thanks for sharing though. i never would have thought about that as late as the 60s, the Bic roller ball style pen still wasn't around yet. I guess it took NASA trying to write in space for that to be developed. And who says the moon landings weren't worth it?!

the bic/biro pen WAS around when i started secondary school, and was used by sensible people. our teachers simply thought that water-based ink pens were more "character-building" and resulted in more readable handwriting - how wrong they were.

> our teachers simply thought that water-based ink pens were more "character-building" and resulted in more readable handwriting

In fairness, writing with a fountain pen encourages proper cursive handwriting, because it is far less physical effort. Disjointed handwriting is easier than cursive with a ballpoint, because you have to apply pressure the entire time you are writing or the ball won't roll and pick up ink.

i think this may work for an adult - i really don't think it works for a child. at least it didn't for me.

I didn't find that to be the case when I was in school. Handwriting in cursive with a fountain pen was miserable, an utterly pointless waste of valuable class time.

Really? When I first got a fountain pen in school my cursive handwriting experience was far, far better both for me and for my poor teachers.

From the lefties, we hate all you fountain pen lovers, one and all.

As a a rightie who had to write in Arabic with a fountain pen, I really do understand, though there are some inks that make this easier.

Not completely pointless. Fine motor skills need training too.

I learned writing with a fountain pen as late as 1995. We’d stopped using separate inkwells at the time though.

We had the desks with the holes in; but the dip-pen era was before my time. We used fountain pens (no ball-points). There was always a huge jar of Quink blue-black ink at the front of the class.

I had two problems with fountain pens: firstly, good ones were expensive, and the other kids stole them. Secondly, even good ones leaked; boys aged 9-13 are very active, and don't take great care of their clothes. Most of my uniform clothes ended up with huge stains of blue-black ink.