<P> There is compelling evidence that a working fountain pen was constructed and used during the Renaissance by artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci . Leonardo's journals contain drawings with cross-sections of what appears to be a reservoir pen that works by both gravity and capillary action . Historians also took note of the fact that the handwriting in the inventor's surviving journals is of a consistent contrast throughout, rather than the characteristic fading pattern typical of a quill pen caused by expending and re-dipping . While no physical item survives, several working models were reconstructed in 2011 by artist Amerigo Bombara that have since been put on display in museums dedicated to Leonardo . </P> <P> The fountain pen was available in Europe in the 17th century, and is shown by contemporary references . In Deliciae Physico - Mathematicae (a 1636 magazine), German inventor Daniel Schwenter described a pen made from two quills . One quill served as a reservoir for ink inside the other quill . The ink was sealed inside the quill with cork . Ink was squeezed through a small hole to the writing point . In 1663 Samuel Pepys referred to a metal pen "to carry ink". Noted Maryland historian Hester Dorsey Richardson (1862--1933) documented a reference to "three silver fountain pens, worth 15 shillings" in England during the reign of Charles II, c. 1649--1685 . By the early 18th century such pens were already commonly known as "fountain pens". Hester Dorsey Richardson also found a 1734 notation made by Robert Morris the elder in the ledger of the expenses of Robert Morris the younger, who was at the time in Philadelphia, for "one fountain pen". </P> <P> Progress in developing a reliable pen was slow until the mid-19th century because of an imperfect understanding of the role that air pressure plays in the operation of pens . Furthermore, most inks were highly corrosive and full of sedimentary inclusions . The Romanian inventor Petrache Poenaru received a French patent on May 25, 1827, for the invention of the first fountain pen with a barrel made from a large swan quill . </P> <P> In 1828, Josiah Mason improved a cheap and efficient slip - in nib in Birmingham, England, which could be added to a fountain pen and in 1830, with the invention of a new machine, William Joseph Gillott, William Mitchell, and James Stephen Perry devised a way to mass manufacture robust, cheap steel pen nibs (Perry & Co). This boosted the Birmingham pen trade and by the 1850s, more than half the steel - nib pens manufactured in the world were made in Birmingham . Thousands of skilled craftsmen were employed in the industry . Many new manufacturing techniques were perfected, enabling the city's factories to mass - produce their pens cheaply and efficiently . These were sold worldwide to many who previously could not afford to write, thus encouraging the development of education and literacy . </P>

Who invented fountain pen and in which year