People have invented and used a variety of pens since ancient times . Pens are one of the greatest inventions and have been used to record humans’ s remarkable achievements. Figure 2-1-1 shows the brief history of the pen.

 

Picture2-1-1 The History of the Pen

 

 

　　Table 2-2-1 The History of Pens

Picture	Name	Time and Origin
	Reed Pen	About 3500 BC The Sumerians created the cuneiform by stamping reeds on the clay tablets; dipping the reeds in the plant pigments, the Egyptians created the hieroglyphics by using them to write on the papyrus. Both turned into quills and pens. (Fuxiang Wen translation, 2002).
	Knife	Late Chinese Shang Dynasty (BC 14 ~ 11th century BC) The Chinese Oracle was created by carving on the tortoiseshells or the animal bones. (sysadmin, 2009).
	Quill	About 500 BC Due to reed pens could be damaged easily and not durable, people dipped the  bird feather in the ink and used it as a writing tool, which is similar to the reed pens. The first quill was discovered in the Bacilica of San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy. (Translated by Fuxiang Wen,2002)
	Brush	About 223 BC The brush was first discovered in the Warring States period in 2 places. One is Zuojiagongshan Chu Grave in Changsha, Hunan, the other Singyungchangtieshan Chu Grave in Henan. Meng Tian, a general of the Qin Dynasty, improved the brushes by inserting the boundled wool as a nib in the pen.
	Chalk	The earliest record of pens can be traced back to about 476~1453. It was found that the objects made of lime and water could be used as charcoal pens to write on a dark or hard surface. In the 19th century, to prevent the decay of the wood, people applied black pigment to the boards and used them as the bulletin boards. With the prevailling education of university, people enlarged the black bulletin boards for students to easily write down the notes on the boards, hence the prevailling blackboards and chalk.
	Pencil	About 1795 AD  In the beginning, the Romans wrapped a chunk of lead with papyrus to write. Later on, they tied the lead with string or wrapped with goat parchment. Thinking to use wood to fix the lead, The Italians dug a hole in the wood, gripped the graphite rod between 2 pieces of carved wood, and then glued them together. (Wikipedia, 2013)
	Mechanical pencil	About 1822 AD The first mechanical pencil was invented in the UK. The mechanical pencil became successful in Japan with some improvements in 1915 by Tokuji Hayakawa. Success was not immediate, since the metal shaft was unfamiliar to users. Japan’s domestic demand was not growing rapidly until the surge in export orders. (Flomo, 2008)
	Fountain pen	About 1884 AD Being the predecessor to pens, reservoir pens appeared as early as the 10th century. In about 1884, the Waterman pen company invented the modern-style fountain pens.
	Ball point	The first batch of modern ballpoint pens were invented in 1888 and later improved in 1938. Because the tipped ball pen invented by John Lord in 1888 was easy to leak, Laszlo and George Bayreuth brothers invented the first ballpoint pen in 1938 and obtained patents. (Smile365, 2001)
	crayon	About 1902 In 1902, Joseph Binney and Harold Smith won the gold medal for invented the first dustless chalk in the world. (Guo Lijuan, 2011)
	The Space Pen	About 1967AD The Space Pen was invented by Paul Fisher. In those early days, astronauts used to write with pencils because it was not likely to use pens and ballpoints in zero gravity, hence pencils the only choice. However, there was a hazard that the floating broken pencils in zero gravity might cause harm. Besides, pencil refills and wood are esy to burn quicly in a pure oxygen evenironment, which is extremely dangerous.] (He Chengxiang, 2011).
	Roller ball pen	About 1984 AD With the advantages of being convenient  and easy to use and write, the roller pen first appeared in Japan, and spread rapidly throughout the world afterwards.

Source of Information: 2015 Cyberfair Team