HISTORY110 - Writing Tools

My hobby since my retirement as an aerospace engineer in 2000, has been “writing for fun.”  This includes history papers, newspaper columns, books, and in the last few years, a blog.  For all of these “products,” I used a computer with a word processor.  But computers and word processors are relatively recent tools for writing.  In a discussion about future blog topics the other day, Pat wondered what writers throughout history used as writing tools, and when those tools were first available.  Thus, the subject of this blog, the history of writing tools.

 

 Introduction to Writing Tools

First a definition:  Writing is the act of creating a persistent representation of human language made up of a conventional system of marks or signs.

Writing is one of the things that makes our human civilization what it is.  Without it, great ideas would be forgotten, information would stay at the place where the ideas originated, and we would have to invent things a thousand times over.

Writing tools have evolved over thousands of years, from prehistoric times through today.   I’m going to discuss the history of writing tools in several appropriate time periods.  I will conclude by talking about the future of writing tools.

I will list my principal sources at the end.

Prehistoric Era

Recorded human history began around 3400 BC, but the history of writing goes back even further!  Prehistoric cave paintings are the earliest known form of expression and storytelling, dating back around 40,000 years.  Our creative ancestors depicted local animals and significant life events in their paintings, leaving behind a treasure trove of history on the walls of caves worldwide.  These early cave painters used sticks, bones, or even fingers, as rudimentary "brushes."  These crude instruments paved the way for the innovative writing tools we enjoy today.

Prehistoric cave paintings were drawn with twigs, bones, or fingers.

 

Ancient Civilizations (3400 BC - 500 AD)

The Mesopotamian Stylus.  The next development in writing tools occurred in the cradle of civilization: Mesopotamia, circa 3400 BC. It was there that the stylus was born.  As the need for communication grew more complex, our ingenious ancestors developed a writing system that would lay the foundation for modern writing: cuneiform, which literally means "wedge-shaped," was written using a stylus made of reeds, wood, or metal.  

Scribes pressed the stylus into soft clay tablets, creating intricate wedge-shaped marks representing words, ideas, and mathematical concepts.  This was a game-changer for human communication.  It allowed for the transmission of knowledge across generations, and even the establishment of trade networks.  This versatile little tool was the catalyst that propelled us from the transient nature of cave paintings to the more permanent and tangible world of recorded history.

The Mesopotamian stylus inscribed symbols into soft clay tablets.

 

Ancient Egypt's Reed Pens.  Around 3200 BC, ancient Egyptians made their mark on the history of writing tools with the reed pen.  Fashioned from the stems of reed plants, these pens were sharpened and split at one end to form a point. 

Egyptian scribes used their reed pens to write on papyrus scrolls in ink made of soot, water, and a binding agent.  They would dip the reed pen into ink, and it would retain some ink in the split at the point.  This allowed scribes to create precise and elegant lines. The script they crafted, hieroglyphics, was intricate and visually striking.

The innovations of the reed pen and papyrus scroll in ancient Egypt fostered the growth of literature and learning, and played a crucial role in record-keeping, trade, and diplomacy.  These advancements would continue to shape the development of writing tools for centuries to come.

Egyptian scribes used reed pens to write hieroglyphics on Papyrus rolls.

 

Metal Styluses and Wax Tablets in Ancient Greece and Rome.  The ancient Greeks made a significant contribution to writing tools with their use of metal styluses and wax tablets.  

Wax tablets were made of wooden frames filled with a layer of wax.  To write on these tablets, a metal stylus with a point on one end and a flat edge on the other was used.  The pointed end was used to etch words or symbols into the wax, while the flat edge would smooth and erase the writing for reuse.

These tablets were practical and efficient, as they could be easily erased and rewritten.  One of the oldest wax tablets dates to the early 14^th century BC.  These portable and reusable writing surfaces were an essential part of daily life in ancient Greece, playing a crucial role in record keeping, journaling, and education.  

 The use of styluses and wax tablets spread to numerous cultures, including the Roman Empire. These writing instruments were instrumental in the exchange of ideas, knowledge, and commerce, solidifying the stylus and wax tablet as integral parts of the ancient world's communication and record-keeping systems.

Egyptian scribes used reed pens to write hieroglyphics on Papyrus rolls.

