# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2020, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/41 "2020-06-15T13:07:27Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > In 69, in Chicago, my Elementary school had a few in storage. > Not used, though. CPS - graduated 8th grade in 74. Every room had fixed desks in 6 rows, most w/ inkwell spaces. Some had the open back, others the flip top. Desks were permanently affixed to cast-metal stands - with one chair on the same fixture as the desk behind. I remember going to catechism, where they had those newfangled moveable desks… :eek: As I recall, one year we had those cartridge pens when I first started cursive. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2020, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/42 "2020-06-15T13:47:50Z")
I went to elementary school in a building from the mid-50s, and I’m fairly sure we were using the original desks. No inkwells. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2020, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/43 "2020-06-15T13:51:52Z")
:eek:When I think about what would occur if the thousand students in our district actually had access to open bottles of ink on their desks, I become afraid. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2020, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/44 "2020-06-15T14:03:49Z")
We had the holes and a few still had the brass wells in, but no ink, in primary school, that I left in 1987. The type of desk that also sloped slightly, and had a lid underneath which you kept your own exercise books and pencils, but double desks, not single, with benches. They were pretty good desks to be fair. Some of the graffiti carved into them had dates from the 40s. The inkwells were always just a little too short to keep pens or pencils in, but we kept rubbers - erasers! - and sharpeners in them. You got a “pen licence” if you passed a handwriting test. I think most schools in England still do that now. ---
**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 15, 2020, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/45 "2020-06-15T14:14:03Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > 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… I don’t remember erasable ink. Maybe it was available, and I just didn’t know about it. I do remember corrasable typing paper; but that wasn’t what we used to write on in grade school. I think it was more expensive – I don’t remember using it much for typing paper, either. Or maybe it just didn’t work all that well, and the erasure or at least the marks from it remained visible. ---
**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 15, 2020, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/46 "2020-06-15T15:31:20Z")
I don’t think bottled or cartridge ink was “erasable.” It was probably water soluble, which means that it would have been easier to wash out of clothes than non-water-based inks. Even now, you use water-based ink in a fountain pen. Non-water-based inks would clog up the works permanently. Dip pens can be used with non-water-based ink because their “mechanics” are open and easier to clean with stronger solvents without ruining them. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2020, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/47 "2020-06-15T16:38:33Z")
I just asked my Mom who graduated High School in 1955 or so. She went to school in Brooklyn. She said that they stopped using ink wells when cartridge pens became a popular thing in the mid to late 1940s. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2020, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/48 "2020-06-15T17:24:12Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > I don’t remember erasable ink. Maybe it was available, and I just didn’t know about it. > > I do remember corrasable typing paper; but that wasn’t what we used to write on in grade school. I think it was more expensive – I don’t remember using it much for typing paper, either. Or maybe it just didn’t work all that well, and the erasure or at least the marks from it remained visible. > [@Acsenray](#): > > I don’t think bottled or cartridge ink was “erasable.” It was probably water soluble, which means that it would have been easier to wash out of clothes than non-water-based inks. Even now, you use water-based ink in a fountain pen. Non-water-based inks would clog up the works permanently. Dip pens can be used with non-water-based ink because their “mechanics” are open and easier to clean with stronger solvents without ruining them. Try it yourselves: (the modern way:) go to the stationery store and pick up a Pelikan Super Pirat. It looks like a little felt-tip pen with a cap on each end, one white and one blue. Get some cartridges of blue ink (Pelikan, Waterman, Quink, Lamy, Aurora, Scheaffer, etc., many brands will work) for your fountain or rollerball pen. To erase, go over the ink with the white end, and it will instantly turn invisible. For corrections, use the blue end, which is immune to the ink eradicator. It will not do anything to archival-quality or permanent fountain pen ink (which is water-based but bulletproof after it dries), to say nothing of iron-gall ink, Chinese ink, or other concoctions that can only be used with a dip pen, but it works great on the washable royal blue ink kids would be using. Now, previous to the 1970s or thereabouts, the ink eradicator only came in bottles rather than as a convenient marker. Which would not be a problem for grown-ups at their desks, but makes me wonder how much ink eradicator got into the hands of 8-16-year-old kids, given the discussion we are having about inkwells, the disposable cartridges themselves not being available before some point. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2020, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/49 "2020-06-15T17:36:01Z")
