======================================================================== Nib Noise * Volume 17 Number 9 * December 2018 ======================================================================== Welcome to Nib Noise. I hope you'll enjoy reading this month's issue. PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS NEWSLETTER! The robot that sends it out hasn't yet learned to read. If you have comments or questions, send email to: richard@richardspens.com To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit the Free Email Newsletter page on my site: http://www.richardspens.com/?info=nibnoise ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *** Our Next Show *** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ We have been to the Ohio Pen Show and returned safely, and now we will be sitting back and relaxing (HA!) until almost springtime. In the meantime we have celebrated Thanksgiving, and now we are busily engaged in preparations for Christmas. If you've visited my website in the past day or so, you will have noticed that it's all gussied up for the season. Santa showed up this morning, as he always does on the first Sunday of Advent, so things are really rolling. Our first pen show of 2019 will be the new and improved Baltimore-Wash- ington International Pen Show, running from Friday, March 1, through Sunday, March 3. So how is it new and improved? It's back at the BWI Marriott Hotel just around the corner (maybe two corners) from Baltimore-Washington International Airport. This is is a great venue, the hotel is just perfect for the show, and there's free parking. Good restaurants are within range, so the foodies among you won't have to spend the weekend in a food desert. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *** The Glossopedia *** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ A major feature of my website is the Glossopedia, a hybrid between a glossary and a single-volume encyclopedia. With more than 1500 defini- tions and descriptions, more than 900 illustrations, and more than 2100 cross-references, it's the most comprehensive of its kind on the Web. Each month, Nib Noise includes a randomly chosen Glossopedia entry. -------- Universal. (Universal Fountain Pen & Pencil Company, also Universal Pen & Pencil Company) A pen company located in Brooklyn, New York; founded in 1945 to supply low-priced writing instruments to department, stationery, and drug stores. Universal began by making fountain pens and mechanical pencils, expanding to the production of stylographic pens and, in the 1950s, ballpoints. Pen prices ranged from $1.00 for the Buck range of fountain and ballpoint pens (introduced in 1952) to $3.95 for the company’s top-line Uni-Flow fountain pen. ¶ In about 1959, Universal introduced the $1.49 Aqua-Pen, a fountain pen that used cartridges of dried ink (two for 29¢) and filled with water. Just to confuse things, the pen was marketed as the Empex Aqua-Pen, and the manufacturer of record was the Rohill Company of New York City, with which Universal was affiliated. The Aqua-Pen was listed on page 188 of the 1961-1962 Consumer Bulletin Annual as a novelty pen and was rated as not recommended. It was still being offered into the 1990s, by which time Universal had relocated to Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania, after an earlier move to Union City, New Jersey. -------- To immerse yourself in the Glossopedia, follow this link: http://www.richardspens.com/?gloss= ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *** Broad Strokes *** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ With Christmas approaching, the time has come to present an article on how to take care of the pens you'll be taking out of your rotation after Santa brings you the new ones you've been jonesing for. I've huddled with Mike and Linda Kennedy, and together we've put together a list of Dos and Don'ts for when you put a pen or three into the case or cabinet for a rest. http://www.richardspens.com/?care=dos_donts To help you find reference articles on my site that have been edited recently, there is a handy heading right at the top of the reference index, listing the five most recently added or edited reference pages. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *** Follow RichardsPens on the Internet with Facebook *** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ RichardsPens.com would like to be liked on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NashuaPenSpa ======================================================================== If you received this newsletter from Richard Binder, you are a Nib Noise subscriber. If it came from someone else, I invite you to subscribe. To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit the Free Email Newsletter page on our site: http://www.richardspens.com/?info=nibnoise Note: I will never sell your name or email address. Your privacy is as important to me as it is to you.