pen is to cut it to shape for oneself. One is thus able to understand the possibilities of this tool as a means for the formation of letters, in a much more intimate manner than if a ready-made tool is placed in the hand. ”

“ After the lines have dried, cross them with a wet brush; if they wash readily, the ink is too soft; if they resist the water for a time and then wash tardily, the ink is good.
Care must be exercised not to overload the pen with ink, and, like the pencil, the pen should always be moved from left to right and from the bottom to the top of the board. When inking, both “nibs” of the pen point must rest evenly on the paper and the pen be pressed only lightly against the T-square. Never ink any portion of a drawing until the penciling is complete. ”

“ In going over the pencil work the ink-line follows it in many cases so closely that it cannot assert the characteristics of penmanship. But in making preliminary small studies for a picture with the pen, an artist, feeling less necessity for a certain kind of accuracy, often uses the pen much more freely, sympathetically, and happily because he is actually drawing with it and not merely following over forms determined first in another medium. ”

“ Very frequently it happens that so much of the size and the superficial layer of fibres must be removed that the mark of the ink can be distinctly seen on the reverse side of the paper, and the lines have a distinct border which makes them broader than in the same writing under normal conditions. If a sharp pen be used there is great likelihood that a hole will be made in the paper, or a sputter thrown over the parts adjacent to the erasure. ”

“ It is a good thing to accustom yourself to hew and shape your drawing out of a dirty piece of paper. When you have got it as right as you can, take a quill pen, not very fine at the point; rest your hand on a book about an inch and a half thick, so as to hold the pen long; and go over your pencil outline with ink, raising your pen point as seldom as possible, and never leaning more heavily on one part of the line than on another. In most outline drawings of the present day, parts of the curves are thickened to give an effect of shade ”

“ Now the pens are ready so far as usefulness goes, but people have preferences in color. Some prefer bronze, some gray, and some black; so off the pens go to the tempering-room, their last trip, and there are heated in a revolving cylinder till the right color appears; then they are chilled and lacquered, put into boxes, labeled, packed, and sold for such low prices that the good folk of a century ago, who paid from twenty-five to fifty cents for a pen, would have opened their eyes in amazement. When the typewriter was invented, some people said, "That will be the death of the steel pen" ”

“ For large writing, the best tool is undoubtedly the reed pen. In fact, this is probably the best pen for the beginner to experiment with first. It is somewhat difficult to obtain a good reed pen. The ordinary kind that is sold by the artists’ colourmen is rather too soft and soon becomes sodden with the ink. Crisp writing is then impossible. A pen made from a piece of hollow cane or bamboo seems to answer best of all.
A sharp knife is required for cutting, and a thin piece of metal to form a spring to hold the ink is a great advantage. It should be quite easy to see from Fig. ”

“ He sat down again at the little table, fitted a stub pen into his penholder, lighted a match, and held the steel point in the blaze, to burn off the oil and take out the temper, making it soft and flexible and easy to write with. He uncorked the ink, wiped out the neck of the bottle with a blotter, and dipped his pen in. ”

“ A draftsman who is preparing drawings of specimens with pen and ink should have a good assortment of pens equal to Gillott's Nos. 291, 290, and 170, liquid waterproof ink equal to that manufactured by Higgins, good pencils, hard and soft rubber erasures, plain dividers, and Reynolds's bristol board. A glass eraser is also useful.
Good pen drawings of specimens are much more difficult to make than brush drawings. They can be prepared only by a draftsman who has had some artistic training and experience in pen work. ”

“ All these precautions may make tampering with the amount more difficult for a clumsy novice, but it only imposes a few moments' more work upon the accomplished manipulator. He takes his strong solution of chloride of lime and rain water, or other prepared chemicals, and with a pen suited to the purpose, by neutralizing and abstracting the coloring properties of the ink, he carefully obliterates such portions of the lines in the figures and written amounts as suits his purpose, then easily makes the alteration he desires, the red ink coming out as readily as black. ”

“ The more carefully and delicately you fill in the little gaps and holes the better; you will get on faster by doing two or three squares perfectly than a great many badly. As the tint gets closer and begins to look even, work with very little ink in your pen, so as hardly to make any mark on the paper; and at last, where it is too dark, use the edge of your penknife very lightly, and for some time, to wear it softly into an even tone. You will find that the greatest difficulty consists in getting evenness: one bit will always look darker than another bit of your square ”

“ Its consistence should be such as to enable it to flow easily from the pen, without, on the one hand, its being so liquid as to blur the paper, or on the other, so adhesive as to clog the pen and be long in drying. The shade of color is not to be disregarded; a black approaching to blue is more agreeable to the eye than browner ink; and a degree of lustre or glossiness, if compatible with due consistence of the fluid, tends to render the characters more legible and beautiful. ”