Writing implement
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A writing implement or writing instrument is an object used to produce writing. Writing consists of different figures, lines, and or forms. Most of these items can be also used for other functions such as painting, drawing and technical drawing, but writing instruments generally have the ordinary requirement to create a smooth, controllable line.
Another writing implement employed by a smaller population is the stylus used in conjunction with the slate for punching out the dots in Braille.[1]
Autonomous
An autonomous writing implement is one that cannot "run out"—the only way to render it useless is to destroy it.
Without pigment
The oldest known examples were created by incising a flat surface with a rigid tool rather than applying pigment with a secondary object, e.g., Chinese
The ancient
into soft clay tablets, creating characteristic wedge-shaped marks. The clay tablets were then baked to harden them and permanently preserve the marks.Several other ancient cultures such as
In the modern era,
Words and names are still commonly inscribed into commemorative objects, such as the engraved winners' names on the silver Stanley Cup or the Gettysburg Address carved into the stone wall of the Lincoln Memorial, but the requisite tools are not exclusively considered to be writing instruments.
With inherent pigment
The original form of "lead pencil" was the leaden stylus used by the ancient Romans, who also used it to write on wood or papyrus by leaving dark streaks where the soft metal rubbed off onto the surface.
The concept has been revived in recent times as the core of the inkless pen: a lead-based metal alloy that leaves dark markings on paper by abrading small pieces of core onto the surface.[2]
However, most modern "lead
for consistency, enclosed within an outer wooden casing to protect the fragile graphite from being snapped apart or from leaving marks on the user's hand.White
Both pencils and chalk exist in variants which can create marks in other colors, but colored pencils and colored chalk are generally considered to be
A
Normal pencils, chalk, and crayons all share the characteristic that they cannot "run out". The useful life of these implements is closely linked to their physical existence. However, specialized accessories such as
Assisted
These require the presence of an added pigment in order to write, and are useless when "empty".
Pens
The pen is the most common form of writing implement. It has a hard tip which applies ink to a surface.
Capillary-action dip pens
Initially, pens were made by slicing a suitable nib point from the end of a thin, hollow natural material which could retain a small reservoir of ink by capillary action. However, these ink reservoirs were relatively small, requiring the pen to be periodically dipped back into an external inkwell for replenishing.
A
Fountain pens
The first modern
Only certain types of ink can be used in a fountain pen, to avoid clogging up the nib unit mechanism. Although the larger reservoir of fountain pens requires less frequent ink replenishment, the ink may inconveniently spill out in certain contexts to stain the paper, fingers, or clothing of an unwary writer. Differences in air pressure may cause the ink to leak when travelling by airplane.
Disposable pens
A large number of new pen types were popularized in the 20th century. Some of them are not constructed to be refilled with ink after they run dry; although others can theoretically have their internal ink compartment replaced, the widespread custom is to simply throw away the entire pen when its ink is no longer accessible.
These types include the
Mechanical pencils
Unlike the construction of a traditional wooden pencil around a solid graphite core, a mechanical pencil feeds a small, mobile piece of graphite through its tip. An internal mechanism controls the position of the graphite by friction, so that although it remains steady while writing, the graphite can be advanced forward to compensate for gradual wear or retracted to protect it when not in use. The graphite in mechanical pencils is typically much narrower than in wooden pencils, frequently in sub-millimeter diameters. This makes them particularly useful for fine diagrams or small handwriting, although different sizes of refill leads cannot be interchanged in the same pencil unless it has been specially designed for that purpose.
Brushes
Although in Western civilization writing is usually done with some form of
A brush differs from a pen in that instead of a rigid nib, the brush is tipped with soft bristles. The bristles are gently swept across the paper with just enough pressure to allow ink to wick onto the surface, rather than mashing down the brush to the extent of substantial friction resistance. Although pens with semi-flexible nibs and liquid ink can also vary their stroke width depending on the degree of applied pressure, their variation range is far less obvious.
Traditionally, brushes have been loaded with ink by dipping the bristles into an external pool of ink on an inkstone, analogous to a traditional dip pen with an inkwell. Some companies now make "brush pens" which in that regard resemble a fountain pen, with an internal ink reservoir built into the handle which can be refilled with preloaded cartridges or a bottle-fill converter.
Accessories
Other implements indirectly associated with writing include
See also
References
- ^ "Slate and Stylus Video" (video transcript). American Foundation for the Blind. Archived from the original on Jul 10, 2023. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
- ^ "Endless Pens Never Run Out of Ink, Leak, Smear or Smudge". 10 September 2010. Archived from the original on 2021-10-05. Retrieved 2021-10-05.