Archaeological discovery

[John]

From "Archaeology Today"

 

A team of archaeologists from Penn State have announced the discovery of what they believe to be the world's first fountain pen. The pen, found on a Hittite tell site in Eastern Anatolia is remarkable in that not only did it contain the remains of an ink sac apparently made from pig's bladder but also a bronze sprung lever and pressure bar mechanism which appears to predate the Waterman patents by some 5000 years.

Edited April 1, 2005 by John

[Elaine]

Happy April 1st to you too!

[rhr]

[Two characters sit facing one another at the centre of the stage.]

 

George: Why resort to fiction? Why not mention Aristotle's metal nib, excavated from his tomb on the Greek island of Euboea, or the first mention of a quill pen in European literature, in the Latin poem "De Penna Scriptoria" composed sometime around 650 AZ by the Saxon poet Aldhelmus, or the first fountain pen, made for the Caliph Mu'izz in Egypt around 958 AZ, or the first quill pen with a reservoir in its shaft, in effect the first bladder pen, created by mathematics professor Daniel Schwenter in 1636? By the way, Aristotle's nib was even embossed with the date 324 BZ. (Just kidding.)

 

John: I presume that BZ and AZ stand for Before Zero, and After Zero. But are you sure about all these? They all sound so fanciful, like you made them all up. They have about as much resemblance to a modern pen as the original Turing machine has to a modern computer.

 

George: Reality is sometimes more interesting than fiction. So I ask again. Why resort to fiction? And remember, keep it on topic for the "Pen History" forum. This isn't "Chatter", after all.

 

:ph34r:

[Titivillus]

George: Reality is sometimes more interesting than fiction. So I ask again. Why resort to fiction? And remember, keep it on topic for the "Pen History" forum. This isn't "Chatter", after all.

I think the calendar date of the original post says it all.

 

K H

[rhr]

It was a rhetorical post, and a rhetorical question. And I know about April fools... <_<

 

It was a rhetorical plea for some pen history, not chatter.

 

And it did have pen history in it.

 

George.

 

:ph34r:

[Titivillus]

It was a rhetorical post, and a rhetorical question. And I know about April fools... <_<

 

It was a rhetorical plea for some pen history, not chatter.

 

And it did have pen history in it.

 

George.

 

:ph34r:

 

 

But he did give some pen history and you demanded less chatter!

 

 

[rhr]

No, he didn't. Fiction isn't history.

 

Are you saying that you read the issue of "Archeology Today" with the article about the "team of archaeologists from Penn State" [wink, wink, nudge, nudge] that John mentioned, or that you read the "Archeology Today" sketch from Monty Python?

 

http://orangecow.org/pythonet/sketches/archeolo.htm

 

"How tall are you?"

 

"Funny, you look much shorter."

 

"Yes, but it's nothing to do with archaeology."

 

G.

 

:ph34r:

[wimg]

Hi George,

 

No, he didn't. Fiction isn't history.

Ha, what about historical fiction? And what about archeology of fiction? Digging up all kinds of old fiction...

 

Kind regards, Wim

[rhr]

Hi Wim,

 

Thanks goodness April 1st is over.

Life is too short for fiction. Fiction is a dead hyperlink.

I'm out of here. But I'll see you all in another pen history thread.

 

George.

 

:ph34r:

[John]

One of the things I've always rather like about this forum is that most people don't take themselves over seriously. For some values of most people. Sheesh! Now if only Aristotle had used that metal nib to make a few more copies of the second volume of the Poetics, and, yes I do know that Aristotle didn't actually write the Poetics.

Edited April 2, 2005 by John