 

Brush Pens in Ancient China.  Ancient China also contributed to writing tool development around 300 BC with the invention of the brush pen.   Unlike the reed pens and styluses of the past, the brush pen added a new dimension of artistic grace and fluidity to writing.

The brush pen featured a tip made from animal hair bristles bound to a bamboo or wooden handle.  By varying the pressure and angle of the brush, Chinese calligraphers could create a wide range of line thicknesses and styles.  Using ink made from ground inksticks (made of soot and animal glue by prolonged boiling of connective tissue) and water, this elegant tool allowed for beautiful, expressive writing synonymous with traditional Chinese calligraphy.

Medieval Era (500 AD - 1500 AD)

Quill Pens.  The writing tools of ancient civilizations were useful at the time, but suffered from significant problems.  Carved clay tablets were too heavy, not portable at all, and difficult to use.  Wax tablets didn‘t last long and were sensitive to heat.  Reed pens were stiff and cumbersome to use.

In Spain, around 600 AD, a new flexible, easy to use writing instrument was developed:  the quill pen.  Feathered quills, plucked from the wings of large birds, became Europe's most common writing instrument, holding sway for over a millennium until the 1800s.  High-quality quill pens were made from swan feathers, while the average-quality quill pens were made from goose feathers.

To create a quill pen, the feather's branches were stripped from the lower portion of the central shaft, and the tip would be carefully sharpened to a point with a slit added as shown in the figure below. 

The bottom end of a quill pen was fashioned to hold a small amount of ink.

As with earlier reed pens, the split at the bottom of a quill pen, also called the "nib," was designed to hold a small amount of ink by capillary action, allowing the ink to flow smoothly onto the writing surface when the pen was drawn across it.  Essentially, the split acted as a tiny ink reservoir, controlled by the feather's hollow shaft, when the quill pen was dipped into the ink source.  You could only get about three to six words out of each dip.

Initially quill pens were used to write on parchment or vellum, but later were used extensively to write on paper. (Paper was invented in China during the Han Dynasty, which lasted from 206 BC to AD 220, but it wasn’t introduced to Europe until 1000 - 1200 AD)

The quill pen was used commonly for over a thousand years.

 

Quill pens were also used with fine brushes to illustrate manuscripts with figures, decorations, and images. They became increasingly popular from the 15^th century on when writing flourished and started to spread through the Western world. 

Quill pens played a significant role in shaping history, as they were used to pen countless letters, books, and legal documents that defined the era.  Many important documents, like the Magna Carta and the American Declaration of Independence, were written and signed with quill pens. 

 

Early Modern Era (1500 AD - 1800 AD)

Pencils.  A pencil is a writing or drawing implement with a solid core - in a protective casing that reduces the risk of core breakage, and keeps it from marking the user's hand.  Pencils create marks by physical abrasion, leaving a trail of solid core material that adheres to a writing surface.  They are distinct from pens, which dispense ink onto the writing surface.

The history of the pencil can be traced back to the discovery of graphite and the development of techniques to use it in writing and drawing.  Graphite was first discovered in Europe early in the 15^th century in Bavaria, although the Aztecs had used it as a marker hundreds of years earlier.  Europeans discovered that graphite could be fashioned into sticks for use as pencils.    

But because graphite is soft, it required some form of encasement for use as a pencil.  Graphite stick pencils were initially wrapped in string or sheepskin for stability.

Around 1560, the first wooden pencils were likely made by Italian couple Simonio and Lyndiana Bernacotti.  They were made by hollowing out a stick of juniper wood and inserting a solid graphite stick.   Shortly thereafter, a superior technique was discovered: two wooden halves were carved, a graphite stick was inserted, and the halves then glued together - essentially the same method in use to this day

Note:  Chemistry was in its infancy, and graphite was initially thought to be a form of lead.  Because the pencil core is still referred to as "lead,” many people have the misconception that the graphite in the pencil is lead, and the black core of pencils is still referred to as lead, even though it never contained the element lead.

Graphite (and thus pencils) came into widespread use following the discovery of a large graphite deposit in Borrowdale, England in 1564.

The first attempt to manufacture graphite sticks from powdered graphite was in Nuremberg, Germany, in 1662.  It used a mixture of graphite, sulphur, and antimony.

In 1795, Nicholas-Jacques Conte, a scientist serving in the French army, invented the modern pencil.   He mixed graphite with clay, fired it in a kiln, and encased it in wood.  The hardness of the pencil could be adjusted by changing the ratio of clay to graphite. 

