We at Office Monster know our stuff when it comes to stationery, therefore as it’s National Stationery Week and because we’re feeling generous, we’ve decided to share with you, a few of our favorite historic facts about stationery.

Italic writing

You know that slanty writing we sometimes use often referred to as Italic? It actually has rather a large History. About 700 years ago during the Renaissance an Italian Renaissance humanist named Niccolo-de-Niccoli got tired of writing slowly when recording his information and so he created this slanted curvy joined up style of writing we know as Italic, to speed up his work!

Ruled Lines

Before John Tetlow came along to invent a machine to create ruled lines on paper in the 18th century guess what, these lines had to be drawn by hand! Can you imagine how long that must have taken!

Yellow Pencils

Why are so many pencils yellow? Because in 1847 a high-grade graphite mine was discovered on the Russia-China border. Pencil-makers decided to use yellow, the Chinese royal color, for their pencils to show that they were top quality. Other manufacturers copied this, but forgot about the quality.

Rock Paper Scissors

Can you believe, that Rock Paper Scissors actually became a legal way to settle a dispute or make a binding contract in England? According to a law issued in 1842 The Paper Scissors Stone Club was founded in London so that people could enjoy the game purely as a pastime rather than have constables policing the proceedings.

Image result for rock paper scissorsElectric Pen

Thomas Edison invented an ‘electric pen’ which was patented in 1876. It turned out to be no use as a writing instrument, but led to an unexpected development – New York tattoo artist Samuel F O’Reilly produced an electric tattoo needle based on Edison’s pen.

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