# Inkwells in school desks. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 14, 2020, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640 "2020-06-14T01:14:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2020, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/21 "2020-06-14T13:09:11Z")
I had inkwells in my desks into the mid1970s. The desks were sturdy, so why replace them? ---
**Author:** ![KCB615](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ea666f/32.png) [@KCB615](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KCB615)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2020, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/22 "2020-06-14T13:27:40Z")
My elementary school (a Catholic school) had desks with them. Kindergarten had tables, but 1st thorough 6th grade had desks. Not every desk had them, but more than half. It was a status thing at some points to have a desk with one. Years were 1984 to 1990. Never had an ink well. Ball points the whole time. Erasable, too, as they had just become a thing. Which was wonderful smudgey mess for us lefties, but I digress… ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2020, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/23 "2020-06-14T13:37:27Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > I had inkwells in my desks into the mid1970s. The desks were sturdy, so why replace them? Looked a lot like this [https://i.pinimg.com/236x/d7/12/62/d71262a3b144aabb5a488cc1cfaf9bcb--school-office-school-days.jpg](https://i.pinimg.com/236x/d7/12/62/d71262a3b144aabb5a488cc1cfaf9bcb--school-office-school-days.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2020, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/24 "2020-06-14T13:58:47Z")
By the end of the 1970s, certainly by 1984-1990s, those Pelikan ink eradicator pens became popular among kids to go with those blue fountain pen ink cartridges; it is actually a convenient system for notes and homework assignments that have to be written in ink. It stands to reason some people must have used erasable ink along with dip pens back in the 30’s-40’s-50’s or even earlier… ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2020, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/25 "2020-06-14T14:25:08Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > I was at primary school in London from 1953 to 1959, and we certainly had them. I was even “ink monitor” for a while, filling up the individual inkwells from the big jar. And yes, we were given metal-nibbed pens to write with - and, oh, the mischief to be had with both ink and nibs. In those days, we were given a fish-oil capsule to swallow with the morning milk, and some children used to put the oil on their neighbour’s pen-nib just to see what happened when they tried to write after the milk break. Also, sharp metal nibs = darts, naturally… ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2020, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/26 "2020-06-14T14:33:15Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > I was watching [one of the lesser-known Peanuts specials on archive.org](https://archive.org/details/ChristmasSongWhyCharlieBrownWhy) and noticed that all the school desks had inkwells. I checked the date, and the special was from 1990. Is it just me, or is that insanely late to be using that type of desks? IIRC, Charlie Brown was more or less based on Charles Schulz himself, and since he started the strip in 1948 he just went with what he was familiar with from when he was a kid. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2020, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/27 "2020-06-14T15:44:17Z")
> [@Twoflower](#): > > Desks with a space for an inkwell > [@OttoDaFe](#): > > the desks didn’t have inkwells they did have holes where the inkwell would go. > [@thorny\_locust](#): > > I remember inkwells, or the space for them > [@The\_Vorlon](#): > > I remember seeing the spots for inkwells > [@steepone](#): > > the desks still had holes for inkwells > [@Spoons](#): > > our desks had the holes for the inkwells. As these comments illustrate, an “inkwell” is a container for ink. It means pretty much the same thing as “ink bottle” or “ink pot.” For those who are saying they have seen inkwells in desks, are they talking about the actual inkwells themselves or just the depression or hole in the desk where you could insert an inkwell? The latter would be seen for decades after inkwells were no longer being used in schools. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2020, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/28 "2020-06-14T15:45:57Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > I started grade school in 1944, an not only did we have inkwells, we used them, learning penmanship with nib pens dipped in bottles of ink. All the way through grade six, our flip-top desks were firmly bolted to the floor in neat rows. > > My dad brought home a ball-point pen in about 1947, which skipped like crazy and was unreliable. It was a two-fer – it was also the first thing I ever saw made of plastic. When I went to college in 1956, I still wrote my hand-in assignments with a fountain pen, mandatory. I would NOT have been a happy camper as a college student in 1956 (and not merely because I had just been born that year). I could never get a non-ballpoint pen to leave a mark on paper. I later learned about left-handed nibs, but by then I had already received a calligraphy set with right-handed nibs as my main Christmas present, so I lost interest. I DO remember school desks with a cutout for an inkwell, though. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2020, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/29 "2020-06-14T15:53:17Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > I wonder: the difference is, or was, disposable cartridges or ballpoint pens cost, not a lot, but certainly something, while a quart bottle of ink and a pack of steel pen nibs works out quite cheap, especially if the school gives out supplies to students for free. > > It’s true Bics were well on their way into the hands of students by the 1960s, if not before… are there any countries, for instance in Europe, where elementary school students are still made to learn to write with dip pens? Those do at least force you to pay some attention to technique if you are to avoid making a mess. I don’t know how other districts did it, but we bought our own pens and our own cartridges for them. Writing with a cartridge pen is massively easier than writing with a dip pen; but in any case the cartridge pens replaced for the most part not dip pens, but pens with a refillable bladder; these worked about the same as the cartridge pens, and were a bit cheaper to refill, but refilling them was more likely to get messy. My guess is that most elementary schools were much happier not to have small children supplied with bottles of ink. Early ballpoint pens often worked very poorly. They still don’t work well for me; I usually get a word or two down and then they refuse to write any more – I think maybe I rest my hand on the paper and get oils on it which ballpoints can’t deal with. I mostly use rollerballs these days, though; the ink in those doesn’t seem to have the problem. