Reflections on the Ballpoint Pen (Key Post)

 The Ballpoint Pen: Its History and Impact 

A close-up picture of the tip of a ball point pen

Everyday, we take for granted the convenience of items that were not in existence even a century ago.  We use our smartphones nearly every second, check the time on the interactive faces of our smartwatches, and gaze into the screens that we've put on everything from refrigerators to the dashboards of cars.  Clearly, we are living in an age of technology that our ancestors could not have dreamed of.  However, in pursuit of progress, we have begun to abandon "old school" items that were groundbreaking inventions not even a century ago.  Perhaps the most impactful of these everyday objects is the ballpoint pen, an invention that forever changed the way we write.  The ballpoint pen made writing more accessible, affordable, and convenient for the masses and continues to occupy its well earned place on desks across the globe.  

The earliest origins of the ball point pen can be traced back to a patent filed in 1888 to John J. Loud.  Loud's pen was not the proper texture for writing on paper, though it was useful for marking rougher surfaces such as leather.  Even so, the patent for this version of the ballpoint pen lapsed not long after it was filed since it could not write on paper without ripping it.  

Laszlo Josef Biro

The first commercially successful ballpoint pen was invented by Laszlo Josef Biro, a Hungarian journalist living in Argentina.  As a journalist, Biro used fountain pens constantly and was all too familiar with their limitations.  Fountain pens would often leave ink blots on paper, and even when the ink ran smoothly, it was slow to dry and could be easily smudged.  To solve this, Biro turned to the help of his brother, György, who was a dentist with an aptitude for chemistry.  The two brothers came up with an ink that would flow as easily as the ink in fountain pens, but would dry as quickly as the ink used to print newspapers.  

2016 Google Doodle honoring the legacy of Laszlo Josef Biro

Early patent of the ballpoint pen 

Laszlo Biro then set to work designing the pen itself, which utilized gravity to allow the ink to flow smoothly.  A special ball point distributed the ink evenly as it rolled across the page, preventing ink blots and allowing for an even coating of ink in every word.  The ink was stored in a chamber in the pen's core and wouldn't dry up like the ink in fountain pens did.  

Biro filed a British patent for the ballpoint pen in 1938, and within a few years the British Royal Air Force was using the pens in the fight against the Axis Powers.  Ballpoint pens were revolutionary for aviators because fountain pens typically wouldn't work properly at high altitudes due to the changes in pressure.  This left pilots with no reliable way of writing with ink when airborne prior to the invention of the ballpoint pen.  Therefore, the ballpoint pen wasn’t just an ordinary invention that made civilian lives easier - it played an essential role in helping the Allies to win the Second World War.  The ballpoint pen played a major part in making overhead recognizance possible, which gave the Allies an edge over their enemies.  

Early advertisement for the "Biro" ballpoint pen, named after Laszlo Josef Biro

The ballpoint pen may seem simple when compared to the iPhone or other modern marvels of technology, but it is an innovation with an incomprehensible impact.  In its brief history, the ballpoint pen has changed writing as people know it and made writing much more convenient and inexpensive.  The ballpoint pen is small enough to slip into a pocket, yet its influence has spread across decades and continents to make literacy more achievable and convenient for the masses.

Credit to https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/ballpoint-pens-RAF-180955537/ , https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20201028-history-of-the-ballpoint-pen ,  https://time.com/4083274/ballpoint-pen/ , https://www.invent.org/inductees/laszlo-josef-biro , https://patents.google.com/patent/US2474300 ,  and https://books.google.com/books?id=vYr8AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA570#v=onepage&q&f=false