When I was six years old, I met a pen-nib and an inkpot for the first time (not an easy impact, but pleasant). I didn’t know much about it, but I had many inkblots on my desk and on my exercise books. That is how one day, thinking back to my school times, I run up against a "Calamofila".
Hundreds of pen-nibs were packed in a coquettish box. They were well cleaned, bright and ready to write. I became curious and one day, walking down the famous second-hand market in Frosinone (on the first Sunday of each month), I met some sellers very interested in their wonderful pen-nibs. Some of them tell…
So I started my collection.

The first people to use a metal pen-nib were the ancient Egyptians. 3300 years old pen-nibs were found in the tomb of Ramset II.
In Europe, English craftsmen produced them in 1550. From goose quills we passed to pen-nibs because goose quills had some defects: we had to dip them in ink over and over again; they run out in a hurry and they were sensitive to atmospheric conditions.
The pen-nibs industrial production starts in 1800. The first industrialists were Gillot, Mason and Mitchelli brothers. The prices were falling to the point that 144 industrial pen-nibs cost as a pen-nib produced by an artisan.
The demand increased and the production was sped up. It was estimated that 125 thousand millions pen-nibs were produced in Birmingham from 1830 to 1950.
Now we arrive at the "Steel age". With a ton of steel we could make 1.700.000 pen-nibs. The steel plates were cut into stripes and put under a press. The job was made by women: a worker made from 18 to 36 thousand pieces in an day; while from 14 to 20 thousand pen-nibs were daily drilled and cut by another worker. The cuts and the holes gave elasticity and capacity to keep ink.
Reached the right shape, they were hardened, putting them in a furnace for 30 minutes at 800 degrees. The temperature was controlled by eye. The pen-nibs had to have a dark red colour. At this point they were drawn out, cooled, cleaned and put in the furnace again at 180/350 degrees to make them flexible. The pen-nibs became blue. If in these two processing the temperature were too law or too high we should have to do the work again, in the first case, or to throw everything, in the second case.

The pen-nibs heirs
What a problem to go around with ink, inkopot, pen-nibs and penholder! So the pen-nib was supplanted by the fountain pen (1884) that had a barrel for the ink.
Later the ballpoint pen arrived. The Hungarian inventor called Laszlo Jozsef Biro, by whom it was named, patented it. The first biro, produced in Chicago, had an immense success, but they smudged hands, pockets and shirts and sometimes exploded.
After 50s felt-tip pens and fibre pens appeared; children and designers use them.

The poet and the musician
In 1723 the poet Lord Byron told he had had a pen-nib, but he had not been able to find another one. He had looked for it in 375 shops in vain.
Forty years later the Princess of Carignano gave to the young Mozart some wrought silver pen-nibs. Mozart, who was just seven, appreciated the present, but he continued to compose making use of goose quills.

Tipi e usi di pennini.

 

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