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Ballpoint Pen

For centuries quill pens were the only alternative to decent writing, yet with the Industrial Revolution new types of materials appeared and new technologies were developed, all this combination of factors lead to the creation of the first modern pens like the fountain pen and its successor the ballpoint pen. Fountain pens ruled for more than a century, from the first part of the 19th century when they were introduced in mass production until their decay in the early 1950s. It is true that fountain pens still exist and are used by some of their great fans, but the percentage is pretty low when compared to the ratings ballpoint pen models get. Fountain pens are no longer fashionable with the average user, they are generally used for elitist purposes and in very close circles, they have left the floor to the ballpoint pen.

The problem with ballpoint pen models is that if used by small children they influence their handwriting skills. Despite resistance to change, the Hungarian ballpoint pen, for instance, encountered an incredible success on the market eliminating all fountain pen competition in a matter of years. Bmrs Laszls Jszsef Biro was the inventor of the ballpoint pen; while working in a typography he noticed that the ink used on papers dried much faster than the normal ink used for writing. Bmrs Laszls Jszsef Biro was a brilliant mind, as he is also the recognized inventor of a reliable automatic gearbox bought by Ford Motor Company later in 1938. When the war started, he and his brother who was a chemist fled to Argentina, together they created a new patent in 1943 and successfully returned to the ballpoint pen industry.

The biggest advantage of ballpoint pen models produced by Bmrs Laszls Jszsef Biro and his brother was that they could write for a year without refilling. After the war was over the battle for the writing market was ready to begin as cheaper and cheaper ball-points were produced. In the first years after the 50s, competition was hard, Parker and Eversharp were the most serious competitors. But by the 1960s Eversharp disappeared from the market being absorbed by Parker. In 1985 Laszlo Biro died and left a flourishing business on the writing tools market. At present, ballpoint pens are the most commonly used writing items, and there is no competition for them so far. They are easy to write with, reliable with no leaking or other problems specific to fountain pens, they are cheap and easy to find. In a nutshell, the ballpoint pen is the absolute winner of the writing industry.

Ballpoint pens

Ballpoint pens have an internal reservoir filled with an ink of higher viscosity, the rolling action of a small metal sphere will dispense the ink over the paper. The ink dries instantly, they are reliable, inexpensive, need no maintenance and can be found anywhere. Ballpoint pens are the most popular writing tools of our modern times and they’ve replaced fountain pens almost completely.

Ballpoint pens appeared in relation to the combined action of several factors like experience in the pen industry, modern chemistry and the 20th century technological advance. History mentions several attempts to design ballpoint pens since the 17th century when Galileo Galilei patented the first model. The multitude of imminent problems made it impossible for the ballpoint pens to be widely produced then, but things were to change some hundreds of years later.

On October 30, 1888 John J. Loud patented the first ballpoint pen, which had just a small rotating steel ball. This first model opened the perspective for ballpoint pens but it couldn’t be used for paper as it wasn’t rough enough to move the ball. It was effective only on hard, rough surfaces like leather, and due to this inconvenience it wasn’t produced on large scale. During the first part of the 20th century there was a general interest taken in improving writing tools, and at the time a lot of research and effort was invested in the pen industry.

Several new ballpoint pens appeared in 1907, 1910 and 1916. In the case of these first models ink was kept in a thin reservoir blocked by a small metal ball. Their problem was that they didn’t spread the ink uniformly over the paper. If the ball socket was tighter than it should, the ink wouldn’t flow, and on the contrary, if it was too large then the ink would leak. None of these problems could be corrected at the time. If some of the inventors managed to eliminate the problem, the production costs were so high that the investment wasn’t worth making.

Laszlo Biro, a Hungarian editor, noticed that the ink used for newspapers dried very fast, then he had the incredible idea of using it to create a pen. He first tried the ink with classical fountain pens but the combination wasn’t a success, hence, Biro turned to his brother who was a chemist. Together they began designing new types of pens, and on June 15, 1938 Biro patented his idea and began developing his business.

Earlier ballpoint pens had leaking problems due to improper ink viscosity and a faulty ball socket, so that there were situations when you had to keep the pen vertically in order to write well. Biro came with innovative ideas, he pressurized the ink and used capillary action solving all flowing problems.