The ball-point pen: another great small invention
Although some would trace the origin of the ball-point pen back to the work of Galileo in the XVII century, the most reliable documented precedent can be found in the XIX century, in a product used to mark leather. Nonetheless, it wasn't until 1938, that the first patent for the modern ball-point pen was applied for (GB498997).
One fine day, the Hungarian journalist László József Biró [Budapest, 1899 -Buenos Aires, 1985], a prolific inventor, noted how quickly ink dried at a printers. This obeservation gave him the idea of improving the existing graphic-style pens to transform them into a more practical, all-terrain product.
After many tests, the first modern ball-point pen arrived, combining specially textured ink (to avoid dripping) situated in a hermetically sealed area (preventing the inside from drying out), with an accessory as simple as it was great: a small, rotating ball situated at one end, enabling the ink to come out as it was pressed against the paper.
In 1943, Biró applied for a patent on an improved version of the product. Although the inventor never doubted the success of the instrument, the first ball-point pens were very high cost due to the difficulty of manufacturing them and so, shortly after, he transfered his patent rights in Europe to the Frenchman, Marcel Bich.
Bich modified the production system and began to manufacture ball-point pens in series, thus reducing costs and making the product cheaper. This reduced-cost ball-point quickly became a classic of modern mass consumption: the BIC® ball-point which today can be found on nearly every desk in the world.
Links:
inventors.about.com
www.fact-index.com
Patent GB498997, from 1938:
l2.espacenet.com
Patent GB564172, from 1943:
l2.espacenet.com
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