PEN

Abbreviation for Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists, Novelists, a literary association established in 1921 by C A (‘Sappho’) Dawson Scott, to promote international understanding among writers.

pen

Hand-held implement for writing. Pens have existed since ancient Egyptian times. Quill pens were developed by the Romans, and the technology remained unchanged until the 18th-century development of the steel nib. The fountain pen, which ensured a steady supply of ink, was invented in the 1880s. Today the dominant types of pen are the ballpoint, which became widespread in the 1940s and 1950s, and the felt-tip pen, dating from the 1960s.

History The earliest form of pen, the brush pen, was made simply be chewing the end of a reed (Jucus maritimus). The Egyptians used it to write on papyrus from about 3000 BC. It was replaced some 2000 years later by the Greeks with the reed pen, made by cutting the end of the reed at an angle and making a slit opposite the cut. This proved to be nib-like and more suitable for writing the newly developed Greek alphabet.

The reed pen survived until papyrus was replaced by animal skins, vellum and parchment, as a writing surface. The smoother surface of skin allowed finer, smaller writing and the quill pen, derived from the flight feather

fug ee in Argentina, Laszlo Biró, produced a similar design. The ball-point pen operates by capillary action, using a ball around 1 mm/0.04 in diameter,and very thick ink. In one form or another their invention dominated the world market until the arrival of the felt-tip pen in the 1960s from Japan.