true (when we all got fountain pens, the mayhem caused by having to carry bottles of ink had to be seen to be believed) but the "public" ink wells were susceptible to the previous class putting things in them - pencil shavings were a favourite.
ooh, this all seems like another world - i haven't thought about it in years!
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.
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 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.
ooh, this all seems like another world - i haven't thought about it in years!