When Did Ball Points Replace Real Pens In Schools?

[Morphling27]

According to this, Truman used Esterbrook Dipless pens to sign bills and gave away ball points as gifts. These pens were stamped 'I stole this pen from Harry Truman'

http://www.loringpage.com/attpensetc/penbookupdate.html

 

Reynolds Rocket was the first successful US ballpoint introduced at Gimbels on Oct 29. 1945. Those pens were $12.50, but they quickly proved to be a failure and they couldn't sell for even 19¢

http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/ballpen.htm

 

By 1947, the ballpoints Truman handed out as souvenirs were not expensive. Actually those were from a box of pens given to him as a gift. The US government started issuing ball points made by Skillcraft. They were not expensive but I don't know when they were first issued but probably in the 50's.

I work in government and while we order junk now, I found an old box of skillcraft pens when I started. I ran most of them dry, as this was before my love of fountain pens. I still can't find anywhere to get the good kind I had. They were rollerballs though, not ballpoint pens that I had.

 

Being a kid of the 80s and 90s, I obviously didn't see many fountain pens, even in catholic school. I did always try to use a rollerball over ballpoint. We were taught cursive in 3rd grade and had to use pen from then on, outside of math. My first year of jr. high, we had one teacher who INSISTED on blue ink and would give a 0 on anything not in blue (unless typed obviously). So, my first year of jr high, I'd say 90% of anything in any class was blue, it was somewhat comical.

 

As to when fountain pens fell out and ballpoints took over? Very quickly, my mother was born in 1953 and in catholic school she only remembers using pencils or regular ballpoint pens. Her brothers were many years older than her, approximately 20 years old. She remembers as a very little girl, her mom would curse at having to worry about and try to get fountain pen ink out since you'd inevitably spill some on a work shirt. She was VERY happy and forced my uncles to use ballpoints when they became cheap and useable in the early 50s. So, that's when I'd say most people swiched.

[CaseyK]

You're right on the button there, and if ballpoint pens {I'm in no doubt the idea was fermenting} had become a reality in the early part of the 20th century we wouldn't have FPN. I grew up in the age of dip along with fountain pens, and looking back, my Grandparents very quickly moved to ballpoint pens.

 

When you look on eBay for so called "Vintage" fountain pens and the seller tells us these pens are found abandoned in drawers, that tells us something as well!

 

When the OP said fountain pens were real pens, implying that ball points were not, he was historically correct. Early on, someone would go to a stationery and get a box of pens. A pen was then attached to a pen holder and dipped in the ink to write. It was the pen part that wrote and they replaced the older quills. Somewhere along the line of history, people started calling the entire instrument a pen, forgetting that the pen itself was only the metal part that touched the paper while writing. It was at that point that the pen's designation was called 'nib' to distinguish it from the other parts of the device. So technically, from a historical sense, a fountain pen is a real pen because it contains a nib and a ball point isn't because it does not have a nib or a pen as they were originally called.

 

Follow this link to a booklet called "Easterbrook Pens and What They Can Do" You will note that all of the instruments in the booklet are called pens and are what we now call nibs.

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/140854-esterbrook-dip-pens-booklet/sterbrook

[ANM]

Hi Morphling27, The US Gov't issued MP's marked US Navy, US Army, etc, They also issued Dipless pens stamped US Post Office, US Senate, The President The White House, etc. The White House pens were used as bill signers until L. Johnson. During his presidency, Esterbrook went out of business and felt tip pens were used as bill signers by Johnson and NIxon, possibly later presidents too, I don't know. Jphnson's felt tips were made by Parker but marked Eversharp because that company had been acquired by Parker at around that time. Probably in the early 50's the US Government started issuing Skilcraft BPs. As far as I know, BPs were never used for bill signers. Modern day presidents use rollerballs for bill signers. Rollerballs were introduced in the 70s.

 

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii101/matthewsno/DSCN1940_zps001dee4d.jpg

[byggyns]

My father has told me that he was required to use a fountain pen in junior high in the 60's for certain classes. I have never asked if that was in DoD schools or the local NC public school system (grandpa was a Marine). He said he had a cheap cartridge pen that he thinks was a Parker.

