Trade Card for Sundstrand Adding and Calculating Machine, Sundstrand Adding Machine Co., circa 1920

Writing with a quill, metal nib or fountain pen could be messy. Ink could smear or smudge with the slightest touch. In America by the late 1800s absorbent paper blotters became the preferred method to soak up wet ink. Companies produced small inexpensive blotters as advertisements and giveaways well into the twentieth century.