Hundreds of years ago there were no pens. People would sharpen the thin, hollow sticks of bamboos or use a bird’s feather as a pen by filling them with vegetable dyes. In 1809, Joseph Braham made a holder and invented the world’s first nib with a feather. Later he improved these nibs by using horns and tortoise shells and in 1822, he received the patent for these nibs. These nibs were fixed in the holder and each time one had to dip the in ink before writing a few words. Although, fountain pens had been given a patent in 1809 in English, but they did not become popular because their ink leaked badly. Almost 75 years later, in 1884 L.E. Waterman made fountain pens with a small tank to hold the ink. The ink would flow from this tank to the nib slowly and it did not leak either. These pens were an instant success.
In 1828 after the Industrial Revolution, steel pens came into existence and Mitchell of Birmingtom was the first person to make these pens with a machine. It took another hundred years before these pens could be fitted with a steel nib too. In 1926, total steel pens conquered the market and since 1930, detachable nibs increased the life of a pen.
