Computer printers and ball point pens have completely eliminated a once very handy desk and school accessory called the blotter. Now the blotter, like the buggy whip, has become an almost forgotten memento of the past.

And just what is a blotter? The dictionary says this word is described as being soft absorbent paper. This special paper was once used to soak up damp ink on a document, letter, or school report. Thus, smearing and blotches on the paper could hopefully be avoided.

Special packages and individual sheets of blotter paper, similar to today’s construction paper, were once items available at stationery supply stores and counters. However, the best way to get a blotter without cost was as an advertising item.

These advertising blotters came in various sizes and consisted of two types of paper fused together. The top part was regular paper printed with the sponsor’s message. The reverse side was the absorbent blotter paper.

About a century ago, and even up to the 1950s and ’60s, there was a real need for blotters. In those days people were using steel tipped pens which had to be dipped into ink wells (in reality, small bottles) every few words. This ink didn’t dry very fast and had a tendency to become somewhat uneven on the paper as the document, letter, or school report was written. The blotter was supposed to soak up the excess ink.

Blotters were certainly needed even as fountain pens became popular. Some of these pens were filled with ink by using a small eyedropper-like device. Other pens, like the earlier Sheaffer versions, were refilled with ink by using a lever-operated storage reservoir. In the 1920s, disposable ink cartridges for fountain pens became available for some models.

All three of these innovations were based on the concept of the ink flowing by gravity from the storage reservoir or cartridge down to the pen’s split nib, or point. Yet, there was still one problem. The ink just didn’t dry as fast as desired.

For right-handers this was a rather minor matter. They could write, then use a blotter to dry up the excess ink.

For left-handers, using the older pens and even the newer versions of fountain pens, writing always presented a rather challenging dilemma. They could write in a way to hopefully avoid pulling the sides of their palms across the drying ink, or using a blotter every few words.

Incidentally, when right-handers write, they see where they’ve been, and when left-handers write, they see where they’re going.

The introduction of ballpoint pens in the late 1940s and the development of faster drying ink resulted in the gradual demise of the blotter. As a result, some of the firms which once passed out free blotters for advertising purposes eventually started to give away ballpoint pens as promotional items.