Things that time forgot.

[ahinton]

Now then, don't be a spoilsport. There's a whole thread for discussing this sort of thing.

What sort of thing and which thread, pray?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

What sort of thing and which thread, pray?

http://www.for3.org/forums/showthread.php?799-Pedants-Paradise

[Ferretfancy]

Nobody seems to have mentioned Filofax, the 1960s World Wide Web and no passwords necessary!

[P. G. Tipps]

Nobody seems to have mentioned Filofax, the 1960s World Wide Web and no passwords necessary!

I do remember Filofax (which, remarkably, is still around) as being very much a trendy business thing of the 1980s, a bit like those original Blackberrys a decade or so later. I don't remember Filofax being in much use in the 1960s, but maybe in London ... ?

Can't see many similarities with the W.W.W. unless you mean fax machines. I finally threw ours out last year, as it had just been gathering dust for a very long time.

Does anyone still 'fax', I wonder?

[Flay]

Does anyone still 'fax', I wonder?

Goodness me, yes indeed. It is a vital way of sending handwritten and urgent referrals in the NHS.

[Flay]

Fountain pens with the lever on the side. Always a messy business refilling those.

Ah yes, remember those leaked ink stains on the blazer inside pocket?

[Pabmusic]

Fountain pens with the lever on the side. Always a messy business refilling those.

Ah yes, remember those leaked ink stains on the blazer inside pocket?

And everywhere else. I was always a mucky pup (copyright Mother Pabs)!

Cotton handkerchiefs at school. I had a permanently-soaked one in my blazer pocket throughout the winter or the hay fever season - which really meant throughout the school year. (Note: stop smirking at the back!)

[mercia]

our lidded school desks had inkwells, not that we used them for that purpose

[Pulcinella]

Even with these converters

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=parker+pen+ink+converter&tag=googhydr-21&index=aps&hvadid=33184674590&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14429233094456597906&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=t&ref=pd_sl_41mijifq8f_b

I manage to get splotches of ink all over the place when I fill my pens.
Just opening the ink bottles is a hazardous occupation, I find.
A good supply of paper kitchen towels is usually to hand.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

our lidded school desks had inkwells, not that we used them for that purpose

- I first encountered these in Primary School: the "Infants" half didn't have them (of course - the mind boggles ) but in our last year in Infants, we had a lesson that needed the projector that was only available in one of the "Junior" classes - where we encountered these plastic things with holes in the centre. The ENTIRE class of (thirty-odd) seven-year-olds* returned to their "proper" classroom with blue-black stained index fingertips, where we'd ALL "investigated" the contents!


(* - and, indeed, "thirty, odd seven-year-olds".)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I manage to get splotches of ink all over the place when I fill my pens.
Just opening the ink bottles is a hazardous occupation, I find.
A good supply of paper kitchen towels is usually to hand.

- but I love writing with a fountain pen (even though I do less and less of this nowadays): the feel of the pen touching really good quality paper and the appearance of the finished script - mmmmmm!

[ahinton]

- but I love writing with a fountain pen (even though I do less and less of this nowadays): the feel of the pen touching really good quality paper and the appearance of the finished script - mmmmmm!

Same here (although I only ever use it for writing music and mine's not strictly a "fountain" pen as it's a Rotring ArtPen that uses cartridges).

[Pabmusic]

- but I love writing with a fountain pen (even though I do less and less of this nowadays): the feel of the pen touching really good quality paper and the appearance of the finished script - mmmmmm!

I always used a fountain pen, for nearly 30 years two Waterman pens (though the later one used cartridges). For writing music I used an Osmiroid 'Music' pen I bought in the 1970s - it was a sort of italic script affair that I loved using. Can't use any of these now, as I'm paralysed on my right side (I was right-handed).

I can write quite well with my left hand, but fountain pens are impossible.

[Pulcinella]

- but I love writing with a fountain pen (even though I do less and less of this nowadays): the feel of the pen touching really good quality paper and the appearance of the finished script - mmmmmm!

My writing is certainly (usually?) more legible when I use a fountain pen, as I do take that little longer over it!

Having been introduced to Rotring pens for technical drawing in my pre-university sandwich year apprenticeship, I kept on using them for my lecture notes. To this day, I cannot really do joined-up writing (cursive) any more. Joined-up thinking is another matter entirely, however!

[vinteuil]

our lidded school desks had inkwells, not that we used them for that purpose

... my first position of responsibility was being Ink Monitor at my Primary School. There was a smart enamel badge which went with the post, and it clearly out-ranked the much more humble Milk Monitor, who only had to dole out the little bottles and straws during the mid-morning break. My task was to dilute the ink from a big bottle of Stephenson's blue-black, and distribute it into the ink-wells.

We were not allowed fountain pens until the top year of Primary School - prior to that we had to struggle with dipping pens into the wells.