The oldest pencil in the world, found in a timbered house built in 1630.

 

Before pencil sharpeners, pencils were sharpened by hand with knives.  The first pencil sharpener was patented in 1828 by Bernard Lassimonne, a French mathematician.  This hand-held sharpener had small metal files set at 90 degrees in a block of wood, and it ground the edges of the pencil's tip.  This method wasn't any faster or easier than sharpening with a knife, so it didn't become popular.  In 1847, Thierry des Estivaux, also from France, improved this design and made a sharpener with one blade in a conical housing - a design that we still use today and call a “prism sharpener.”  Several variations and improvements followed, with one of the most significant being John Lee Love’s crank-powered pencil sharpener, which he invented in the early 1900s.

The first colored pencils were invented in 1834 by Johann Sebastian Staedtler, who improved on the red-chalk pencil to create a more precise and colorful drawing tool.  However, the mass production of high-quality colored pencils didn't begin until the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. 

Before the pencil eraser, people used separate erasers or moist pieces of bread to correct errors.  The first pencil with an attached eraser was patented in 1858 by Hymen Lipman, a Philadelphia inventor.  In his design, a groove was carved into the end of a wooden pencil casing and a strip of rubber was glued into the groove.  The pencil had to be sharpened like a graphite pencil.  The pencil eraser became popular in the 1920s and survives to this day in the more familiar form of a piece of rubber attached to the pencil by a metal band.

Steel Dip Pens.  A dip pen is a writing tool that consists of two parts: a steel point - a “nib,” and a handle that holds the nib.  Initially the metal nib was made of copper and bronze, while today, it is made of steel.  It has a slit that leads the ink from a vent hole in the nib to the paper, and works by a combination of gravity and capillary action.  The handle can be made of plastic, metal, glass, and even bone.  A dip pen was used for writing and drawing, but did not have a reservoir for ink.  To be used, a dip pen was dipped in an ink bottle or inkwell (the action from which it got the name). 

Metal nibs date from Ancient Egypt, and a copper nib was found in the ruins of Pompei, dating from the year 79 AD.  But these nibs could not replace reed pens and quills until much later because of their poor quality.

Newspapers from 1792 advertised dip pens as “new invented” metal pens.  A steel pen point was patented in 1803 by English inventor Bryan Donkin, who tried to sell the patent in 1811, but no one bought it.  When the patent expired in 1822, John Mitchell of Birmingham, England started mass-producing steel pen nibs, and their popularity increased.  After all, they were better than quills used then (and for centuries).  They lasted longer than quills, were built uniformly so you didn’t have to get used to every new cut quill, and didn’t require skill to sharpen (because they are not sharpened).  Pen nibs were easily made to have different characteristics for different uses. Soon, many other manufacturers in Birmingham opened their shops for making pen nibs.  By 1860 there were 1000 of them, big and small.

Metal nibs lasted longer than quills and were uniformly built.

 

Steel nib pens were cheap and easily produced.  This helped the development of education and literacy.

People used various accessories for writing with dip pens to make their writing more enjoyable.  Blotting paper dried the ink and prevented it from smearing the paper on which it was written.  The inkwell was a container made of glass, porcelain, silver, brass, or pewter that held ink into which the pen was dipped.   It usually had a lid that prevented spillage and contamination of ink.  Inkstands held two inkwells, a place for spare nibs, and stands for pens.

19^th Century to mid-20^th Century 

Fountain Pens.  The main flaws of quill pens and metal nib pens, with no ink reservoir, were that a person had to constantly dip the pen in ink to write or draw, and because of that, very easily smudge the writing surface.  The fountain pen was the first solution to these problems.  It had a reservoir in its body that held water-based liquid ink for longer writing.

The first pen with an ink reservoir came from the 17^th century when German inventor Daniel Schwenter invented a pen made from two quills. One quill was placed inside the other; it held the ink and was closed with a cork.  Ink left the reservoir through a small hole which led to a nib.

Progress in developing a reliable pen was slow until the 19^th century because of an imperfect understanding of the role that air pressure plays in the operation of pens.