[Runnin_Ute]

Started Kindergarten in fall of 1963, moved (same school district) to a different area in June 1965 where I started grade 2 that fall. I recall mostly pencils at that time. Not sure when even ballpoints became the norm. I know I was using them by 1970 (7th grade).

 

Do not recall ever using a fp in school. A dip pen in an art class yes, but that was in either junior high or high school.

 

I did buy a Sheaffer from a 7-11 in the laye 1960's. That lasted less than a week before my parents tossed it.....

[aawhite]

The question may well be posed when did computers replace handwriting! (Got to laugh I am responding to this post on a computer)

 

How long will it be before children won't have to write at school at all - instead completing all work via the small screen?

 

 

Greg

 

It is already here by my reckoning. Just look at the spelling mistakes people make today. I am not a spelling wizard but I observe the accepted spelling of a word and avoid shortcuts.

 

To the subject matter: when I started school in the late 60's, I used pencils. Later we moved on to ball point pens. It was only when my father gave me a Montblanc Carrera, that I found fountain pens to be more efficient and gave a better writing quality. I was allowed to use my fountain pen in school. Most of my teachers used fountain pens, Parker 51 being the most popular.

 

The one good thing about the modern computers is that I can "write" this , meaning I am happy. I find that this is sometihing that has more expression than words.

[LWJ2]

I grew up in Washington DC in the fifties; we started with pencils and thereabouts of third grade we used fountain pens. I had both Wearever and Sheaffer cartridge pens because my mom refused to consider me with a regular fountain pen -- at that time, I could have doubled for the Peanuts character Pigpen.

 

My mother used ballpoints, specifically the Skilcraft ones she'd bring home from the Defence Department where she worked. Dad used a Parker 51 that I still have, every morning he'd ink it with black Quink as a part of his morning routine.

 

My first job introduced me to the Koh-i-Noor Rapidograph, which I used both at work and as a daily carry pen for years. Carbon paper and later NCR paper forced me to use a ballpoint, my choice then was a Parker 45, although I still dislike their black ink. Now I use a variety of fountain pens ranging from a Waterman 52 to a 1980-ish Diplomat.

[RLTodd]

Always had pencils, the system never furnished pens from Kindergarden through High School graduation.

[fabri00]

Here in Italy I used fountain pen at elementary school, from1971 to 1976.

Few uears before they were using dip pens.

[Gaslight]

In Germany you still have to use a fountain pen in school....

[Bo Bo Olson]

In 1954-5, I remember distinctly, one sunny early morning in Texas (was mostly sunny as is ) me spotting my father leaving his black Snorkel at home and taking the black government skill craft ball point pen in the pocket of his fatigues. Having asked why, he explained, it was better fro writing on greasy maintenance tags, he couldn't lose the cap, and it was faster...and if he lost it, he could get a new one for free.

I had learned something new.

 

My father a landing boat mechanic in the AF...at the Matagorta bombing and gunnery range in Texas. He'd been in the Navy, landing 5 invasions in Africa and southern Europe, so in the AF, they had him maintaining the "Landing Craft; Assault" (LCA)...the ones you see in the movies landing a infantry or a jeep. I often think the wrong word LST...landing ship tank (landing tanks), instead. They supplied the bombing range with it. It is looking back sort of odd, it was his boat, so he was a boatswain in the AF.

Edited November 5, 2014 by Bo Bo Olson

[Princeps Anglorum]

I went to school here in England. At infants school (5 to 7 years ) we used pencils and graduated to pens some time during junior school (7 to 11 years). For me that was around the mid sixties. The school supplied dip pens and ink in inkwells for those who didn't have their own fountain pens.I recall having a nice grey and chrome Platignum cartridge pen with a hooded nib (presumably loosely modelled on the Parker 51) which doubled as Fireball XL5 when the teacher wasn't looking ! Wish I still had that Platignum now. At that time it was also still the norm for pupils to do handwritten exercises to encourage the proper formation of letters. I moved on to senior school in 1966 and was educated at a direct grant (independent) school. My dad bought me my first really nice pen a black Parker 45 which I still have and later a burgundy Parker Slimfold II which I also still have. Pupils were allowed to use what they felt most comfortable with - ballpoint or traditional ink pen. My recollection is that it was around this period that the use of ballpoints in school became more prevalent. I did flirt with ballpoints for a short while (partly because with a bag of long grain rice the BIC crystal made a highly effective 'pea' shooter) but soon changed back. I recall one classmate with a pair of very nice lever fillers - he was always getting told off for marking his tests with a fountain pen - he had one charged with red ink. My parents both had office jobs and were fountain pen users around this time. My mother had a very nice blue Lady Parker. When I joined the world of full time work in the mid 70s working as a civil servant, all new entrants were issued with a standard government property ball point. One could still get bottled ink but only in blue black which didn't photocopy that well though photocopiers were still rare and use of carbon paper was still prevalent for obtaining a copy of any handwritten note needed. By this time both my parents had succoumbed to use of the dreaded ballpoint. For my part I have stuck with fountain pens throughout all my working life. I had a senior manager who used a dip pen at his desk as late as the mid 1990s but fountain pen users were very much in the minority even in the late 70s.

