I'm reading a book that mentions inherited #FountainPens, but also is set before railways to Inverness opened, so I'm doing a bit of research into relative timelines to see if this is even possible.
Turns out it is, just barely: First railway to Inverness opened 1854, while eyedropper fountain pens were patented in 1809. So if this takes place 1850, fountain pen is 30 years old, it's possible. (But not if pen is self-filling, patented in1832.)
@ergative there’s a scene in the movie Topsy-Turvy, which takes place in 1880-1885, where they discuss the first mass market fountain pens as a novelty, “the ink is inside the pen” and all that
@paradoxmo Yes, I remember that. It was during the writing of The Mikado, which came out in 1865, I believe, so either the writer of Topsy Turvy was a bit behind the times, or else fountain pens proper took half a century to catch on. I could believe either.
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