Bíró and the ballpoint pen

The ballpoint pen, though ubiquitous today, became popular in India only in the 1980s, much later than the rest of the world.

Those of us brought up on the fountain pen – which produced splotchy writing and ink-stained fingers, not to mention messy exercise books and soiled school uniforms – know what a blessing it is to use a ballpoint pen now. So, when I came across this article on the Net on the ballpoint pen and its origin, I just had to share it with you:

“When László Bíró saw a ball rolling through a puddle 
on the street and leaving a trail of water behind it, he conceived an idea that would go on to change everyday life forever. Based on what he had seen, the Hungarian journalist, along with his brother Georg, began to work on the first commercially successful ballpoint pen.

Bíró had become frustrated by the time spent filling up fountain pens and waiting for the ink to dry. He had seen 
that the ink used to print newspapers dried much quicker and so decided to create a pen using the same type of ink. In 1938, the Bíró brothers patented a design which featured a tiny ball in its tip, which turned freely in a socket. As the 
ball moved along the paper it rotated, picking up ink from 
the cartridge and leaving it on the paper.

Whilst ballpoint pens had existed in the past, none had 
proven very popular due to constant problems with clogging, leakage and ink distribution, and the Bíró was the first pen that significantly overcame these problems.

After relocating to Argentina in 1940, the Bírós licensed their design to a number of makers in the US and Britain. But it was almost ten years later when the design was mastered 
and introduced to the rest of the world. Marcel Bich, a French pen manufacturer who had bought the ballpoint pen patent from László Bíró, ironed out the remaining design problems (mainly ink distribution) and began huge, low cost mass productions of the ‘BIC CRISTAL’.

It’s not surprising to hear that, in 2005, BIC sold its one hundred billionth pen, when you consider just how many of their pens you might have owned, borrowed or even stolen. At the same time, as being an icon of democracy – almost anyone can afford to buy one – the ballpoint pen is also one of the first products of the throw-away culture in which we now live.”

More information on BIC ballpoint pens is available here.

[Citation: Text reproduced from designboom article reinventing the bic pen. Image reproduced from dkimages.]