Who invented the ballpoint pen and when? Modern ballpoint pen. Who and when invented the ballpoint pen: from the first inventor to the modern look

Not as simple as it might seem, and much older than the officially documented one.

background

The idea of ​​a ball point pen, powered by oil-based paste ink, can be traced back to… Holland in the 17th century! The sailors of the then “mistress of the seas” needed writing instruments that were unbreakable, did not spill, and which could be used in a storm when rolling. The Netherlands was perhaps the first-born of the European industrial revolution.

However, the level of development of the then mechanical engineering and chemical technology did not allow the creation of a device suitable for the needs of practice. As well as a marine chronometer for accurate determination of longitude. Hans Christian Huygens himself worked in vain on it, but the idea, which was correct in principle, was realized only in the 19th century.

At the same time, when the accuracy of metalworking reached an acceptable value, and chemists could accurately develop substances of complex composition, the principle of operation of a ballpoint pen was also patented. The exact name, date, and country is October 30, 1888, John Loud, USA.

Laud correctly formulated the main highlight of "": the forces of viscous friction and surface tension in a thick liquid will not allow, when pressed by hand, to rest against the upper neck of its hole, jam and block the flow of ink. Laud also determined the physical and chemical requirements for ink: they must be thixotropic, that is, they must liquefy from mechanical loads - friction, pressure. The ballpoint nib will never dry out only when filled with thixotropic ink.

A good thixotropic substance is pine rosin. If you run your finger along its piece with pressure, then at first you feel a roughness, as if you are moving along a solid body. But then the finger begins to slide, as if on paraffin or soap, although the piece has not yet warmed up to softening.

Start

Further, the efforts of the inventors went more towards improving the composition of the ink. The first workable design suitable for mass production was created in 1938 by the Hungarian journalist László József Bíró, who lived in Argentina. In Argentina, ballpoint pens are still called "biromes". However, the Anglo-Saxons dispute its priority, referring to a US patent dated June 10, 1943, to Milton Reynolds.

Reynolds appears to have been unaware of the Biro pen, and developed a similar design and ink himself. He worked for the needs of the US Air Force and England. Their bomber armadas flew at high altitudes, there were no pressurized cabins then, the pilots spent many hours in oxygen masks. Ordinary pencils flowed at reduced atmospheric pressure, and it was inconvenient to use pencils.

In essence, there is no reason for a patent dispute here, the “ball” was invented by Biro. But the fact that Biro's priority was disputed on the grounds that he was a citizen of fascist Hungary and lived in Argentina, formally neutral, but secretly and actively helping Hitler, looks unsightly. Of course, no one denies or belittles the crimes of Nazism, but technology is not at all to blame for them.

Further, the “ball” was simplified and cheaper by Marcel Bich in France in 1953. He proposed to make a rod - an ampoule with ink - with thickened walls, and use it as a pen body. This is how the disposable cheap BIC pens, which are still common, appeared, only the name of the inventor is already written in English transcription.

For a long time, ballpoint pens were forbidden to be used in primary schools. They still wrote poorly, often clogged with paper lint, and, having immediately begun to write in “balls”, forever torn off the handwriting.

Modernity

The last point in the improvement of the ballpoint pen was set by the specialists of the Japanese company Ohto Co in 1963. They began to make the rolled hole in which the ball was placed not round in cross section, but in the form of three converging channels. The design of the writing unit of a modern ballpoint pen is shown in the figure. Such a pen can write on almost any ink-retaining material, and will not clog, even if it draws on large tufts of cotton.

Unfortunately, the names of the inventors are unknown: according to Japanese corporate rules, all intellectual property developed in the company belongs to the company. A genuine inventor, under the threat of severe punishment, cannot declare his authorship even in a private conversation.

Improvements

In 1984, another Japanese company, Sakura Color Products Corp., replaced the oil ink with synthetic gel ink, while at the same time increasing the bead diameter to 0.7 mm. So there was a rollerball pen, the sister of the "ball". You can write with a roller literally without pressure even on glass, polished metal and wet packaging cardboard, and the ink trail is clearer than from a “ball”.

With the beginning of space flights, they encountered a problem: pens, including ballpoint pens, did not write in zero gravity, and graphite pencils produced shavings and conductive dust. Soviet cosmonauts used wax pencils for a long time, American astronauts, right up to the flights to the Moon, used special mechanical ones, $100 apiece at the then exchange rate.

However, back in 1967, entrepreneur Paul Fisher offered NASA his Zero Gravity Pen, or Space Pen (weightlessness pen or space pen). The ball in it was made of tungsten carbide (we know it as win). The entire writing unit was made with precision precision. The ink ampoule (cartridge) is sealed, it contains nitrogen at a pressure of 2.4 atm. Ink with a pronounced thixotropy, they are separated from the gas by a viscous moving plug.

The development of the AG7 Space Pen is one of the legends of NASA, the reason for its accusations and jokes about it. AG7 cost... $1,000,000! Although the already experienced Fisher did not cause any complaints from the astronauts. Models currently available for sale on the market cost from $6 to $100. They write on anything in the temperature range from -30 to +120 degrees Celsius in air, in vacuum and under water. Guaranteed service life - 120 years.

