Writing Tools What ever happened to…
Sumerian stylus, replica Cuneiform proto-writing, 2600 BC (that’s 4,600 years ago)
Byzantine reed stylus Papyrus of Ani, 1250 BC; cursive hieroglyphs
First alphabetic writing (letters, consonants, vowels, no pictographs), Greek, 800 BC [that’s 400 years before Plato and Aristotle]
Wax tablet, 500 BC
Gutenberg press, 1440
Malling-Hansen Writing Ball, 1878 [this particular one was German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s]
Waterman 42 fountain pen (first mass produced fountain pen), 1880
Underwood typewriter, 1895 (understroke, QWERTY) [it cost $100, or $2,500 in 2016 dollars]