Saturday, November 10, 2012

Let's Talk About Pens...!

I guess I should say "ballpoint pens!" A little thing that so many of us use nearly every day has come a long way since it was first invented.

It's been around a lot longer than you might imagine, certainly longer than I would have thought! Now I may have talked about this invention before, but even if I did, it's worth another look!

Ballpoint Pen



The first patent on a ballpoint pen was issued on 30 October 1888, to John J. Loud, a leather tanner, who was attempting to make a writing implement that would be able to write on the leather he tanned, which the then-common fountain pen couldn’t do. The pen had a rotating small steel ball, held in place by a socket. Then, fifty years later, with the help of his brother George, László Bíró, a chemist, began to work on designing new types of pens. Bíró fitted this pen with a tiny ball in its tip that was free to turn in a socket. As the pen moved along the paper, the ball rotated, picking up ink from the ink cartridge and leaving it on the paper. Bíró filed a British patent on 15 June 1938. Earlier pens leaked or clogged due to improper viscosity of the ink, and depended on gravity to deliver the ink to the ball. Depending on gravity caused difficulties with the flow and required that the pen be held nearly vertically. The Biro pen both pressurized the ink column and used capillary action for ink delivery, solving the flow problems.

I was thinking about just how many small things we use nearly every day that I don't really know anything about, and it dawned on me that I need to do a lot more reading up on them. Things like safety pins, paper clips, razor blades, even pencils! See what I mean? So many that we take for granted that had a start as a single idea in someone's imagination!

Coffee on the patio this morning! You can watch me take down the hummingbird feeder! Exciting, huh?

9 comments:

Phyllis (N/W Jersey) said...

I think everyone has a drawer full of them in their homes. But I'm old fashioned, I guess. I still prefer my fountain pen and have a small collection of straight pens with nibs.
Coffee on the patio sounds great! It's 28 here. Brrrrr.

JMD said...

Interesting information. HJ, we had a hummingbird winter over last year and so we keep one of our feeders out. Poor little guy even was out sitting with snow on everything and left when it was spring. Right now there is just one that we see each day come to the feeder.

Momlady said...

I've taken one feeder down, left one up. There a straggler still coming to the one left out. Once I see the level stay in the same place for a few days running I'll bring that one in. It's been in the 30's at night so I imagine he'll be on his way. Thanks for the coffee!

Sixbears said...

Sometimes it's the little things we hardly think about that make life easier.

JO said...

Our humming birds stay all winter. But the woodpeckers drain all the feeders. I put one closer to the house under the awening they seem to leave that one alone.
Some ballpoint pens still have to be held upright to work.

Coffe on your patio sound good its raining and chilly.

HermitJim said...

Hey Phyllis...
A few folks I know still use regular fountain pens, but the numbers seem to be dropping all the time.

A lot of younger people probably don't even know what a fountain pen is!

Thanks for sharing a cup with us today!


Hey JMD...
The level of food in the feeder is dropping a little everyday, but I no longer see the hummers. I'm thinking that something else is eating the food.

Here they say to remove the feeders at the end of Oct,. but I figured I'd leave it out until it gets cold...if it ever does!

Thanks for coming by today!


Hey Momlady...
With temps that low at night, you would think he would move on! Guess he just likes it at your house!

Thanks for dropping by today!


Hey Sixbears...
Boy, isn't that the truth! I should try and make a list of small things I use each day and see how many I know the history of.

Can't ever have too much knowledge, I say!

Thanks for the visit this morning!


Hey Jo...
Guess that's why the Brio pen is so good! With pressurized ink, it should work at any orientation!

Thanks, sweetie, for coming by today!

Dizzy-Dick said...

I wrote a blog back on 01-22-2011 about paper clips. Every thing has a history and most are interesting.

HermitJim said...

Hey Dizzy...
Lots of fun finding out about some of the everyday things!

Thanks, buddy, for dropping in today!

Bob Mc said...

There used to be a place in Redwood City, CA that manufactured paper clips. Maybe it's still there; I haven't been there in years. Their slogan was "The Biggest Clip Joint In Town".