In 1954, Aurora introduced the Duo-Cart, a clever new fountain pen aimed at the student market, at a time when the ballpoint was beginning to make alarming inroads into the nation's schoolrooms. Designed by Albe Steiner, who borrowed elements from the Aurora 88 and the American Eversharp Fifth Avenue, it had a rather ingenious trick up its sleeve: room for two ink cartridges inside the barrel, so running out of ink halfway through a geography lesson need no longer be a national emergency. Even the cartridges had an interesting pedigree: made from polyethylene, they involved the work of Giulio Natta, who would later receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Not bad for something destined to spend most of its working life in a schoolbag. The body came in understated colours, with a short metal cap and the familiar hooded nib arrangement inherited from the Aurora 88. One wonders whether the average schoolboy appreciated quite how much scientific achievement was involved in getting his homework written.