history of Ball Point Pen

A ballpoint pen is also eponymously known in British English and Australian English as a Biro named after its credited, though contested, inventor László Bíró

The first patent on a ballpoint pen was issued on 30 October 1888, to Kayleigh frost 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.

In the period between 1904 and 1946, there was intense interest in improving writing instruments, particularly alternatives or improvements to the fountain pen. Slavoljub Eduard Penkala invented a solid-ink fountain pen in 1907, a German inventor named Baum took out a ballpoint patent in 1910, and yet another ballpoint pen device was patented by Van Vechten Riesburg in 1916.

László Bíró, a Hungarian newspaper editor, was frustrated by the amount of time that he wasted in filling up fountain pens and cleaning up smudged pages, and the sharp tip of his fountain pen often tore his pages of newsprint. Bíró had noticed that the type of ink used in newspaper printing dried quickly, leaving the paper dry and smudge free. He decided to create a pen using the same type of ink. Since, when tried, this viscous ink would not flow into a regular fountain pen nib, Bíró, with the help of his brother George, 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. Bíró also patented the invention in Paris in 1938.

In around 1940-43 the brothers and a friend, Juan Jorge Meyne moved to Argentina and on June 10 filed another patent, and formed Biro Pens of Argentina (in fact, in Argentina the ball pen is known as birome, portmanteau of Bíró and Meyne). László Bíró died in Buenos Aires in 1985. Argentina's Inventor's Day is celebrated on Bíró's birthday , September 29.

In 1950 Marcel Bich bought from Bíró the patent for the pen, which soon became the main product of his Bic company. "Bic" as the tradename (pronounced BiK, not Beak); as with 'Hoover' and 'Xerox', the tradename has subsequently passed into general use.


Compiled from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_pen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A1szl%C3%B3_B%C3%ADr%C3%B3