Mordan's oblique pen, English patent, 1831, was designed to present the nibs in the right direction while preserving the customary positions of the pen and hand.
The fountain pen carries a supply of ink, fed gradually to the point of the instrument. The first made by Scheffer was introduced about 1835 by Mordan. The pressure of the thumb on a stud in a holder caused a continuous supply of ink to flow from the reservoir to the pen.
The "stylographic" is a reservoir pen shaped like a pencil, in which the flow of ink is regulated by pressure of a style or fine needle with blunt point upon the paper. It must be held in a vertical position. All marks made with one, both up and down strokes, are equal in width.
Gold pens are now usually tipped with iridium, making what are commonly known as diamond points.
"The iridium for this purpose is found in small grains of platinum, slightly alloyed with this latter metal. The gold for pens is alloyed with silver to about sixteen carats fineness, rolled into thin strips, from which the blanks are struck. The under side of the point is notched by a small circular saw to receive the iridium point, which is selected with the aid of a microscope. A flux of borax and a blowpipe secure it to its place. The point is then ground on a copper wheel of emery. The pen-blank is next rolled to the requisite thinness by the means of rollers especially adapted for the purpose, and tempered by blows from a hammer. It is then trimmed around the edges, stamped, and formed in a press. The slit is next cut through the solid iridium point by means of a thin copper wheel fed with fine emery, and a saw extends the aperture along the pen itself. The inside edges of the slit are smoothed and polished by the emery wheel; burnishing and hammering produce the proper degree of elasticity."
It is asserted that more steel is used in the manufacture of pens than in all the swords and guns in the world. This fact partly verifies the old saying, "The pen is mightier than the sword."
"Three things bear mighty sway with men,
The Sword, the Sceptre, and the Pen;
Who can the least of these command,
In the first rank of Fame will stand."