1. Writing Tools
What ever happened to…

2. Sumerian stylus, replica
Cuneiform proto-writing, 2600 BC (that’s 4,600 years ago)

3. Byzantine reed stylus
Papyrus of Ani, 1250 BC; cursive hieroglyphs

4. First alphabetic writing (letters, consonants, vowels, no pictographs), Greek, 800 BC
[that’s 400 years before Plato and Aristotle]

5. Wax tablet, 500 BC

6. Gutenberg press, 1440

7. Malling-Hansen Writing Ball, 1878
[this particular one was German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s]

8. Waterman 42 fountain pen (first mass produced fountain pen), 1880

9. Underwood typewriter, 1895 (understroke, QWERTY)
[it cost $100, or $2,500 in 2016 dollars]