Hannah's Favorite Fountain Pens
The wait is finally over: Hannah Fry introduces Michael Stevens to her beloved fountain pen collection and the beautiful physics behind how fountain pens work.
Hannah's Favorite Fountain Pens, 1 hour 1 minute, posted Sept. 24, 2026. (The Rest Is Science) Watch on YouTube
Pens run from a £20 Lamy Safari to vintage Waterman and Montblanc models in this episode of The Rest Is Science. Hannah explains how capillary action, surface tension, air pressure and carefully engineered feeds control the flow of fountain pen ink. Michael tests the collection, chooses his favorite and discovers why the most expensive pen is not necessarily the nicest to write with.
Hannah and Michael then answer viewers' questions: which words are terrible at their jobs, how aeroplane wings actually generate lift, and which moment in history they would most like to witness.
For the pens themselves, the Pentrace archive covers the same ground from the collector's side. A Starter's Guide to Fountain Pen Collecting is a good place to begin, and Anatomy of a Nib explains the part of the pen where the physics in this video does its work.