----- Original Message -----
From: "Roger Mills" <romilly@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Friday, June 06, 2003 7:11 PM
Subject: Re: OT Nostalgic history of the pen (was Re: Phoneme winnowing
continues
> John Cowan wrote:
> > Henrik Theiling scripsit:
> >
> > > 'Fountain pen' sounds dangerous for clothes.
>
> The many inferior ones were......
>
> >>What is it? And what's
> > > it's operative range? :-)
>
> Did you mean, how long did the ink supply last? Not very long. It always
> seemed to run out just when you needed it......and refilling them was a
> messy procedure.
> >
> > Only a few mm. It was the main writing technology between the
abandonment
> > of the quill and the prevalence of the ballpoint, the one with the metal
> > nib (writing portion) with the split in it.
> >
> Oh dear, you've made me dip the madeleine in my tea.....
> In grade school (mid 40s) Penmanship was the most hated class. Fortunately
> it only came round about once a week, since the teacher had to go to
Supply,
> get a huge flagon of ink, carefully fill all our little inkwells (and
> carefully empty them afterwards), then guide us through 45 mins. of
> push-pulls and loops with our "ink pens" that weren't much of an
improvement
> over the quill. Scritch-scratch. Much tearing of cheap paper. Blotches.
> Splatters. Fountain pens were Forbidden! (too expensive for most anyway).
>
> Around the end of WW2, the ball-point appeared in the US (invented by a
> Hungarian IIRC)-- the first were made by a Mr. Reynolds and cost $5 (= a
lot
> in today's money; a good Parker 5l cost the same). I sent away for one
> (father was horrified at such a waste of money)-- it looked like a small
> rocket ship and caused a major sensation with classmates. I think the ink
> supply lasted about 3 months, much of it used up in blotches and splatters
> or absorbed by shirt-pockets.
>
> (I've never heard "biro" either-- sounds like a trade name. For a while
we
> distinguished "Bics", but that's generally a cheap cigarette lighter
> nowadays.)
>
As I said before, "Biro" is the name of the inventor of the ballpoint pen,
Ladislo Biro, a hungarian. Most Biros are made by Bic, these days.