When I found the ‘fountain pen’ in my old pencil box, the clock suddenly turned sharply in the opposite direction and took me back decades. Thousands of lost images floated in front of my eyes. This old fountain pen forced me to turn the pages of my sweet memory album. After studying with pencil and rubber for the first few years of primary school life, the fountain pen became my long-time companion.
When I was very young probably at primary school, I saw a pen stand in our house to keep two wooden pens. They were not used at that time. These pens had no ink-filling arrangement, only a steel nib at the tip. I was very surprised to see them. I heard from my mother that they were used before the advent of the fountain pen.
In 1884, the fountain pen became commercially available to remove the difficulty of taking ink from the ink pot. It had the facility to fill the pen with ink. The structure of it consisted of a lid, a gold or silver coloured metal nib in the front, a small mould at the bottom of the nib and the body of the pen.
At one point in my student life, I became very much skilled in filling ink without the help of a dropper. I acquired the skill of lifting the ink pot and pouring it directly into the stomach of the pen. In the process of acquiring this skill, the floor of our room would turn blue or red with the ink overflowing from the pen. I think there are many like me who have the experience of being scolded by their mother for making the floor colourful.
However, some fountain pens had its own filling mechanism so that ink would remain in them. However, their holding capacity was low. During school examination, I would become very much busy servicing my fountain pen. I would open all the parts of my pen, wash it well in water and fill it with ink again and keep it ready for exam. It was very difficult to write with a newly bought pen for the first few days. You had to be conscious of how you were holding the pen. To make the pen ready for smooth writing, you had to write a lot and make the nib of the pen smooth.
I used to carry two pens during my school examination. I had also seen many students carry an ink pot with them in exam hall. The relationship between ink and pen was sweet. The use of blue and red inks was very much common. At that time ‘dot pen’ or ‘ball point pen’ was not so good in quality.
Overtime, a revolution took place in using of pen. Quality dot and gel pens were available in the market. Gradually, the water-based ink and fountain pen went out of sight. Dot pen became the weapon of study. Dot pen soon gained popularity because of its cheapness, readiness, and ease of use.
However, there is no alternative to the fountain pen in respect of fancy and style. At one time, it was common to use expensive fountain pens to sign very important contracts and cheques. Even today, fountain pen is ahead in terms of style. There is no difference whether anyone uses it or not.
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