Fountain Pens: An Annoyed Caliph Started it All (To Put it Mildly)

Give Me a Pen Quick!

The first clean writing fountain pen showed up in 953 in ancient Egypt. This is documented in the Kitdb al Majalis wa 'l-musayardt al-Mu'izz, a journal of sorts written by Qadi al- Nu'man al-Tamimi (d.974). The invention was not commercially motivated but was a hurried construction of a writing tool that did not drip ink all over the place. The caliph of Egypt Ma'ad al-Mu'izz had enough of leaking pens.

A pen that had built-in ink reservoir inside was made. The ink in the interior reservoir was delivered to the nib or the tip through capillary action and gravity that controlled ink flow. The invention wasn't perfect yet but was the best around. It was a precursor of the modern day fountain pens but nobody suspected it yet.

With his new pen, the Caliph happily signed hundreds of missives to sultans, rich merchants, and army generals. He did not waste time fussing over leaking ink and raging over ink spills on his expensive robes. He was a relieved Caliph thanks to the invention.

The Evolution of Fountain Pens

Later in the 17th century in another part of the world, Frenchman Nicolas Bion (1652-1733) was busy making instruments for royalty. Although there is no proof he invented fountain pens but he is credited for the oldest pen circa 1802, which has survived through the decades and is now a property of fountain pens collectors.

In the 18th century and early 19th century, several names became associated with fountain pens -- Americans Peregrin Williamson, John Jacob Parker, Lewis Waterman, and Briton John Scheffer.

The idea behind the pens was inspired by the shaft of bird feathers. The stronger the feather, the better it was for writing but using a quill pen was tedious because it had to be dipped in ink several times while writing.

The early quill pens had golden nibs and were quite something to look at but failed to work neatly; users had to put up frequent nib dipping, ink spills, blotched paper, ink stained hands, and worse, missed contracts because the deeds had to be redone because ink blots marred the looks of the legal document.

Modern Fountain Pens

After several hits and misses to come up with a pen that wrote smoothly not scratch the paper, that didn't require much nib-dipping, or didn't drip-leak-blotch any moment, the long-sought writing instrument was perfected.

Modern day "quills" don't need eyedroppers to refill the pens. The refilling mechanism now employs the built-in ink reservoir or cartridge method. Ink is drawn to the nib via a feed while gravity and capillary action draws the ink to the paper to facilitate writing.

Fountain pens are no longer somber or crude writing tools. The new breed of streamlined pens is available in various colors and designs and may have nice full rounded edges. They are smaller and slimmer to fit into a shirt pocket and best of all, these pens take off the stress associated with writing by hand. If the Caliph didn't order a nice pen would the fountain pen story be different?

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