Who invented the fountain pen?

The earliest surviving fountain pens date to the early 18th
(Or possibly later 17th) century; they are made of metal, and most
Used cut quills as nibs, although gold-nibbed examples are also known.
These are often called "Bion" pens, after the French royal instrument
Maker Nicolas Bion (1652-1733) who described them in a
Treatise first published in 1709. Bion made no claim to be their inventor,
Nor is there any evidence that he ever made such pens himself -- let alone, held a patent on them.

Notable players of the era included Mabie Todd, John Holland, Wirt, and
Waterman; New York City was the main center of activity, having long
Been the center of the gold nib trade.

Lewis Edson Waterman's first pens were conventional in design,
And while his original patented feed was undoubtedly effective,
It was by no means the first designed to harness the principle of capillary attraction.
To the extent it represented an advance, it was incremental – not a true breakthrough
Of the sort that turns an unworkable idea into a useful application.
The popularity of the instruments produced by Waterman's precursors is
Evidence enough that they were eminently practical, even if they weren't the
Equal of instruments to come, and it is surely no accident that the Waterman
Company’s claim of having made the first practical fountain pen was not
Trumpeted until well after its founder's death -- indeed, after virtually all the
Pioneers of the 1870s and 1880s were safely off the scene.

INFO COLLECTOR
INNOVATOR: K.BALAKRISHNA. (Kolar gold fields)
MEMBER: NIF & CIIE

Photo by santhosh P kumar

THE HISTORY OF GAS MASK

Lewis Haslett's "Inhaler or Lung Protector," 1847
Among the early forerunners of the gas mask was a device invented in 1847 by
Lewis P. Haslett of Louisville, KY. It allowed breathing through a nose or mouth piece fitted with two one-way clapper

valves: one to permit the inhalation of air through a bulb-shaped filter, and the other to vent exhaled air directly into the atmosphere.
Similar use of valves became common in later masks. The filter material — wool or other porous substance moistened with water —
was suited to keeping out dust or other solid particulates, but would not have been effective against poison gas.

In 1849, Haslett's Lung Protector was granted the first US patent for an air-purifying respirator.

John Tyndall - Fireman's Respirator, 1871

In 1871, the prominent British physicist John Tyndall wrote about his new invention: a "fireman's respirator"
that combined the protective features of the Stenhouse mask and other breathing devices. After continued development,
he exhibited this early form of gas mask at a meeting of the Royal Society in London in 1874. The July 1875 issue
of Manufacturer and Builder described it as follows:

Prof. Tyndall's fireman's hood ... is supplied with a respirator, consisting of a valve chamber and filter-tube
about four inches long, screwed on outside, with access to it from the inside by a wooden mouthpiece.
The respiratory agency consists of cotton wool saturated with glycerin, lime, and charcoal; the lime absorbs
the carbonic acid, (one of the products of combustion,) the glycerin acts on the smoke particles, and the charcoal
on the hydro-carbon developed in vapors, and Prof. Tyndall declared that after protecting himself with a hood thus
prepared he could go into an atmosphere of the most atrocious character and live for a half an hour where he could not,
unprotected, have existed for a single minute.

Info collector
Author : Innovator K.BALAKRISHNA. (Kolar gold field)
MEMBER : CIIE & NIF