The pen, an instrument for writing with ink, has been used since antiquity. The earliest pens were made from hollow reeds that held a small amount of ink. Reed pens gave way to quill pens, made from the hollow wing feathers of geese and swans. The quills were sharpened with an instrument called a penknife, the term still used for small knives. Quill pens were the standard writing implement from the seventh century until the nineteenth century, except in the Far East, where brushes were used.

Steel pen nibs came into use in the early 1800s, thus eliminating the necessity of constantly resharpening the pen point, but the problem of having continually to resupply the pen with ink remained. Fountain, or reservoir, pens that held their own ink supply were developed to overcome this problem. A number of fountain pens appeared during the 1800s--the first British patent was...