There was a time, decades ago, when students in elementary school had to be taught how to use a pen and ink, the latter of which came in a separate bottle. The pen, itself, had a nib, a metal point with a slit from its tip to a very small hole halfway up its rounded surface. The nib was attached to the staff of the pen, itself, which resembled a tapered pencil with a cork tip into which the nib was inserted. The trick was to dip the nib into the bottle of ink without getting any liquid on the cork surface and yet obtain enough to be held, by capillary action, in the nib’s hole and slit. This preliminary action began the final performance of transferring the ink to a sheet of paper, using the appropriate hand and finger movements.
In the beginning, there was a lot of practice making ovals and slash-marks on lined paper, which seemed to prefer spreading the ink within its fibers rather than on top of them where it belonged. In the process of nib-dipping, care had to be taken to touch the point to the side of the bottle to remove any excess fluid. A piece of soft flannel was often at hand to be used for any additional mop-up required when excess ink remained trapped on the nib or deposited in the wrong place, usually on index fingers or in the middle of the page you were working on.
The nascent writer had to learn to feel the correct pressure to use during the transfer. The touch should not too heavy, otherwise the pressure would spread apart the fluid-containing slit and damage the nib, itself. The flow had to be continuous. This may be the reason why the use of ink was deferred until the transition from printed, block letters to cursive writing had occurred. Once that skill of the proper pressure was developed, the student would be able to move from a quill-like writing instrument to a real fountain pen.
The fountain pen was the sign of literate maturity. You could be trusted not to ruin the point; this guaranteed the pen would last for many years. A new trick had to be learned as well: how to draw ink into the pen without getting the liquid over every surrounding surface.
There were pens with different designs for the required pumping to fill them. Many had levers on the side. Some had built-in pumps accessed by repeated twisting the upper end of the fountain pen. Others had screw-tops which allowed for the compression of metal strips that expelled air and permitted the ink to be drawn into the reservoir. It was always fun to watch the bubbles form in the ink bottle and see how many times you had to repeat the pumping before the pen was loaded with ink.
Of course, fountain pens had screwcaps which protected the nib and, hopefully, kept the ink from staining the pocket into which the instrument had been placed, awaiting its next usage. Frequently, this protective measure did not work. Male adults often had pocket-protectors for carrying their pens.
Later advances did not really help. An early attempt tried to replace the original fountain pen with ones containing disposable cartridges. When exchanging an empty ink cartridge for a new one, the attempt to puncture the end of the refill could be a daunting task. Then came the ballpoint pen with a semisolid form of ink. Much of the time, the ballpoint was equally messy when it was returned to a shirt pocket. On the other hand, those which seldom leaked, seldom deposited any distinguishable marks on paper when they were supposed to.
Originally individuals could choose bottles of either black or navy-blue ink. Few were satisfied with the sepia or brown ink which was the color found on ancient manuscripts. Occasionally, the adventurous writer might use red ink, but that was usually the choice for grading papers or bookkeeping. It was only with the advent of gel-filled ballpoint pens that a spectrum of colors became available. They might be part of the equipment for young teenagers. However, given the ubiquitous use of cellphones for texting, it’s unlikely that any of them use pen and ink any more for anything, even artwork. It’s also highly unlikely that any of them know how to write with cursive letters, let alone be able to read them. Practice making O’s and /’s is no longer a requirement for becoming literate. Being aware of which strokes go below the line is of little concern when forming block letters while “penning” a short note.