The first time that the name ballpoint pen appeared was in 1888. It was an American journalist named John Lauder who designed a pen that used a roller ball as a nib, but he failed to make it into a commodity that is easy for people to use.
In 1895, a commercial non-writing ballpoint pen was also sold on the British market, but it was not popular because of its narrow use. In 1916, someone in Germany also designed and produced a new type of ballpoint pen. Its structure was similar to today’s ballpoint pens, but its performance was poor and failed to attract widespread attention.
The Hungarian journalist Ladiszlo Biro is very aware of the problems with ordinary pens. Biro believes that when he visited a newspaper, he came up with the idea of replacing the traditional ink pen with a pen that uses quick-drying ink. The ink used in newspapers dries almost instantly without leaving stains. Biro vowed to apply similar ink to a new type of writing instrument. In order to prevent sticky ink from clogging his pen, he proposed to install a small rotating metal ball on the top of the tube containing the quick-drying ink. The metal ball will have two functions: as a pen cap to prevent the ink from drying out. Make ink flow out of the pen at a controlled rate. In June 1943, Biro and his brother Georg (a chemist) applied to the European Patent Office for a new patent and produced the first commercial ballpoint pen, the Biro ballpoint pen. Later, the British government purchased the right to use this patented ballpoint pen so that these ballpoint pens can be used by the crew of the Royal Air Force. In addition to being stronger than traditional fountain pens, ballpoint pens can also be used at low pressure and high altitudes (in high altitudes, the ink of traditional fountain pens will overflow). This has received very good results in the Royal Air Force, making the Biro ballpoint pen highly praised. During the Second World War, this ballpoint pen was widely used in the army due to its robustness and ability to adapt to the battlefield environment.
In the United States, Milton Reynolds introduced a new ballpoint pen in 1945 and successfully put it into commercial production for the first time to replace the fountain pen that was still popular at the time. The ballpoint pen uses a small ball to release gelatin-type ink with a large concentration onto the paper. Renault ballpoint pen is a simple writing tool, and it has been widely promoted as “the first pen that can write underwater”. Renault sold 10,000 when it first introduced the new ballpoint pen. These first public sale ballpoint pens are very expensive ($10 each), mainly because they use new technology.
In 1945, the first cheap ballpoint pen was produced. At that time, Frenchman Marcel Bich developed an industrial process for manufacturing ballpoint pens, which greatly reduced the unit cost. In 1949, Bisch launched his ballpoint pen in Europe. He named these ballpoint pens “BIC”, which is a simplified version of his name that is easy to remember. Ten years later, BIC sold its ballpoint pens to the American market for the first time. Consumers were reluctant to buy BIC ballpoint pens at first, because other manufacturers have launched many ballpoint pens in the US market. In order to dispel the hesitation of consumers, BIC launched an exciting nationwide TV campaign to promote this ballpoint pen to consumers “use it once, want to use it again and again!” and sell it for only 29 cents. Ballpoint pen. BIC also released TV commercials depicting their pen shot from a rifle, strapped to skates and even mounted on a jackhammer. Within a year, competition forced the price of each pen to drop below 10 cents. BIC produces millions of ballpoint pens every day!
A ballpoint pen is a writing tool that uses the rotation of a steel ball to write ink on paper. After the Second World War, ballpoint pens were introduced to China. Shrewd businessmen advertised “ball pens” and opened up sales with the surplus of the atomic bomb exploded in Japan. In fact, the “ballpoint pen” has nothing to do with atoms, only the pronunciation is similar. Ballpoint pens quickly became popular in the world. Japan alone consumes 400 million ballpoint pens a year. The reason why the ballpoint pen can write is because the steel ball in the pen tip can bring out the quick-drying ink and transfer it to the paper when it rolls. It is said that the dry ink in Japanese ballpoint pen refills is enough to write 20,000 characters. However, as the number of written characters increases, the gap between the steel ball and the steel tube will gradually become larger, so that the ink will leak out of the gap and often stain clothing, etc., which is very unpleasant.
