FIRST FOUNTAIN PEN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18346, 12 March 1923, Page 9

FIRST FOUNTAIN PEN.

INVENTOR NOT KNOWN. Inquiries have been made by Mr. William le Queux to discover the inventor of the fountain pen. In a letter to the Westminster Gazette, he says According to the "Encyclopedia Britannica," portable "fountain inkhorns," or fountain pens, are heard of so far baok as the beginning of the eighteenth century; but according to this authority, it. was not till the end <of that century that inventors like Bramah seriously applied themselves to the construction of such writing instrumentsRecently, however, evidence has come into my possession that the fountain pen was already a commercial proposition in the middle of the eighteenth century. An old copy of "The Country Housewife's Family Companion," published in 1750, contains within its covers a contemporary trade card of a Stratford-on-Ayon publisher, naming among other articles on sale "fountain pens." A "Dictionary of Arts and Sciences," issued in 1754, gives a detailed description, with illustrations, of a fountain pen made of silver or brass. It is thus established that the fountain pen was in being and on sale at least 170 years ago.