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Quills,
nibs, ink bladders
were part of daily life by Delbert Trew
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If
you know how to trim a quill or clean a nib the president is probably
sending you birthday greetings on a regular basis.
A quill is an ink pen made from sharpening a feather to a fine point
then dipping it into ink to write. A nib is the metal point attached
to a wooden staff of an old-time writing pen. To clean a nib you hold
it over the top of a lamp chimney to burn the old dried ink from the
metal. Once clean, dip the nib in ink and write.
- If you know what an ink bladder is and how to tip an ink bottle
to fill the little tank near the top of the bottle, you are probably
my age. This is the next step up from the nib and is called the fountain
pen. It had a small rubber bladder contained inside the pen to hold
ink. A device on the outside included a small lever to squeeze the
bladder then suck ink up inside to fill.
To make filling fountain pens easier and help prevent spills, a little
glass pocket was located near the top of ink bottles where the pen
could be dipped or filled. Old time school desks had a hole drilled
through the top of the desk to hold ink bottles. A bulge near the
top of the bottle kept the bottle from sliding through the desk and
made the bottle top-proof most of the time.
Remember the little slot at the top of the school desks? It held your
pencil unless someone bumped the desk, then your pencil fell to the
floor and broke the lead point. This required a trip to the pencil
sharpener. I spent many an hour writing and drawing on my Big chief
tablet with a pencil. Dad bought me my first pocket knife because
he got tired of having to sharpen my pencil.
All major decision in the Trew family were made only after Dad had
"put the pencil to it." Sheet after sheet of paper bit the dust as
his pencil flew across the pages adding, subtracting and dividing
or making lists of materials or things to do.
Once the Dust Bowl and Great Depression ended and the people began
to make a little profit, the pen and pencil became more important
as the income tax people became a recognizable force. Profits had
never been a problem before. Now, records were a necessary evil.
My favorite "pencil records" story involves an old rancher who had
homesteaded and lived on his place for more than fifty years. The
Internal Revenue Service sent him a letter saying he was to be audited
and to have his past five years' financial records at the courthouse
on a certain date.
The agents arrived to find the old rancher waiting along with the
wood door off his saddle house leaning up against the wall. The old
weathered door was covered from top to bottom with pencil-scribbled
details of the old man's financial dealings for the past fifty years.
© Delbert Trew
"It's All Trew"
- March
1, 2005 column |
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