In 1819, John Schaeafer, a trailblazer in the world of writing instruments, patented his pen: the Penographic. The Penographic was the first commercially successful fountain pen, bringing the convenience of a continuous ink supply to the masses.  The Penographic was an ingenious blend of old and new, featuring a goose quill for the nib and a pig's bladder for the ink reservoir.  To propel ink into the nib, users would exert pressure on a lever and a knob, which controlled the flow of ink, and allowed for a smooth, consistent writing experience.  The Penographic may seem rudimentary by today's standards, but it was a significant leap forward in the evolution of the pen.  

Fountain pens saw another breakthrough in 1884, thanks to the Waterman Company.  The company perfected the fountain pen by introducing a reliable and leak-proof design, ensuring users could enjoy a smooth and uninterrupted writing experience.  Waterman's invention featured a unique system of air channels that maintained a steady ink flow to the nib while preventing leakage.  In the 1880s, the era of the mass-produced fountain pen finally began.  The Waterman Company continued to push the boundaries of pen design by developing the first pen clips, making it easy to attach pens to pockets and notebooks.  The Waterman Company was the dominant American producer in this pioneer era, and remained the market leader until the early 1920s.

1908 ad for Waterman’s ideal fountain pen.

 

Early fountain pens were almost all filled by unscrewing a portion of the hollow barrel or holder and inserting the ink by means of a dropper - a slow and messy procedure.  In 1908, American inventor Walter Shaeffer developed the first commercially successful lever-fill fountain pen, where a lever on the outside of the pen pushed a springy bar on the inside, compressing a rubber ink sac.  When the lever was released, the ink sac reinflated, drawing ink into the pen in much the same manner as an eyedropper.  Today, most fountain pens are filled using either a pre-filled ink cartridge, or a converter that allows you to fill the pen from a bottle of ink.

Ballpoint Pens.  Although it is the standard for pens today, the ballpoint pen was not invented until the late 1800s.  In 1888, an American named John J. Loud filed the first patent for a ballpoint pen.  Loud's pen aimed to resolve the problems of smudging and inconsistent ink flow that fountain pen users faced.

Loud's ballpoint pen featured a tiny ball bearing in its tip, which picked up ink from the reservoir and transferred it smoothly to the writing surface.  Although his invention showed great promise, it was too coarse to write on paper and only suitable for marking leather or wood.  Because of this, Loud's pen never saw commercial success.  Still, Loud is credited with beginning the history of the ballpoint pen.

Illustrations in John Loud’s first patent for a ballpoint pen in 1888.

 

In 1938, Hungarian journalist Laszlo Biro took up the challenge of perfecting the ballpoint pen.  Biro developed a ballpoint pen that provided a smooth, continuous ink flow without needing constant dipping or refilling by refining the ink formula and improving the ball-bearing mechanism.  

Biro's ballpoint pen became the first commercially successful model, launching an entirely new era in the history of writing instruments.  Today, the ball at the point can be of different diameters and made of brass, steel, or tungsten carbide.

The ballpoint pen's durability, convenience, and affordability made it an instant favorite for writers worldwide.  Today, billions are made and sold every year.  The ballpoint pen is the most widespread writing instrument in the world, and we almost cannot imagine our day-to-day life without them.

The “gel pen” is a type of ballpoint pen that uses pigmented water-based gel instead of ink.  Sakura Color Products Corporation of Osaka, Japan, was the first to manufacture and sell gel pens in 1984.  They are used for smooth writing or illustration with nice colors, leaving a much stronger mark on the surface than pens that use ink.  Both professionals and amateurs use them because of these characteristics.

Mechanical Pencils.  A mechanical pencil is a pencil that has a mechanism that extends a solid pigment core, called a lead, which is made of graphite or other solid pigment. This pigment core is not bonded to the outer casing and is replaceable.  Mechanical pencils are mainly used for technical drawing and writing, but can also be used in fine art.  They do not have to be sharpened to be used and, because of that, are very popular with students.  Today, mechanical pencils can hold multiple leads that come in many colors, and can be made to be erasable and non-erasable.

The first mechanical pencil with a mechanism that extended the core lead, and whose lead could be replaced, was patented in 1822 by Sampson Mordan and John Isaac Hawkins in Britain.

Illustrations in the Mordan and Hawkins 1822 patent for a mechanical pencil.

