A bit of information on the background of the Stub nib. It starts with dip pens.

[AAAndrew]

From the American Stationer Feb 12, 1889. Ad by Esterbrook. 

 

For more information, see the full story on my website. https://theesterbrookproject.com/sources-and-other-information/stub-pens-and-the-history-of-the-442-jackson-stub/

 

We're talking about dip pens here, because the few fountain pens at this time were tipped and the innovation of stub nibs began with dip pens to address one of their problems. 

 

Quote

 

Turned Up Point Pens

The first steel pens made in Birmingham about the year 1837[off by almost a decade, editor], while providing a ready made instrument for penmen, failed to give that ease in writing which was the characteristic of the old quill. They were uniformly fine pointed and naturally more or less scratchy. The remedy for this was not found until a generation later, when the demand for an easier writing pen because imperative. Manufacturers began to make them with blunt and broad points.

 

In 1871 the Esterbrook Steel Pen Company made its first stub pen, No. 161, and now the company has as many as eighteen numbers of stub pens on its catalogue. This did not completely satisfy the demands until the happy idea occurred to turn up the points. This rendered the evolution of the pen complete.

 

In 1876 the Esterbrook Steel Pen Company produced its 1876 Telegraphic, followed shortly after by No. 256 Tecumseh, and No. 309 Choctaw. At the special request of many the Falcon pen was made in this style. Another pen has now been added to the list, and is known as No. 477 Postal. This is a size larger than the Choctaw, with finer points.

 

The perfect ease afforded by these pens contributes one of the most valuable luxuries provided for writers at this end of the century. The penman can write longer with less fatigue than with the ordinary styles. The tediousness of writing is almost entirely avoided, and the relief is so complete that it converts a drudgery into a delight and a pain into a pleasure, and anyone who has taken up one of these turned up point pens for a companion will never consent to be without it.

 

 

Turned-up pens look like this. 

 

 

 

After the turned-up tip, came the ball, or oval or bowl-pointed pens.  For this one a very small indent is made at the very tip of the pen. This results in a round and smoother surface where the pen meets the paper. This helps to make for a smoother writing experience, and does help with more rapid writing, though you cannot achieve fine or extra-fine line width.

 

Different manufacturers called it different things, mainly for marketing purposes, but it’s essentially the same thing, whether round or oval, you end up writing with a round surface hitting the paper rather than a sharp point.

 

 

 

The bottom of one of these nibs. 

 

 

 

 

Later fountain pens also figured out the folded-over tip to imitate a tipped nib, but it was also a descendent of these dip pens.