Old school desks & ink wells

[bluefish65]

While rummaging through an antique shop today, I spotted a number of old, wooden school desks that had a circular compartment to hold what I assume was an ink well since there were ink stains around the perimeter on many of the desks.

 

I was just curious if during the time of fountain pen use in schools was ink provided for students or did they have to purchase their own and haul it to school every day? It would seem that with a bunch of squirming, rambunctious kids things could get messy real quick.

 

 

[shadowsforbars]

As I remember it, the school provided the ink. Every Friday, the inkwells would be filled from a quart bottle.

[TwilightFury]

As I remember it, the school provided the ink. Every Friday, the inkwells would be filled from a quart bottle.

 

Wow... just imagining what a quart of ink looks like.... :blink:

[bluefish65]

Quart of ink on ebay:

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/Sheaffers-Skrip-32-oz-...alenotsupported

 

[Possum Hill]

Through grade 6 I attended a one-room (one classroom) country school; the desks had round holes for inkwells but we didn't use them. Students could use fountain pens but nearly everyone used ballpoints.

[dcwaites]

Puts had up -- Ink Monitor here...

 

Kerema (Papua New Guinea) Primary School, 1962.

 

Desks with inkwells, filled as needed from a (to an 8-year-old) large bottle. The inkwells probably held about 1 oz of ink, and had a semi-closed top, with a hole just big enough for the pen. This minimised loss due to evaporation. As well, the ink would form a thin skin, which would further reduce evaporation. The top of the ink well was recessed a little, so that all the ink you poured into, or near, the hole, went in.

 

I have no idea what the ink was, but the pens were wooden, with a metal ferule that the pen nibs slipped into. The wooden handles were the same width as the ferule, so quite narrow. No ergonomic handle here, thank you very much.

 

I imagine that I wrote with quite some pressure, as I remember having to replace the nibs every few weeks.

Edited April 18, 2009 by dcwaites

[FrankB]

When I entered the fourth grade in 1958, we had new desks that for the first time had no hole for ink bottles. We still learned to use dip pens that year, but we just placed the bottles on the desk top to suit ourselves. The ink bottles might have held two ounces, but I do not recall ever being told a specific amount. The teached filled each individual ink bottle from a huge bottle that might well have held a quart, but to a little kid it seemed much larger. The teacher used a white plastic thingy that suctioned ink from the larger bottle to our smaller ones. I have never since seen a gismo like it. The ink itself was provided by the school. We had to provide our own pens.

Edited April 18, 2009 by FrankB

[encremental]

Ink Monitor - now wouldn't that be a great thing to put on your C.V.? Any fellow FPN member would hire you like a shot!

 

In the early 60's (Birmingham UK), our teacher Mrs Winfield (who was extremely old fashioned, even then - I think she had come out of retirement for the second world war and not bothered to go back in again) used to appoint two monitors once a fortnight to stay in during break and mix powdered ink in a big galvanised zinc ink jug, which had a long thin spout for filling the ink wells. There was a special stick! As a teacher myself, the thought of leaving two ten year olds, no matter how sensible, alone over a break with a quart of ink, makes my blood run cold, but I don't remember any accidents.

 

The powdered ink came in little shiny translucent 'glassine' envelopes, and was a very nice dark blue. If your writing was considered good enough, you could move from pencil to a dipping pen. Then when it reached a certain standard you were allowed to use your own fountain pen, but any bout of messy work and it was back to the previous step. I'm sure that the rest of Birmingham, if not the world was making hay with their fountain pens from the very start, but in our little corner time had stood still. It's only now I realise how weird (in a nice way) she was!

 

John

 

 

[Magnus]

My memories of the old school desks and school in general was as follows: 3rd or 4th grade you were finally allowed to use the dip ink pens if your handwriting "graduated" to an acceptable level of clarity and neatness without the need to erase frequently. This was considered an honor and to have the inkwell at your desk was a status symbol. Makes sense if you think on it. Different children had different skills and most could not control their fine motor skills sufficiently until the above-mentioned ages.

 

Squirming children? I think not as it was considered a mark of maturity to be able to sit quietly. The old teaching methods were not all bad or ineffective. We all competed to be considered more mature.

 

As mentioned the teacher refilled the inkwells or had a responsible student do so. Glass droppers were the method for refilling. Spilling ink was avoided assiduously as it was embarrassing to ruin one's clothing with the permanent setting ink.

[Fuddlestack]

I can remember one of my primary-school teachers taking a large square tin out of the cupboard, popping off the top and ladling tablespoonfuls of blue powder into a special can, like a watering can but with a narrow spout that had an acute turn-down at the end. He then filled it up with water, give it a good stir and went round filling up the inkwells.

 

In La Gloire de mon Pere there's a lovely short scene of Marcel Pagnol's schoolmaster father doing this with exactly the kind of can we had in N. Ireland - and Marcel immediately sticking his finger into one of the pots.

[Lorna Reed]

Lots of school memories flooding back here! Chiefly that the ink smelled horrible, the inkwell was always at the top right of the desk and as a leftie I was always dragging my arm across my page to load the dip pen with ink. That some naughty boy at the desk behind would stick the end of my long pigtails in the inkwell and that other naughty boys would make bombs out of rolled up bits of blotting paper, load them with ink, and flick them across the classroom with the aid of a wooden school ruler. We went home with hands, clothes and books well covered with ink.

[Trebster]

Our grade school desks had inkwell holes, but fountain pens had gone the way of shoe button hooks by the time I arrived. Cursive writing was introduced in fifth grade by an aged blue stocking named Getha Sheaffer. Cursive lessons began with the ceremonial handing out of the sacred blue ballpoint desk pens, carefully collected and counted after each lesson. Nearly every criticism of my handwriting Miss Sheaffer laid on me still holds true. Felt tip "Flair" pens were introduced when I was in sixth grade (if I remember correctly). Too modern for our handwriting classes, they had the advantage of making up for general sloppiness - such as not closing minuscule letters. Ballpoint pens are especially good at magnifying our worst handwriting habits

[Newb]

Lots of school memories flooding back here! Chiefly that the ink smelled horrible, the inkwell was always at the top right of the desk and as a leftie I was always dragging my arm across my page to load the dip pen with ink. That some naughty boy at the desk behind would stick the end of my long pigtails in the inkwell and that other naughty boys would make bombs out of rolled up bits of blotting paper, load them with ink, and flick them across the classroom with the aid of a wooden school ruler. We went home with hands, clothes and books well covered with ink.

 

Wow, kids were so mean back then. If you were my baby siz, I'd show up to smack those kids. I was never a bully in grade school but was fortunate to have many older brothers during these vulnerable years.

[stevlight]

By the time I went to school the tables with ink wells were long gone---except ONE! In my art room my art teacher had saved one and I loved it--I used to sit in it all the time and loved the patina of the old wood and the ink stains.

 

The Post-office here on 23rd street in NY still has counters with holes for ink bottles--they are tapped over though because people used to throw trash in there--I assume. Pretty cool art deco counters.

[encremental]

Did anyone else sit at desks which had a sliding brass cover that went over the ink well? I think ours had Warwickshire Education Committee engraved on them, and you could make a satisfyingly irritating noise by rattling them backwards and forwards.

 

John

[KCat]

In my husband's school they were allowed to use Esterbrooks. (early 60s) I have one of those and and old Sheaffer cartridge pen he had for school.

[Garageboy]

The Church St Post Office in NYC still has a few ink well lookin' things too.

All my desks had (elementary school was the 1990s) was a pencil groove and our furniture was from around 1950-60