[ISW_Kaputnik]

 

When the OP said fountain pens were real pens, implying that ball points were not, he was historically correct. Early on, someone would go to a stationery and get a box of pens. A pen was then attached to a pen holder and dipped in the ink to write. It was the pen part that wrote and they replaced the older quills. Somewhere along the line of history, people started calling the entire instrument a pen, forgetting that the pen itself was only the metal part that touched the paper while writing. It was at that point that the pen's designation was called 'nib' to distinguish it from the other parts of the device. So technically, from a historical sense, a fountain pen is a real pen because it contains a nib and a ball point isn't because it does not have a nib or a pen as they were originally called.

 

Follow this link to a booklet called "Easterbrook Pens and What They Can Do" You will note that all of the instruments in the booklet are called pens and are what we now call nibs.

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/140854-esterbrook-dip-pens-booklet/sterbrook

 

That's the short range view. After all, mass produced metal nibs are a relatively recent (early 1800s) phase in the history of writing instruments. For centuries before that, a pen would have been fashioned from a quill. To an ancient Egyptian it would have been something made from a reed. Isolating what the term meant during a particular era, and saying that this is the "true" definition misses the point, so to speak. The essential form and function of a ballpoint puts it in the same broad class as other instruments called "pens".

 

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[Parse Error]

Private Christian high school, very recent.

 

Ballpoint pens were almost never required -- except for 4th-5th-6th grade you could get away with using pencil for everything.

 

However, fountain pens somehow became popular within the math club for reasons unknown to me -- maybe because I brought them in?

[Beckwith]

My understanding is that the ballpoint started replacing the fountain pen in the 1950s. When the Parker 51 was introduced in the '40s, the small nib provided little or no flex. Its incredible popularity lead people to no longer care if pens could flex, and therefore the ballpoint pens became just as useful for cursive writing as the fountain pen that most people had on hand.

[Morphling27]

Hi Morphling27, The US Gov't issued MP's marked US Navy, US Army, etc, They also issued Dipless pens stamped US Post Office, US Senate, The President The White House, etc. The White House pens were used as bill signers until L. Johnson. During his presidency, Esterbrook went out of business and felt tip pens were used as bill signers by Johnson and NIxon, possibly later presidents too, I don't know. Jphnson's felt tips were made by Parker but marked Eversharp because that company had been acquired by Parker at around that time. Probably in the early 50's the US Government started issuing Skilcraft BPs. As far as I know, BPs were never used for bill signers. Modern day presidents use rollerballs for bill signers. Rollerballs were introduced in the 70s.

 

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii101/matthewsno/DSCN1940_zps001dee4d.jpg

Excellent history, thank you. I took a couple pictures of the last skilcraft pen I have. I'll upload it when I am at home tonight.

[CaseyK]

ISW_Kaputnik, you are entitled to your own story but mine is that a quill is a quill, a stylus is a stylus, a nib is a pen, but I also said that in the terms as we understand them today, they are all now considered pens... I was defending the OP when he said a fountain pen was a real pen.

Edited November 5, 2014 by CaseyK

[ANM]

Morphling27, thank you. Looking forward to the image.

Edited November 5, 2014 by ANM

[chas0039]

I was in a private school in the midwest in the 1950, and they taught cursive with dip pens and ink wells. When I went to a public school in the 60s, they didn't care and I kept using fountain pens until I got into business where they just wouldn't cut it with carbon copies.

[volkswagenfox21]

In Germany we had to use fountain pens in school. This was during the 90s.