December 28, 2006 5:16 AM PST
Inkless pen writes forever
(Credit:
Spluch)
When you finally become a celebrity (unless you already are one), this pen will mean you'll never have an excuse not to give out your autograph. Worse, you'll never have an excuse not to write a check when your career goes south.
That's because this writing instrument doesn't need ink to work--that's right, Skippy. Instead, it has a metal-alloy tip that can write on most types of paper and will never smudge or be erased, according to Spluch. That could come in especially handy when your bar napkins get wet.
$30
- Inkless Pen = Pencil
- by MikeCerm December 28, 2006 6:57 AM PST
- If a pen has no ink, it simply isn't a pen. It's a pencil. Remember pencil lead isn't really lead, it's graphite, which is a really soft metal. There's probably a reason that they've used graphite all these years and not steel, and it probably has something to do with writing quality. While certainly novel, I can't imagine that this fancy pencil is all that practical for normal use.
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- new category altogether
- by No Man December 28, 2006 7:32 AM PST
- You're absolutely right that a pen without ink is not a pen. However, in common usage, it's not a pencil either. I would say that a good portion of the Western world would include erasability as a defining characteristic of pencils. This contraption is not erasable, thus making it closer to a pen in most people's minds.
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- Pen and Pencils
- by kungming2 December 28, 2006 11:44 AM PST
- That's true, it would be a pencil. But I think that pencils have the connotation of needing sharpening and/or refilling, and pens don't need to.
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(6 Comments)I would like to try this thing out to see if my claims are true, but certainly wouldn't pay much for the privilege until I could verify that this thing works well, if at all.
A more accurate term would probably be "permanent pencil" rather than "inkless pen." However, pencils have a non-professional, 'cheap' connotation in most people's minds. So going the pen route was probably a marketing move.