Why Don't You Write Me? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Pencil

A pencil is a writing instrument that uses a slim piece of graphite surrounded by wood to hold it in place. As the graphite wears down from writing, the pencil can be sharpened back to a suitable point again. Pencils were invented in the 16th century after huge deposits of graphite were discovered in England.

Initially this was used to mark sheep and to line the moulds that were used in the manufacture of cannonballs. All graphite mines were confiscated by the Crown when their value was realised.

These royal meanies used to have enough of the material mined for their immediate use, and then flood the mines, so that nobody else could access them. It would be the Italians, however, who came up with the first workable pencil, when, in 1560, a married couple there began surrounding pieces of graphite with juniper wood.

Answer: Stylus

A stylus is a small triangular tool which the Sumerians used to press shapes into soft clay tablets to form symbols that represented words and objects. After this ancient letter or list was written, the piece of clay was baked to harden it. A permanent record of the event was the result.

Other follow up cultures used this form of clay writing as well until the era of Ancient Rome. They used tablets made out of wax instead. The amazing thing about this is that, after the contents had been read and absorbed, the tablets could be softened and reused for the next time anything else needed to be recorded.

Answer: Eraser

An eraser is a rubber product used to remove writing or other marks made by pencils. Some special erasers can also remove ink, though not very successfully. Before the small rectangular shapes of rubber we know today were invented, wax, balls of rubber, bread or pumice was used for the same purpose instead. Erasers proper were invented in 1770 by an English engineer, Edward Nairne, who sold pieces of rubber at the horrendously high price of three shillings each.

After the American Charles Goodyear discovered the vulcanization process for rubber in 1839, the price of the common or garden variety eraser then became within the price range of all.

Answer: Sharpener

A sharpener, as far as writing implements go, is a small device with a metal blade. It is used to shave the wood off the ends of pencils that have become worn down from writing. Most come with a tiny case that holds the wood shavings until they can be thrown in the bin. Ordinary old sharpeners are manually operated.

There are electric ones that perform the same function as well. These are used in employment that involves the constant and multiple use of pencils. The sharpener we would recognise today was invented initially in France by a mathematician, Eiche Gardner, in 1828, and patented by another Frenchman, Therry des Estwaux, in 1847. Prior to this, pencils were sharpened with a knife of some kind.

Interestingly, sharpeners were outlawed in Britain during the Second World War because they wasted too much wood and lead. People had to revert to the old method of sharpening pencils with a knife instead. Having tried the knife method, sending chunks of wood flying across the room to damage the eyesight of unwary visitors, it is hard to see how the use of knives would be the more economical method of the two.

Answer: Blotting Paper

Blotting paper is an absorbent piece of material used to soak up excess ink on paper. It was very commonly seen once when fountain pens were in common use, but seldom seen around as far as the art of writing goes any longer. It is still used though in other fields of work such as chromatography and cosmetics.

The origins of blotting paper are unknown, although there is a strong argument put forth that it was invented in Yorkshire, England during the fifteenth century.

Answer: Typewriter

A typewriter, which is the ancestor of the modern keyboard, was a metal device with its letters and numbers set out in the same design as the keyboard. It enabled the typist to put words onto a sheet of paper quickly and efficiently, instead of using the laborious method of hand writing.

As a metal key with an engraved letter on it was pressed, this shot up and hit an inked ribbon, leaving an impression of the letter on a piece of paper. The sheet of paper was rolled in around a cylinder. These old instruments are fascinating to see.

It still didn't improve one's ability at spelling or grammar however. That was taught at school. A good secretary could type incredibly fast at these machines. This great-great-great grandmama of keyboards was invented way back in 1714 by Henry Mill. Over the centuries since, it has been improved and improved upon constantly so that today a keyboard is capable of many amazing functions. To my sorrow however, it still hasn't learned to cook. Perhaps that is yet to come.

Answer: Highlighter

A highlighter is a marker, which comes in various colours, used to highlight extracts of texts in different reading materials, so that they become easy to find at a later date. The colours come in very bright fluorescent shades. The first highlighter was invented by a large American ink manufacturing firm, Carter's Ink Company, in 1963.

They produce really pretty colours which are very tempting, with young children in the house, for the little wretches to remove from one's desk and draw pictures of disjointed cats all over the lounge room walls.

Answer: Papyrus

Papyrus was a form of writing material made from the sedge plants grown along the Nile River in Egypt. The inner part of the plant was cut into strips, softened by soaking, and then laid side by side on some sort of hard surface. Another row was then placed on top of these at right angles to the first layer.

This was then squashed together to combine into the one, dried and then polished with stone. The process is very similar to paper making today. The use of papyrus as a writing material dates right back to the fourth millennium before the Common Era (BCE).

Its use spread to various parts of the Mediterranean over time, but when tried in cooler, wetter climates further north, was found to be unsuccessful because of its susceptibility to moisture.

This amazing product was also used to make mattresses, shoes, baskets, mats and even light boats.

Answer: Correction Fluid

Correction fluid is a fast drying product that is used to paint over individual words or small parts of written or typed text that one wishes to amend in some way. Before keyboard computers were invented to enable us to simply correct any errors in our written work by backspacing or finding and replacing etc, correction fluid was a Godsend in this regard. One simply painted over an error, waited until it was dry, and then retyped over the top of the error. With handwritten documents, this was much the same, but not as effective in overall appearance.

The secret was in the application, and a skilled typist was as valued as a safecracker in that regard. Correction fluid is also known as Whiteout or Liquid Paper. Its first form was invented by office worker, Bette Nesmith Graham, in 1951.

Answer: Inspiration

Inspiration is the mental stimulus that gives birth to the idea for whatever we wish to write. Without it, and no matter how many excellent writing implements we may possess, we would simply stare blankly at that sheet of paper and achieve absolutely nothing. Implements are our tools only. Our brains produce the words that eventually become all we write. Writing implements help make those words visible.