posted
What would one need to do in order to write a message in blood stored in a pen?
What kind of pen would it need to be? Fountain pen? Ball point? What would be the difference?
Would an anticoagulant be necessary to keep the blood from clotting?
If too much anticoagulant were put into the mix, could a ball point pen "explode" in the same way that they often do with ink?
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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I tell you, I'm in the wrong business. I going to start selling magical supplies like, "Virgin Tears," with disclaimers like, "No actual virgins were harmed, emotionally or otherwise, in the making of this product." Six bucks a pop? Oh, yes. . .
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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posted
I can't use a quill-- the writer in this case is a modern day ten year old boy. I could have him use a fountain pen, if a ball point pen absolutely won't work.
It can't be a felt tipped marker, either; I need to have the pen explode or spill. . .
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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Dad's been making fancy wooden pens lately, but I think he's ordering the ink cartridges. So that won't help.
Posts: 9866 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
You would need to know the approximate viscosity of ink. In my limited Googling efforts I have been unable to find such data.
Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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Before I read that this was for a story, I was starting to get worried that you had a vampire for a son or something.
Posts: 2867 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
Silly kojabu, vampires drink blood, they don't write with it!
I would think that a fountain pen would be more plausible. There's also the pens where the nib looks like a fountain pen's, but you dip it in an inkwell rather than use an ink cartridge. Those might actually be called fountain pens too, but I'm not sure. I suppose they work pretty much like a quill, only they aren't made of feathers.
I have no idea about the clotting factor, but might there be something you could add to get rid of the platelets? That's the part that does the clotting, right?
Posts: 952 | Registered: Jun 2005
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