Rastrum multi-nib pen - photo

[Altair]

A rastrum is a 5-nibbed pen used in drawing musical staff lines.




Previously:

Sheet music typewriter
Musical saw Puccini performance - video
Marble Machine musical instrument - video

[tonyfoale]

Back in school I was always getting lines to write, "I must pay more attention in class" 500 times. Or some other sentence, probably more like "I must not.............." . To reduce the tedium to more manageable levels I had a stack of 5 pencils taped together so that I could write 5 lines at once. I recall that it was the chemistry master who used to give me the most lines but he never varied the wording so I often had a bunch written in advance. Nothing riled him more than when he sometimes gave me lines to write I would ask if he wanted them then or later.