One more link in the chain...

This month it was back to This Day in History for a quick look for some sort of interesting tie-in to the upload date. After all, it's nice to redeem significant (in the eyes of the beholder) dates from obscurity. And there it was, a very significant date in the history of writing:

That certainly sounds good, though I'm rather unclear as to the place of the fountain pen in the pantheon of writing utensils. At the least, I can vouch for the fact that the site in which I found the date reference is in general considered a reliable source, but is it accurate? The date is certainly a good one (as well it should be, since I searched from the date to the event, and not the opposite) but for some strange reason I felt that I should coroborate my sources. And then my problems started. There aren't many references to H.D. Hyde, while about sixty years later there are references to a couple of other people who apparently patented the same invention. Which is right and accurate? I really don't know. I'd like to give credit where credit is due, but how can I know for sure? And (once again) the date is right.

A couple of columns back I tried to deal with the question of cyber-sources and how trustworthy they are (as opposed to the information we find in encyclopaedias, which isn't necessary trustworthy either). And now here's an example of that. The least I can do is quote my sources.

And if I've done that, I can also refer to a wonderful article on fountain pens (and the history of writing in general), in the Mining Company web site. The article doesn't refer to H.D. Hyde, but it's still a good read.


Go to: You call this work?