1. Brush:
The earliest brush originated in China, which can be traced back to more than two thousand years ago. Most people think it's Meng Tian in Qin Dynasty, and there is a saying that "Meng Tian initiated Qin literature". In 223 BC, Meng Tian, the general of the State of Qin, went out to war. He regularly wrote battle reports and presented them to the king of Qin. At that time, people wrote with bamboo sticks, which was very inconvenient. They dipped in ink several times without writing. One day, while hunting, Meng Tian was inspired when he saw a rabbit's tail dragging blood on the ground. He immediately cut off a rabbit's tail, put it on a bamboo tube and tried to write with it. But rabbit hair is shiny and does not absorb ink. Meng Tian tried several times, but the effect was still not good, so he threw the rabbit brush into the lime pit in front of the door. One day, he happened to see the brush he had thrown away. After picking it up, he found that the wet rabbit hair became whiter. He dipped the rabbit brush into the ink tray, and the rabbit tail became "obedient" and wrote fluently. It turns out that the water in the sinkhole contains calcium. After soaking in alkaline water, the grease of rabbit hair is removed and becomes soft. Legend has it that this is the origin of the brush.
However, the bamboo calligraphy and ink on the fragments of Oracle bones unearthed from Kaoyin site were written with a brush. It can be seen that the brush originated before the Shang Dynasty, and Meng Tian was actually an innovator of the brush. Traditional brush is not only a necessary learning tool for the ancients, but also has a unique charm in expressing the special charm of China's paintings and calligraphy. However, because the brush is fragile and difficult to preserve, ancient pens that have been passed down to this day are rare.
2. Pencil:
1564, a disastrous hurricane hit the island of England, and many trees in the severely affected Cumberland area were uprooted. After the storm, people found a black mineral under the roots of trees. As long as you make a slight stroke on an object, you can leave a black mark. This is graphite. Local shepherds often use it to mark sheep for easy identification. Soon, King George II of England simply owned the Barodale graphite mine and made it a specialty of the royal family. But writing with graphite strips is easy to get dirty and easy to break.
1760, Frenchman Falbe developed the world's first perfect wooden pencil.
178 1 year, German chemist Faber mixed graphite powder with sulfur, antimony and rosin, made it into paste and extruded it into strips, which was the prototype of the pencil. This kind of pencil has a certain hardness, which is much easier than writing with a graphite rod.
1790, French painters analyzed and tested the material of graphite, and made two kinds of pencils for painting and writing respectively. This is the earliest pencil.
3. Pen:
1809, Britain issued the first batch of patent certificates about water storage pens, which marked the official birth of pens. In the early water storage pens, ink could not flow freely. When the writer presses the piston, the ink begins to flow. After writing for a while, he has to press it again, otherwise the ink will not flow out. Of course it's inconvenient to write like this.
1829, the British james bailey successfully developed the nib. After special treatment, it is smooth and elastic, and it is quite smooth to write, which is deeply loved by people. But this pen must be dipped in ink to write, which is very troublesome.
Until 1884, an American named Walt Man once leaked an ink pen and accidentally stained a contract. But when he drafted another contract, his competitors had already snatched the business, and he lost an important profit opportunity. In order to prevent this from happening again, wolman invented the modern ink pen according to the principle of capillary transport of liquid in plants. This ink pen is equipped with a new ink supply device. The end of the pen is detachable, and ink is injected with a small dropper, so it is also called fountain pen, commonly known as pen. And all this was carefully made by him with knives, saws and files as tools and a dining table as a lathe. Until the beginning of19th century, a patent of pen with stable and accelerated flow was invented in the production process. Only three key inventions have made the pen a widely popular writing tool. These inventions are: gold nib made of iridium, hard rubber and free-flowing ink.
4. Ballpoint pen:
1888, an American journalist named John Lauder was inspired by wortmann fountain pen.
A pen with a ball tip was designed, which laid the foundation for the future ballpoint pen, but he failed to make it a commodity convenient for people to use.
19 16, Germany designed and manufactured a new ballpoint pen. Its structure is close to today's ballpoint pen, but its performance is poor, which has not attracted widespread attention. Later, when visiting a newspaper, Hungarian journalist László Bíró came up with the idea of replacing the traditional ink pen with quick-drying ink. The ink used in newspapers dries almost instantly, leaving no stains. Biro vowed to apply similar ink to a new writing tool. In order to prevent sticky ink from blocking his pen, he proposed to install a rotatable small metal ball on the top of the tube containing this quick-drying ink. The metal ball has two functions: as a pen cap, it prevents the ink from drying. Let the ink flow out of the pen at a controlled speed. 1June, 943, he and his brother Georg (chemist) applied to the European Patent Office for a new patent and produced the first commercial ballpoint pen-BIRO ballpoint pen.