Today I saw an ad for the UNCF that indicated that the fountain pen was invented by an African American, William Purvis. This struck me as wildly improbable, since fountain pens have been around considerably longer than there were non-native persons living on the North American continent, and certainly before there were persons of African descent here.
Another website made the same claim, giving a date in 1890 for the invention, but lacked any useful information to indicate what, exactly, Mr. Purvis invented. Strangely, Wikipedia doesn't mention Mr. Purvis at all, and gives a date in 953 for the invention of the fountain pen, in Egypt. For the purposes of this claim, "fountain pen" is defined to be a device with an ink reservoir and some kind of gravity-fed ink delivery to a nib. And, further, there are surviving fountain pens from the 1700's, which would make an 1890 invention date impossible.
As a huge fan of fountain pens, my curiosity was piqued, and I wanted to know what in fact he did invent and patent in 1890.
After a little more poking around, I found that Mr. Purvis invented improvements to existing technology, making a fountain pen that didn't leak as much, and which was more affordable to most people, ushering in an era where everybody could own one. He also invented a number of other very cool things, including self-inking hand stamps, electric railway track switchers, and machines for making paper bags.
All of this leaves me wondering why a respectable organization like the UNCF would make such a claim which is so trivially debunked. And yet, even as I write this, I know that folks will accuse me of being racist by even pointing out such a thing. If the goal here is to celebrate the accomplishments of African American inventors, there's certainly no shortage of those without making any up.
Now, I'm certain that many of the inventions attributed to white men were in fact invented by someone of, shall we say, lower social class at the time of invention, either for reasons of race, nationality, or gender, and the white man in question took credit for them, because he knew that the actual inventor lacked the clout to do anything about it. I've heard this claim about Edison repeatedly. The controversy we know about is that of Nikola Tesla who was Serbian. But he was white, and so he got some little recognition at the time, and a lot more since his death.
But revisionist history doesn't help anyone. We should celebrate William Purvis for what he did invent - which was some very cool stuff - without making up claims that he invented other things, which not only opens the claims up to debunking, but also undervalues the cool things he did accomplish.
I ran into this ad today and did a search on google. I could not believe that the fountain pen was invented in 1890. Reading this article is like reading a play by play of what happened to me an hour ago.
The information I found about William Purvis says the same thing. That he improved the fountain pen, so what's the problem. Yes, some people say that Mr. Purvis invented the fountain pen but when you look it up you find the truth. Did you contact the company to see if it was a mistake? God forbid if humans find something that was not pleasing to them. In the natural realm people have faults it happeneds, get over it.....no one it perfect. I pray we get to a point where we can just help each other and not hinder one another. Everyone be blessed.
Yes, "D", I contacted the company. Unfortunately, it's a consistent theme in their advertising campaign - taking a truly remarkable inventor and devaluing their accomplishment by claiming that it's something that it's not. They ran another one about the ice cream scoop which was, likewise, not true. Yes, I expect truth in advertising, and I expect that when someone spends their advertising budget on something of this nature that they do some research. This kind of sloppiness about something that is at the very heart of their organization is simply inexcusable. Your nonsense about "it happeneds ... no one it perfect" (sic), while ironic, doesn't excuse this kind of error.
What was made was a common misconception. Mr Purvis invented the version of the fountain pen we know today, the fountain pen invented in Egypt was the old quill and ink tub. Its nothing to be upset over, some one probably just didn't do they're research right
But, you see, that's the whole point that I am making. These folks spent thousands of dollars on an advertising campaign, and I was able, in 3 minutes of research, to determine that they were under-rating the very person that they were trying to laud.
What bothers me is that the entire ad campaign (see also the ice-cream scoop ad) is intended to celebrate the scientific accomplishments of African American inventors through the centuries, and *REPEATEDLY* misrepresents what they did, making errors that could be corrected with mere minutes of research. This is sloppy, inexcusable, and undermines the very point that they're trying to make, doing a disservice to the folks that they're trying to celebrate.
So, yes, it is indeed something to be upset about.