A brief History on the tools we used throughout history to write.

1. History of Writing Tools Timeline

2. 3200 BCE: First instance of
written language in Sumeria.
“Sumerian was spoken in Sumer in southern Mesopotamia (part
of modern Iraq) from perhaps the 4th millennium BC until about
2,000 BC, when it was replaced by Akkadian as a spoken
language, though continued to be used in writing for religious,
artistic and scholarly purposes until about the 1st century AD.”
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/sumerian.htm

3. 1250 BCE: Writing Develops in
China During the Shang Dynasty
“The earliest writings in China were found on ox
scapulae, tortoiseshells, and bronzes during the
Shang dynasty. Dated from around 1400-1200
B.C.E, the inscriptions on bones and shells-called
"oracle bones"-recorded divination used by the
Shang royal house. The words were carved with a
stylus, some were written with brush and ink
made of lampblack or cinnabar. On bronzes,
inscriptions were cast on sacrificial vessels, ritual
bells, and seals. These inscriptions range from a
few to as many as five hundred characters.”
http://asiasociety.org/china-learning-
initiatives/writing-and-technology-china

4. 1100 BCE: Phoenician Alphabet
“The Phoenician alphabet was perhaps the first
alphabetic script to be widely-used - the
Phoenicians traded around the Mediterraean and
beyond, and set up cities and colonies in parts of
southern Europe and North Africa - and the origins
of most alphabetic writing systems can be traced
back to the Phoenician alphabet, including Greek,
Etruscan, Latin, Arabic and Hebrew, as well as the
scripts of India and East Asia.”
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/phoenician.htm

5. 100 BCE: Chinese Invented Paper
“Paper was invented around 100 BC
in China. In 105 AD, under the Han
Dynasty emperor Ho-Ti, a government
official in China named Ts'ai Lun was
the first to start a paper-making
industry.”
http://quatr.us/literature/paper.htm

6. 600 AD: Quill Pens First
Appeared in Spain
“Quill pens came into existence about the sixth century BCE. People
soon found that long wing feathers from swans, turkeys, and geese
worked best. The feathers were first plucked (or found) and then
dried. Next, all of the oily and fatty materials which might interfere
with the ink had to be removed. The quill was dried with the
application of gentle heat.”
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/11/16/1256074/-History-101-
Pens-and-Ink

7. 1440-1450: Printing Press was
Invented
“A printing press is a device for applying pressure to
an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper
or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. Typically used for texts,
the invention of the printing press is widely regarded as one
of the most influential events in the second
millennium, ushering in the period of modernity.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing_press

8. 1564: Invention of the Lead
Pencil
“The ‘lead’ pencil (which contains no lead) was invented
in 1564 when a huge graphite (black carbon) mine was discovered in
Borrowdale, Cumbria, England. The pure graphite was sawn into
sheets and then cut into square rods. The graphite rods were
inserted into hand-carved wooden holders, forming pencils.”
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/inventors/page/p/pencil.shtml

9. 1714: Typewriter Invented
“Inventing the
typewriter, John Pratt's
Pterotype, the
inspiration for Sholes in
July1867. Typewriters had
been invented as early
as 1714 by Henry Mill and
reinvented in various
forms throughout the
1800s. It was to be
Sholes, however, who
invented the first one to
be commercially
successful.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Christopher_Latham_S
holes

10. 1888: Ballpoint Pen was Invented
“This principle of the ballpoint pen actually dates back to
an 1888 patent owned by John J. Loud for a product to mark
leather. However, this patent was commercially unexploited.
Laszlo Biro first patented his pen in 1938, and applied for a
fresh patent in Argentina on June 10, 1943.”
http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa101697.htm

11. 1970’s: Word Processing was
invented
Word processing gained popularity in the 1990’s
with the help of printers and personal computers

12. 1992: SMS Used For The First
Time (Evolved Into Texting)
“On December 3rd 1992, a 22-year-old Canadian test
engineer sat down and typed out a very simple
message, "Merry Christmas." It flew over the Vodafone
network to the phone of one Richard Jarvis, and since
then, we just haven't been able to stop texting.”
http://gizmodo.com/5965121/the-first-text-message-
was-sent-20-years-ago-today

13. 1997: Nokia Became First
Manufacturer to Produce a Mobile
Phone With a Full Keyboard.

14. 1997: AOL Launched AIM (Instant
Messaging)
“When you think of AIM, you can probably hear the sounds of opening and
closing doors when friends appeared and disappeared on your Buddy List. Like
the services before it, AIM allowed users to send messages to each other, and
included user profiles, away messages and icons for more engagement. With
AIM also came the development of different bots, such as StudyBuddy and
SmarterChild (which have since been retired), with whom users could interact.
By 2005, AIM dominated the instant messaging market with 53 million users.
Chat rooms, in which multiple people could IM with each other, were another
popular AOL feature.”
http://mashable.com/2012/10/25/instant-messaging-history//#eh9Gf_2FREqX

15. 2004: Facebook was Created
“ Its website was launched on February 4, 2004, by Mark
Zuckerberg with his Harvard College roommates and fellow
students Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin
Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. The founders had initially limited the
website's membership to Harvard students, but later expanded it to
colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, and Stanford University. It
gradually added support for students at various other universities and
later to high-school students. Since 2006, anyone who is at least 13
years old was allowed to become a registered user of the website,
though the age requirement may be higher depending on applicable
local laws. Its name comes from the face book directories often given
to American university students.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook