Stylus
A stylus , also stylus called (from the Greek grapheion , "writing device"), is a tool for marking a clay tablet , wax tablet or slate . It was first used in Mesopotamia to write on cuneiform tablets . Originally, it was only used to scratch or impress characters in the surface to be written on. Later the term stylus was partly used for writing implements such as B. used chalk pens, which leave an abrasion on blackboards and thus create lines. Many hand tools that scratch or emboss the surface of a workpiece are called pens.
History
With the invention of a representation of thoughts and processes (hunting scenes), proven z. For example, in cave paintings , pen-like tools were used as early as the Upper Palaeolithic . They passed z. B. from - lying well in the hand - charcoal residues or colored stones. With the burin (archeology) made of flint z. B. preserved antler remains decorated, carved or engraved .
With the invention of writing , besides chiselling in stone, scratching with the stylus in wax tablets or clay was used for long-term linguistic transmission. Until the invention of printing , writing with a stylus was the only way to capture language on a medium. From early antiquity to the late Middle Ages , the ability of a scribe was so in demand that it made up an entire profession. The simple styluses were made of wood or bone . The precious ones were made of metal and were mostly forged .
Until the middle of the 20th century, the slate pen was mainly used in schools, before the changeover to pen and ink and later to fountain pens .
Slate stylus
Older generations still have fond memories of a special form of the stylus as a writing stylus, because up until the mid- 1960s , students of the lower grades wrote and calculated with them on slates (with slate pens) and later on plastic boards (then with chalk pens) or chalk).
Shape and appearance
They were mostly round, sometimes square, solid pins of 4-6 mm in diameter, which, like the slate , were made of slate ( stylus slate ). They were usually wrapped in one or more layers of paper. The pen was in the pen can be transported.
functionality
Since the board and the stylus had the same hardness, fine traces were drawn into the board by the stylus and at the same time applied to the board, which appeared gray because of the abrasion of the material. These could be removed by wiping with water. In the course of use, the surfaces of the boards became increasingly rougher. In particular, harder inclusions in the pen resulted in deep marks. If used improperly, they made shrill noises on the slate .
Further developments
In the 1950s, styluses with a similar structure to a pencil became widespread. The mines, surrounded by wooden shells, were pressed from various powdery materials (e.g. chalk ) with binding agents. In addition to protecting the blackboard, the writing pressure was also reduced , which made writing much easier. They were also much easier to sharpen. Because of their softness, they were called butter pen or milk pen in school circles . However, these were no longer pens in the technical sense, as they no longer scratched the boards, but instead left material from the mine as abrasion on the board.
Lead pen
The lead pencils made of lead or lead alloys (e.g. with tin ) were an early peculiarity . They were used for writing and drawing on papyrus , paper, and linen at least since the Roman Empire until they were replaced by the - cheaper - pencils with internal graphite leads at the end of the 18th century.