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Back to the Iridium Kiss article

After publishing this article on Hawkins and iridium history, I found in (of all places) the Pilot Fountain Pens and Technology papers, a little more information on these rare tortoise pens.

These pens were another example of Isaac Hawkins invention and 1822 patent and then selling the patent rights to Samson Mordan who tried to manufacture them in 1823. According to the Pilot papers, which were first published in the 1930's seem to source the English patents and Mordan's papers, not only were diamond bits used, but also ruby bits and other precious and semi-precious stones.

Interestingly, many pen researchers are quick to tell people that the popular term diamond pen, refers to the iridium tip, not to actual diamonds. This is true, many earlier pen makers like Duncan MacKinnon called the iridium on their pens and stylographs "diamond", however the first diamond pens indeed were made of real diamonds.