Ancient text indicates that the people of India were the first to use pens. Earliest pens of India were usually bird feathers or bamboo sticks (or some similar substance. The writings of Puranas, Ramayana and Mahabharta dating back to 500 BC used this type of pen.
However, the Egyptions of may have used some sort of reed pen as far back as 3000 BC during the First Dynasty. They used thin reed brushes or reed penss made from the sea rush to wrtie on papyrus scrills. Reed pens continued to be used until the Middle Ages and were slowly replaced by quills starting around the 7the century. Reed pens, although antiquated, are still used in some parts of Pakistan by students to write on timber boards. Wutg the fall of the Roman Empire obtaining reeds became more difficult for Europeans and they began to use quills.
Quill pens were used around 100 BC in Qumran, Judea to write some of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The scrolls were written in Hebrew dialects using bird feathers or quills. St Isidore of Seville made a specific reference to quills in his writing in the 7th century. Quill pens remained widely used through the 18th century and were used to write and sign the Constitution of the United States in 1787.
A copper nib found in the ruins of Pompei indicate that the search for a better way to write was occuring as early as the year 79. Sammuel Pepry's diaary in 1663 makes reference to a metal nib as well. A patent was issed for a metal pen point in 1803 but was not commercially exploited. In 1822 John Mitchell of Birmingham started to mass produce pens with metal nibs eventually leading to steel nibs of suffieient quality to be used as dip pens and put into generalized use.
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