 

Others continued to improve these pencils, and between 1822 and 1874, more than 160 patents were registered.   A spring-loaded mechanical pencil appeared in 1877, while 1895 saw the first twist-feed mechanism.  Very thin leads appeared in 1939.

Typewriters.  A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters.  Typically, a typewriter has an array of keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an inked ribbon selectively against the paper with a type element.  Thereby, the machine produces a legible written document composed of ink and paper. 

The typewriter was incrementally developed by numerous inventors working independently, or in competition with each other, over a series of decades.  In 1829, American William Austin Burt patented a machine called the "Typographer" which, in common with many other early machines, is listed as the "first typewriter.”  The first commercial typewriters were introduced in 1874, but did not become common in offices in the United States until after the mid-1880s.  By about 1910, the "manual" or "mechanical" typewriter had reached a somewhat standardized design.

A Remington 2 typewriter, circa 1878.

 

James Fields Smathers of Kansas City invented what is considered the first practical electric typewriter in 1914.  In 1920, after returning from Army service, he produced a successful model, and in 1923 turned it over to the Northeast Electric Company of Rochester for development.  Northeast was interested in finding new markets for their electric motors and developed Smathers's design so that it could be marketed to typewriter manufacturers.  From 1925, Remington Electric typewriters were produced powered by Northeast's motors.

The typewriter quickly became an indispensable tool for practically all writing other than personal handwritten correspondence.  It was widely used by professional writers, in offices, in business correspondence, in private homes, and by students preparing written assignments.

Typewriters were a standard fixture in most offices up to the 1980s.  After that, they began to be largely supplanted by personal computers running word processing software.  See below. 

Other Writing Tools.  Several other writing tools were introduced in this time period, including marker pens, blackboard chalk, and whiteboard pens.

Blackboard chalk is a writing instrument used for writing and drawing primarily on blackboards.  Blackboard chalk is made in a shape of a stick that is 10mm thick and 80mm long, out of calcium sulfate in its dehydrated form - as gypsum or calcium carbonate.  The chalkboard is believed to have been invented in the early 1800s.

The marker pen has a tip made of porous, pressed fibers (felt) and a reservoir of colored ink.  This reservoir has a core of an absorbent material that carries the ink.  Marker pens can write on almost any surface and have many different types of ink.  They can last very long or be erased with a swipe of a cloth.  The first felt-tip marking pen was patented in 1910.  In 1944, Walter J. De Groft patented a "marking pen" that held ink in liquid form in its handle and used a felt tip.  This patent became a “Sharpie” pen in 1964.  The first modern (and usable) marker pen was Sidney Rosenthal's “Magic Marker,” which he invented and started selling in 1953. 

A whiteboard pen (or a dry-erase marker) is a non-permanent marker using erasable ink.  Its main purpose is to write on slick, non-porous writing surfaces like whiteboards and foils for overhead projectors.  The writing is easily erased without leaving marks with a dry eraser.  The first whiteboard pen was patented by Pilot Pen in 1975.

 

Mid-20^th Century to Present

The advent of digital technology dramatically transformed writing tools and writing.  The digital revolution began in the mid-20^th century with the development of computers. and the internet, and continued with the worldwide web, digital tablets, and smartphones. 

Computers and Word Processors.  Digital computers, via keyboard entry, allowed for easier creation, editing, and manipulation of text through features like word processors, which significantly impacted how we write, publish, and share information in the digital age; essentially, computers have become a primary tool for modern writing, offering functionalities like spell-check, grammar checks, and the ability to easily revise and collaborate on documents. 

The mass-adoption of efficient, fast, and relatively inexpensive home computers in the 1970s was a technological advancement comparable to the invention of the printing press.  The Internet, a networking infrastructure of computers that evolved over time, started in the United States in the 1950s, along with the development of computers.  By the 1970s, the basic rules (protocols) that define Internet operations were developed, which enabled computers to communicate with each other.  Engineers began to assemble the “network of networks” that became the modern Internet.  In 1989, the World Wide Web was created that allowed information to be located and accessed over the Internet.  Digital tablets first appeared in the late 1980s and early 1990s.  “Smartphones,” - combining a cell phone with a computer, a speaker, a microphone, a keypad, a display screen, a battery, a transmitter, and an antenna were first available in 1994, but it was Apple that started the smartphone revolution in 2007 with the release of the first iPhone. Today, documents and media can be accessed by web browsers like Google Chrome and Apple Safari. 

