Invention Of The Ball Point Pen...!

Here is some history about something we have all probably used from time to time.

This is one of those things that we all kinda take for granted. Imagine if you will, trying to solve all the problems of creating a workable model of a ball point for the first time. The next step was in trying to convince folks to actually user it!

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.

Amazing how such a common thing today was almost a miracle back in the old days.

Coffee out on the patio this morning. It's hot, but not so bad if we start early.