A pen (Latin penna, feather) is a writing instrument used to apply ink to a surface, usually paper. There are several different types, including ballpoint, rollerball, fountain, and felt-tip. Historically, reed pens, quill pens, and dip pens were used.
Quill pens began being replaced with steel dip pens in the first years of the 1800s. In Newhall Street John Mitchell pioneered mass production of steel pens. The first fountain pens making use of all these key ingredients appeared in the 1850s. While a student in Paris, Romanian Petrache Poenaru invented the fountain pen; an invention which the French Government patented in May 1827. Starting in the 1850s there was a steadily accelerating stream of fountain pen patents and pens in production.
