Ball Pen

"No man was more foolish when he had not a pen in his hand, or morewise when he had" - Samuel Johnson.A Hungarian journalist named Laszlo Biro invented the first ballpointpen in 1938. Biro had noticed that the type of ink used in newspaperprinting dried quickly, leaving the paper dry and smudge-free. Hedecided to create a pen using the same type of ink. The thicker inkwould not flow from a regular pen nib and Biro had to devise a newtype of point. He did so by fitting his pen with a tiny ball bearingin its tip. As the pen moved along the paper, the ball rotated pickingup ink from the ink cartridge and leaving it on the paper. Thisprinciple of the ballpoint pen actually dates back to an 1888 patentowned by John J. Loud for a product to mark leather. However, thispatent was commercially unexploited. Laszlo Biro first patented hispen in 1938, and applied for a fresh patent in Argentina on June 10,1943. (Laszlo Biro and his brother Georg Biro emigrated to Argentinain 1940.) The British Government bought the licensing rights to thispatent for the war effort. The British Royal Air Force needed a newtype of pen, one that would not leak at higher altitudes in fighterplanes as the fountain pen did. Their successful performance for theAir Force brought the Biro pens into the limelight. Laszlo Biro hadneglected to get a U.S. patent for his pen and so even with the endingof World War II, another battle was just beginning..