The felt-tip pen was invented by Sidney Rosenthal in 1953. This inventor from Richmond Hill, New York, placed a felt tip on the end of a small, stout bottle of permanent ink and discovered that the resulting marks saturated a heavy, absorbent surface, yielding rich color and permanence.
The felt-tip pen had many predecessors. Inks and dyes have been used throughout human evolution for marking objects, from cave writings fashioned from natural dyes of the earth applied with sticks to graffiti applied with paint from an aerosol can. Ink is a combination of a coloring agent, or pigment, and a liquid containing oils, resins, and chemical solvents. Initially, ink was fashioned from different colored juices and plant and animal extracts. Today, synthetic materials are used in addition to these natural substances.
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