We had desks with inkwells into the 70s. (Maybe longer, b ut I aged out.) But we were a poor school district. At least we didn’t have those stupidly-designed desks with the chair for the next desk attached to the front. Who thought that was a good design? You end up with an empty chair in front, and a desk with no chair in the back. You supposed to make a giant circle or what? ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2020, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/50 "2020-06-15T17:38:27Z")
I remember them in my desks in elementary school (70s, 80s), gone by high school. ---
**Author:** ![tricoteuse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tricoteuse/32/4334_2.png) [@tricoteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tricoteuse)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2020, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/51 "2020-06-15T17:39:43Z")
When I was in grade school mid 70s some classrooms still had desks with holes for inkwells. I remember they were wooden and built like tanks. Some still had the little brass inkwells still inside them, empty of course, but you were so much cooler if your desk still had the inkwell. Occasionally you’d find some desks with inkwell holes up through high school. One job I had in the mid 00’s I was given a desk with a hole in one corner. I said something about desks with inkwell holes even now and my new boss had to tell me it was for the computer cords. :smack: ---
**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 15, 2020, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/52 "2020-06-15T17:59:01Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > 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? Just to pick on the term “expensive fountain pen,” there were inexpensive fountain pens for students. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2020, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/53 "2020-06-16T16:22:46Z")
My K-8 school had inkwells till I graduated in 1950. Fountain pens were banned and ball-points unthinkable. The first ball-point I ever saw cost $15 (think at least $150 today) and leaked all over the place. Why anyone would buy one escapes me. In HS, I imagine we used fountain pens, although I have no memory of this, but I assume ball-points were still verboten. I guess in college I started using ball-points. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2020, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/54 "2020-06-16T18:25:06Z")
Just guessing: maybe they wanted to keep things uniform among all the kids? So not one kid with a fountain pen, another with a ballpoint, and a third with an indelible pencil, so they just made a rule that everybody use the same ink out of the same bottle and no fancy pens? Similar rationale to uniform clothing. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2020, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/55 "2020-06-16T18:40:37Z")
Come to think of it, a simple indelible pencil might have been better than one of those leaky, expensive primitive ballpoint pens (in situations where those were allowed). As long as you didn’t get one of the poisonous ones and lick the point… ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/56 "2020-06-17T04:36:28Z")
To keep this discussion from getting too Eurocentric, did anybody have to use an inkwell in primary school in an Arabic country? What about a reed pen-- or would that be like asking students to cut quills? Analogous question for India, Far East, etc ---
**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 17, 2020, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/57 "2020-06-17T10:52:16Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > To keep this discussion from getting too Eurocentric, did anybody have to use an inkwell in primary school in an Arabic country? What about a reed pen-- or would that be like asking students to cut quills? > > Analogous question for India, Far East, etc In India, my parents used ink bottles and steel-nibbed dip pens in school in the 1950s. They would be punished for literally “blotting their copy books.” What did you think the analogy would have been? ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/58 "2020-06-17T12:49:53Z")
In 1958, I worked at a radio station where it was required to fill in all program events every couple of minutes. There was an inkwell and nib pen provided in the control room for that purpose, which nobody thought was odd. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/59 "2020-06-17T18:17:45Z")
My UK private school from 1990-1993 had the holes for the inkwells, though we used cartridge-based fountain pens rather than inkwells. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640/60 "2020-06-17T19:17:25Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > In India, my parents used ink bottles and steel-nibbed dip pens in school in the 1950s. They would be punished for literally “blotting their copy books.” > > What did you think the analogy would have been? I was not thinking about any uniquely Indian writing implements; you pretty much answered the question. In China there are some famous styles of brush calligraphy, but this is considered artistic and difficult (though there are practical brush-pens) so there too I wonder whether brushes are put into the hands of children instead of the usual fountain pens, and whether dip pens were used in the early 20th century, to go along with modernization reforms, or were things still old(er)-school. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inkwells-in-school-desks/855640.md?page=4)