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2020, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/30 "2020-06-14T16:05:53Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > For those who are saying they have seen inkwells in desks, are they talking about the actual inkwells themselves or just the depression or hole in the desk where you could insert an inkwell? The latter would be seen for decades after inkwells were no longer being used in schools. Too late to edit: I think what I’m remembering is mostly the holes in the desk, but occasionally an old ink bottle still in there, probably with any remaining ink dried up. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2020, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/31 "2020-06-14T16:29:18Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > As these comments illustrate, an “inkwell” is a container for ink. It means pretty much the same thing as “ink bottle” or “ink pot.” > > For those who are saying they have seen inkwells in desks, are they talking about the actual inkwells themselves or just the depression or hole in the desk where you could insert an inkwell? The latter would be seen for decades after inkwells were no longer being used in schools. I meant that my desks in the 1970s had the hole for the inkbottle; I never saw an inkbottle. My apologies. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2020, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/32 "2020-06-14T18:09:04Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > I would NOT have been a happy camper as a college student in 1956 (and not merely because I had just been born that year). I could never get a non-ballpoint pen to leave a mark on paper. > > I later learned about left-handed nibs, but by then I had already received a calligraphy set with right-handed nibs as my main Christmas present, so I lost interest. > > I DO remember school desks with a cutout for an inkwell, though. The standard school (dip) pen nibs were not “calligraphy” nibs (like a flat nib or an “oblique” nib), though, just symmetric steel nibs that came to a sharp point, like [this](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_3D_ZLOC0At4/TNV1Quj3WqI/AAAAAAAABUw/rCOlIGwOxcE/s1600/Sergent-Major-nibs-Proust.JPG) ETA I wonder why someone’s college would care whether or not an assignment was written with a Bic or a dip pen or an expensive fountain pen or whatever, as long as the student used permanent, non-erasable ink and wrote legibly? ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2020, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/33 "2020-06-14T18:52:36Z")
I left school in 2001, in the UK. We had to use cartridge pens until the 6th form (age 16-18), ball-point pens were banned for younger students for some reason, but some of our desks still had brass inkwells in them, often with dried-up ink in the bottom. I think the pen restrictions were sheer snobbery on the part of the head, there were plenty of things like that. She thought computers were a silly flash-in-the-pan so computing classes were not offered, and the uniform regulations were a joke out of another era. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2020, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/34 "2020-06-14T18:57:02Z")
I attended elementary school in the 70’s and some of our desks had a recessed hole for ink wells. We used to use them to hold pencils and stuff. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2020, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/35 "2020-06-15T04:45:48Z")
> [@Filbert](#): > > I left school in 2001, in the UK. We had to use cartridge pens until the 6th form (age 16-18), ball-point pens were banned for younger students for some reason It was believed, and anecdotal evidence seemed to support it, that the relatively smooth action of the ball-point tip over the paper was more difficult for younger children to control and therefore led to sloppier handwriting. But where the cut-off age should be was another debate. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2020, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/36 "2020-06-15T05:19:27Z")
Those old desks had a steel cuff on the strut, housing a height adjustor. In 5th grade, a kid aimlessly poked his fingers up into one, felt some paper, and pulled it. They were sketches if airplanes, 1910-vintage. This would have been in 1948, the Chuck Yeager flew the Bell X1 faster than sound. The drawings were like opening a time capsule. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2020, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/37 "2020-06-15T10:38:21Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > It was believed, and anecdotal evidence seemed to support it, that the relatively smooth action of the ball-point tip over the paper was more difficult for younger children to control and therefore led to sloppier handwriting. But where the cut-off age should be was another debate. 16 seems somewhat high… The cheap cartridge pens we used were scratchy and awkward, especially for the left handed kids, the ink blobbed constantly, the nib went through the paper regularly, and my handwriting is still diabolical. Given that the head still believed it was unprofessional for women to wear trousers, I’m not sure there was any rational thought behind the decision. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2020, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/38 "2020-06-15T11:25:14Z")
In 69, in Chicago, my Elementary school had a few in storage. Not used, though. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2020, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/39 "2020-06-15T12:44:13Z")
I attended parochial school in the 1960s. A lot of our older desks had places to hold ink wells – but not inkwells themselves. Students were supposed to supply those. I recall one of the nuns telling us what kind to get, if we were going to get ink in a bottle (which they still did sell in the store on Main Street downtown). But, of course, no one did bring in a bottle of ink. By this time they had ink pens with cartridges, and we had to use those with “washable blue” ink. (The ink really did wash out of your clothes if you got the ink on them). Of _course_ we used cartridge pens. Bic ballpoints were certainly available, but God forbid you used them in our school. Only pencils and cartridge pens with nibs were allowed. We _could_ have brought in a fountain pen with its reservoir and used an ink bottle from that cutout on the desk, I suppose, but it would’ve seemed really weird and eccentric. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2020, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/40 "2020-06-15T12:57:25Z")
There were spots for inkwells when I was in grade school in the late 50s. They were never used, and only remained because the desks were still serviceable and didn’t need to be replaced. As newer desks were purchased, the inkwells slowly vanished. Given the age of Schultz and the producers of the cartoons, they probably went to school in the era where they were used and just went with what they knew. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640.md?page=3)