' wink pen ' that writes with wine, beer, tea, juice and .....

I had earlier posted on the  pleasure of writing with a ‘ fountain pen ’ – an ink pen.

In our younger days, we never had this plethora of choices or things that the modern day children have.  In our schooling days – the writing instrument was an ink pen – most happily used  a single pen throughout the year and the second one, a luxury was there at hand for the exams. Camlin was a star brand – the Japanese Hero was generally outside the reach of ordinary mortals. If there were to be an accidental fall, the nib would have to be mended – usually by pressing it hard;  replacing the pin nib was the last resort.  One had to frequently fill the ink-pen – not many bought  the ink pot (the bottle) – the road corner shop would do filling  at 5 naya paise !

Some old pens would leak and stain your fingers, worser still, when you run for school or  play with pen in the shirt pocket, ink could spill and spoil the white uniform shirt.  When the ink was depleted and low, the flow would be unusually high and may spoil the note book.  The nib if not in proper shape, may not enable writing smoothly. A drop of water falling on the well-written notebook could spell doom..... yet,  one loved writing with a Fountain pen and teachers insisted that any other type of pen would spoil handwriting and by force students had to write only with ink pens.

If you ever wondered the ingredient chemicals of the ink which did smell too – now comes a pen that lets you write with wine and beer - but only if you're willing to waste alcohol.  An Oregon-based designer has created a $60 (Rs.4000 approx) pen that sucks up liquid.  Called the Winkpen, it does not need to use regular ink to write - instead, any liquid with a staining property, such as wine, can be used.  The reversible glass nib can be used for fine writing and calligraphy.

MailOnline writes on this ‘winkpen’-  the reusable device that  can suck up liquids and write on paper without the need for regular ink. It is billed as a sustainable way to write, without needing to throw pens away when they run out of ink, and can be washed and used over and over again.  An Oregon-based woman designer Jessica Chan  has created this pen that sucks up liquid.  She is seeking $47,000 (£30,560) of funding on Kickstarter, with the device starting at $60 (£39).

Ms Chan expects to begin shipping the device in July this year.  There are some smart pens too.  The main components of the pen are a glass nib, a corkscrew-shaped container to draw liquid up into the pen and a twisting cap at the top. By dipping the pen into, for example, a glass of wine, the top of the pen can be twisted to suck any liquid into it. As long as the liquid has a staining property, the user can then write on a piece of paper. This means that wine, beer, tea, juice and more - and of course regular ink - can all be used to write on paper. And the whole pen can be disassembled, so it can be cleaned fairly easily. The double-sided glass nib is angled and can be used for calligraphy.  Alternatively, turning it around reveals the regular conical nib for finer writing.

Using glass supposedly removes the risk of corrosion, and also makes it easy to clean, and 'ink' is fed to the nib through spiral grooves in the glass.   The Winkpen is billed as a sustainable way to write, without needing to throw pens away when they run out of ink, and it can be used over and over again.  When the pen runs out of 'ink', the top of it can be twisted to spin the corkscrew within and draw liquid up through the nib. The cap can also be twisted in the opposite direction to unload liquid from the pen.

Inside the pen, the glass is is held in place with a elastomer lining, which also contains a thin tube that transports liquid from the pen’s central storage tube to the nib.  ‘Traditional pens are, more often than not, disposable products; once the pre-loaded ink stem is exhausted, they essentially just become empty plastic cases that inevitably wind up in a land-fill somewhere. ‘In essence, the Winkpen was born from the desire to create a sustainable alternative to something that many of us use in our daily lives,’ explained Ms Chan.  ....and for the winkpen, an ink reload can be found right there in your kitchen.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

29^th May 2015.