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- Thousands of years ago, before pens had been invented, people started writing things by scratching pictures and symbols on the walls of caves.
- Then the used bits of metal to scratch out markings on clay tablets (not medicine tablets, but slabs of clay about the size of a large placemat)
- When ink was invented the Romans made a strange kind of pen out of a thin piece of bamboo. They filled it full of ink but it was pretty messy.
- Then people discovered that a quill (made from a feather) was a good writing instrument. They sharpened the end of the quill and dipped it in the ink.
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- The first real pen that was invented was the Fountain Pen. It worked a lot like the quill only you didn’t dip it in ink you filled it with ink.
- The ink that is used in a fountain pen is very runny and you can make a huge mess with very easily.
- Then in 1940 they invented the ballpoint pen. The ballpoint uses a tiny ball to transfer the ink onto paper.
- The ink in a ballpoint pen is much thicker and doesn’t seem to make the same amount of mess (unless you leave it in a shirt pocket with the pen ready to write!)
- The pencil was invented hundreds of years after the first pens.
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- Get to the point of a ballpoint
- Have a close up look at the ball on a ballpoint pen. Use a magnifying glass if you need to and see if you can see the tiny little ball at the end of the pen. Get a scrap piece of paper and watch how the pen leaves a trail of ink on the paper as you write. You won’t be able to see it very well but get down close and find out how much you can see.
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- Use some more scraps of paper and investigate how other pens work. Do your felt tips have ballpoints on the tip of them? How do they work then?
- Investigate fountain pens and quills. You might have to do to a museum to see examples of these or have a look for books in your library about them. Maybe your great-great grandparents used fountain pens and inkwells at school. Ask them and see.
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- What do you do if your cat swallows your pencil?
- Use a pen!
- From Maigan
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