A Remington 2 typewriter, circa 1878

 

Computers make the writing process more dynamic and fluid compared to traditional pen and paper.  Digital documents can be shared and edited simultaneously by multiple users across different locations, facilitating collaborative writing.  The digital environment has led to the emergence of new writing formats like blog posts, social media updates, and online forums, which often have different stylistic conventions and audience expectations. 

Stylus Pens.  A stylus refers to a pen-like tool used for touchscreen interaction with electronic devices like computers, tablets, and smartphones.  An active stylus includes electronic components that communicate with a device's touchscreen controller, or digitizer.  Active pens are typically used for note taking, on-screen drawing/painting, and electronic document annotation. 

In the 1950s, Tom Dimond demonstrated the Styalator electronic tablet with a pen for computer input and handwriting recognition.  In the 1990s, some tablets and laptop computers were equipped with styluses.  The first-generation Apple Pencil was available in 2015 for use with iPad tablets.

Digital Pens.  A digital pen is an advanced stylus, an electronic ballpoint pen, that digitizes, stores and transfers what is written or drawn to the computer.  Instead of a mouse, a digital pen provides a very natural way to hand write and hand draw into the computer.  In addition, since it stores everything internally, the data transfer to the computer via wireless or USB can be done at a later time.  Digital pens may also include audio recording. 

Digital pens are built around regular ink cartridges, with onboard sensors (pressure sensitivity, IR cameras, accelerometers, positional sensors, computer connectivity features, input buttons, memory, battery, indicator lights, vibrator motor, and more) that can record users handwriting or drawings, store them onboard, or sync them with a nearby computer.

Digital pens have many advantages over traditional pens, enabling users to easily record their text entries, drawings, diagrams, and quick notes, and transfer them to a computer where they can be used as-is or in many ways to enhance workflow, simplify work procedures, and more.

In 2003, Logitech introduced the digital pen, capable of storing 40 hand-written pages.

Example of digital pen use to transfer handwritten notes to a computer.

 

Voice Activated Writing.  The history of voice inputs for writing, also known as speech recognition technology, dates to the 1950s when Bell Laboratories developed the first system called "Audrey,” which could only recognize spoken numbers by a single voice, marking a rudimentary start to the technology.  Significant advancements occurred in the following decades with IBM's "Shoebox" recognizing a limited set of words, and later with the development of models that significantly improved accuracy, leading to the popular consumer-grade voice recognition software like Dragon Dictate in the 1990s.  Today, major tech companies like Google, Apple (Siri), and Amazon (Alexa) continue to push the boundaries of voice input technology with high accuracy and widespread accessibility across devices. 

 

Future of Writing Tools

The invention of the typewriter in the late 19^th century revolutionized writing by mechanizing the process of creating documents.  This was followed by the advent of word processors in the 20^th century, which digitized writing, offering features like spell check and text formatting, further easing the writing process.

However, the latest leap in this evolutionary trajectory is the emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) writing tools.  These tools represent a paradigm shift today and for the future from merely assisting in writing to actively participating in the content creation process itself.

AI writing tools are software programs that use artificial intelligence to assist with various aspects of the writing process, ranging from generating ideas and suggesting content, to correcting grammar and refining style.  At the heart of these tools are complex algorithms and machine learning models that analyze vast amounts of data to understand and mimic human language patterns.  These tools work by processing the input given by the user and generating relevant output based on learned patterns.  For instance, if a writer needs help with crafting a story’s opening line, the AI tool can generate multiple suggestions based on the genre, tone, and context provided by the writer.

 

Over my lifetime, since 1940, I have used many of the writing tools discussed in this article, including pencils, fountain pens, ball point pens, gel pens, chalk, marker pens, whiteboard pens, typewriters, and finally computers with word processors.  I look forward to using voice-activated writing and artificial intelligence.  I feel like I have been a participant in the dynamic history of writing tools!

 

Sources

My principal sources include: “Writing,” “Writing implement,” “Pencil,” “Fountain Pen,” “Typewriter,”  “Digital Pen,” en.wikipedia.org; “Writing Instruments History,” historyofpencils.com; “The History of the  Pen: a Comprehensive Timeline,” logotech.com; “AI Tools for Authors:  Revolutionizing Writing Process,” spine.com; plus numerous other online sources.