An interesting idea: Perhaps we would write better by going back to fountain pens:
I collect fountain pens. If I’m giving a speech, I’ll write it in ink first. If you look at memorable speeches of the past, the rhythms happen to be in five- to seven-word pulses. Then you learn that a single dip of a quill pen got you five or seven words. It may be that the rhythm was shaped by how much ink could sit in the shaft of a quill pen. As I write, I’m conscious of this. When you give a speech you don’t want your sentences to be too long.
(Quoted from page D9 of The New York Times, May 20-21, 2017.)
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