mark james
IAP Collection, Curator
Pen Turning Lore, Myths and Fables - XIII
Hans and His Satchel
Hans and His Satchel
Hans loved making things. He was always taking things apart to see how they worked. But his favorite passion was to take any number of spare parts and make something new and useful. In 1865 there were many opportunities for young Hans to roam the city and pick through the piles of garbage to see what treasures were available. Today was no different as he had a full satchel of odd metal rods, broken tools, icky scraps of fabric, a broken baluster from a chair or stairwell, and several broken dip pens.
Upon arriving home, Hans' first chore was to finish his schoolwork, so that task took priority over his more creative interests. He did check if the dip pens would give any assistance, but they were needing repair, so they were put aside.
Later, after his schoolwork was done and dinner had passed, Hans set upon his discoveries. After several hours, he had examined all the materials, played with different ideas for making them useful, but ultimately had no immediate insights. The rods were all threaded and tapped and screwed into one another. The baluster had a hole clear through it from top to bottom, The fabric was very sticky as if coated in something, and the dip pens each had fatal cracks in their stems. Back into the satchel everything went.
In the morning, Hans met with Finn and they began the walk to school. The evening before had produced a severe rain, and the boys were glad it had stopped and they only had to contend with the mud. Up the road, down the valley by the fiord, and across the road by the dike. At one point, the boys had a large pool of water that they needed to go around. A pool that was never there before. Looking around, the boys noticed a trickle of water coming from the dike - a small leak.
Realizing the importance of the dike to the village, and the need to get help quickly, it was decided that as Finn was the faster runner he would notify the constable and Hans would stay behind and wait.
As Hans watched the trickle of water, he thought of his satchel and had a plan. He quickly threaded all the rods together, inserted the baluster on the end, wrapped the sticky fabric around the joint between the rod and the baluster and finally jammed one of the dip pens into the end of the baluster to plug the hole. This entire contraption he inserted into the hole and held it tight. And it worked, the trickle had stopped for the time being.
Many men from the town had gathered with tools and rushed to the dike to see what Finn had warned them of. When they arrived, they saw Hans with his hand over the hole. They were relieved that the leak was abated, and then Hans moved his hand to reveal his dip pen nib. The men were amazed that Hans has stopped the leak with just a pen. Hans told the men that this was not simply a schoolboy's dip pen.
With the confidence only Hans could have had, he explained that there was a series of rods attached to the dip pen. He then explained:
"The small leak is only the end point of the real problem.
The dike will fail unless you can know where the leak begins,
and the rods will show you where to make the repair."
A plug in a dike, or a Freestyle Pen???
Summon your imagination and get creative for the
Freestyle Pen Contest,
who knows what may portend.
Pen Turning Lore, Myths and Fables I - John Hancock's Signature
Pen Turning Lore, Myths and Fables II - Elon Musk and the Chase for his Roadster
Pen Turning Lore, Myths and Fables III - The Scribe, the Master Segmenter and World Peace.
Pen Turning Lore, Myths and Fables IV - The Path to Pen Turning Enlightenment.
Pen Turning Lore, Myths and Fables V - The Tortoise and the Hare.
Pen Turning Lore, Myths and Fables VI - The War of the Roses.
Pen Turning Lore, Myths and Fables VII - The First Marathon
Pen Turning Lore, Myths and Fables VIII - The Fountain of Youth
Pen Turning Lore, Myths and Fables IX - Banjo O'Leary and the Call of the Kookaburra.
Pen Turning Lore, Myths and Fables X - Pandora's Box.
Pen Turning Lore, Myths and Fables XI - Leonardo da Vinci.
Pen Turning Lore, Myths and Fables XII - Einstein's Pen.
Addendum: The Four Little Penturner's
