RINGPEN - Voted one of the greatest new inventions for the 21st Century
(By US NEWS & WORLD REPORT Magazine, USA - "Things that changed our lives")
"During the last century there have been approximately 150 patents granted connected with pens and improving the writing process. The shape of the holder though has remained the same, looking kind of familiar ... like the stick it was derived from. Until now that is, 'cause now there's the ergonomically-designed RinG-Pen"
(Extremetechnology)
"May be the biggest improvement in writing since the ball point"
The Vermont Country Store®, USA, about the RinG-Pen
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WRITING INSTRUMENTS over 6000
YEARS
|
Around 4000
BC
Man scratches the surface of moist clay
tablet with a bronze or bone tool.
|
|
Around 3000
BC
The
Egyptians developed a form of writing with pictures. For writing on
papyrus scrolls scribes used thin reed brushes or reed pens.
|
|
1300
BC
The
Romans have been developing form of writing, that they scribed into thin
sheets of wax (on wooden tablets). Romans used a metal stylus. When they
no longer needed the writing, they rubbed it out with the flat end of
stylus. In Asia
scribes used a bronze stylus.
|
|
Dark
Ages
As well
as writing on parchment, the Anglo-Saxons also used tablets filled with
wax for notes and for planning the layout of large books. They wrote on
the tables with a metal or bone stylus, that had a pointed end and rubbed
out the words with flat end.
|
|
600-1800
AD
The
Europeans found that writing on parchment with a quill pen altered the
style of their writing. At first they used capital letters all the time,
but later they developed faster styles with small letters. Quill Pens
(firstly appeared in Seville, Spain) were the writing instrument from 600
to 1800 AD.
|
|
1790s
Pencil lead was invented
independently in France and Australia.
|
|
1800-1850
A metal pen
point has been patented in 1803 but patent was not commercially
exploited. Steel nibs came into common use in the
1830s. By the 19th
century metal nibs had replaced quill pens. By 1850 quill pen usage
was fading and the quality of the steel nibs had been improved by
tipping them with hard alloys of Iridium, Rhodium and
Osmium.
|
|
1884
Lewis Edson Waterman, insurance
broker invented the first proper fountain
pen.
|
|
1888-1916
The principle of the ball point pen
actually dates from the late 19th Century when patents were taken
out by John Loud in 1888 for a product to mark leather and in 1916
by Van Vechten Riesberg. However neither of these Patents were
exploited commercially.
|
|
1940s
The modern
version of ball point pen was invented by Josef (Lazlo) and Georg
Biro. On
Summer 1943 the first commercial models were made. The rights to
Lazlo's patent were bought by the British Government. The ball point
pen is more rugged than the fountain pen which may be why sales
rocketed during World War II when the Military needed robust writing
implements to survive the battlefield
environment.
October 1945
The ball point pen was introduced to
the U.S. market. The pen
was sold as "The first pen to write underwater" this must have been
an unsatisfied demand as some 10,000 were sold at the launch at
Gimbel's department store in New York on October 29th 1945.
|
|
1953
First inexpensive ball point pens
were available when the French Baron, Bich, developed the industrial
process for manufacturing ball point pens that lowered the unit cost
dramatically (BIC, Co.)
|
|
1960s
It
was invented fibre, or felt-tipped pen (Tokyo Stationery Company,
Japan). Papermate's Flair was among the first
felt-tip pens to hit the U.S. market in the 1960s, and it has been
the leader ever since. Following their initial success with
felt-tips, manufacturers branched out with a variety of fiber-tipped
instruments, including newly popular highlighters.
|
|
1980s-1990s
Roller Ball Pens. The introduction of
the roller ball pen have been made in the early 1980s. Unlike the
thick ink used in a conventional ball point, roller ball pens employ
a mobile ball and liquid ink to produce a smoother line.
Technological advances achieved during the late 1980s and early
1990s have greatly improved the roller ball's overall
performance.
|
|
1990s
- ...
Rubberized writing instruments are
commonly used by the companies to reduce the grip.
|
|
From
1997 - ...
Ring Pens' mass production (GRANDEE
Corporation) This pens designed to write without gripping the pens with 3
fingers.
|
Ring-Pen. First pen in 6000 years history, that no need
to grip.
from
1997... |
Ring-Pens (GRANDEE
Corporation) |
|
|
1990s... |
Rubber muffs to reduce the
grip |
|
Need to grip |
1980...1990 |
Roller ball pens |
|
Need to grip |
1960 |
Felt-tipped pens (Tokyo
Stationery Company) |
|
Need to grip |
1953 |
Inexpensive ball point pens
(BIC Co.) |
|
Need to grip |
1940 |
Ball point pens of
Biro |
|
Need to grip |
1884 |
Fountain pen of
Waterman |
|
Need to grip |
1800...1850 |
Pens with metal
nib |
|
Need to grip |
1790s |
Wooden pencil with carbon
lead |
|
Need to grip |
600...1800 A.D. |
Quill pens' era |
|
Need to grip |
Dark
Ages |
Metal or bone stylus of
Anglo-Saxons |
|
Need to grip |
1300
B.C. |
Metal stylus of
Romans |
|
Need to grip |
3000
B.C. |
Reed pens of
Egyptians |
|
Need to grip |
4000
B.C. |
Bronze or bone
tools |
|
Need to
grip |
|
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