Search the Community

This popped up today on BBC 4 Extra: "The Stationery Cupboard". The first part is fairly general, discussing things that people like to write with, but then there's a long sequence recorded at an English pen show. They speak to nibmakers, collectors and geeks. What a treat! Here's the link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01cks4c

BBC Article: The fascination with fountain pens, 10 Dec. 2014 Interesting article from the Mainstream Media (BBC in this case), dated today (my post-time) 10 Dec. 2014. I just toss this out for your perusal - hope it isn't a double post. Enjoy. David Link: http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20141204-a-fascination-with-fountain-pens

I watched a PBS show from the BBC about the history of Scotland Yard a couple of months ago. I was surprised to see the documentary reenacting some famous cases using a very anachronistic pen! They talked about some detective of the 1840s, going after the crooks scientifically. He's shown writing things down, making a catalog of the MOs of crimes and the criminals who use them. And in the 1840s, they have the actor doing this using what looks like a 1990s, fountain pen with black barrel, section and cap with chromed trim and clip. Of course in the 1840s, the detective would have used a dip pen. Here he took a pen out of his pocket and just unscrewed the cap and began writing. I forget if he posted the cap. They then went on to some reenactments of later Scotland Yard detectives' work to the mid-19th Century, and they used the same fountain pen every time! Yes, there was never an ink pot to be seen at any time in these scenes. I was rather amazed that the BBC made a mess of these details. Someone was not paying adequate attention during the production of this historical documentary. This blown detail certainly distracted me from the message of the documentary.