So who is it anyway?

There is a tendency in the history of great inventions that, as a rule, it is impossible to name one particular inventor. Exceptions, like Charles Goodyear, the inventor of rubber, who literally randomly “thumped” sulfur into raw rubber, are extremely rare. Specialists in the majority of priority discussions simply avoid.

A. S. Popov and Guglielmo Marconi, for example, did not touch on priority issues in their correspondence, they discussed the problems of radio engineering. Only once did Marconi state in a public report that his English patent entitles him to the commercial use of radio in Great Britain, and it was Popov who transmitted and received the world's first radiogram.

So it is with a ballpoint pen. It would be more correct to say: it is the fruit of many years of collective creativity of people who have worked to meet the urgent needs of mankind.

Few people will think when buying an ordinary ballpoint pen, when and who invented it. Even fewer people know that the pen's second name is "biro". Until the mid-70s of the last century, it was often found in everyday life in Western countries. To this day in Argentina, when they talk about a writing medium, they pronounce the word "birome". This title draws our attention to history. During the war years, in this Spanish-speaking country, Laszlo Biro, the author and inventor of the ballpoint pen, found his refuge. When and how this happened, we will try to figure it out.

Who is the parent

To the question "In what year was the ballpoint pen invented?" no clear answer can be found. The one who thinks that she comes from the last century is mistaken. Not so long ago, scientists from Armenia examined a scroll dated to the second half of the 12th century. And according to the specified drawing, they recreated something similar to a modern ballpoint pen. A two-piece bamboo stick had a hollow ball in the middle, which was obviously filled with some kind of ink or some other thick paint. Therefore, the question of the invention is highly controversial and remains open.

It is known that many minds fought over the working version of the pen for more than a dozen years. The names on the labels of branded copies tell us about the participants in the ball epic for almost 100 years.

Laszlo Biro, a journalist from Hungary, is recognized as the father of the modern version of the ballpoint pen. But long before his developments in America alone, similar inventions were patented more than 300 times.

The first steps of the invention

The history of the creation of a ballpoint pen takes us to the end of the 19th century, in 1888. An obscure Massachusetts inventor, John Loud, patented his rotating nib writing aid. A simple mechanism was designed so that at the end of the rod filled with ink, there was a spinning ball. Some historians believe that Laud was the one who invented the ballpoint pen.

And when they began to test the invention, they quickly became disillusioned: the design was unfinished, the ball would get stuck, then fall off, and the ink did not give out anything except blots.

Many inventors followed in the footsteps of John Laud in search of the “best pen”. Among them were George Parker (1904) and Van Vechten Reisberg (1916). These gentlemen managed not only to patent their brainchild, but also put it on a commercial basis. But their ventures failed for the same reasons as Laud's.

Need to write

In theory, the ballpoint pen worked well, but in practice, she hardly wrote. If something came out, then these were puddles that spoiled the paper. As it turned out, the problem was in the ink, which reacted to changing air temperature: it leaked, smeared or froze. In order for them to at least give something more or less, the temperature had to be in the range of 18-23 degrees Celsius. Otherwise, they were of no use.

It immediately became clear that other inks were needed. Over their invention and racked their brains for many years. The first to succeed in creating something suitable was the Bruden Bureau. His employees could achieve a special viscosity, taking water and oil as a basis. But this composition has been refined in proportions and ingredients for some time. Thus, it was found that the most effective ink for ballpoint pens is oil-based.

Biro Brothers

The Hungarian journalist Laszlo Biro, by virtue of his profession, constantly had problems with pens, which could stop writing so inopportunely and at the most crucial moment or leak ink, ruining the necessary notes. Once Biro noticed that the ink used in newspaper printing dries quickly on paper and does not leave any streaks. The observation prompted him to some thoughts.

In 1938, inspired by the idea, he sets out to develop a dream pen, involving his brother George, a chemist by profession. They managed to improve the fountain pen, replacing its end with an ink rod, at the end of which a ball rotated. This year is the birth date of the ballpoint pen.

It was expected that the invention would bring profit and fame to its creators, but in reality the path turned out to be more thorny.

Idea thief

With the advent of World War II, the brothers were forced to emigrate to Argentina, fleeing the Third Reich. There they once again patented their invention and set up production by opening the Eterpen factory. Soon the pens arrived on store shelves. About 7 million pieces were sold per year. But the naive Biro, being in their triumph, did not even suspect what sharks of business were swimming nearby. Their idea was stolen.

American businessman Milton Reynolds made inquiries about the novelty he liked. And I found out that journalist's pens are patented in only two countries. It smelled like big money, given that the largest market - the US - remained open.

Reynolds is catching his luck without wasting any time. On June 10, 1943, he files a patent stating that he is the one who invented the ballpoint pen. And when its mass production is launched, the subsequent success exceeded the boldest expectations of the businessman, making him a millionaire. In the press, he tirelessly commented that in his invention he relied on the work of his compatriot John Laud.

Biro tried to win back their right to the American patent, but lost in court.

Marcel Bish

This is a separate name that deserves attention in the history of a ballpoint pen. French businessman and writing stationery maker Marcel Biche has for some time closely observed the ups and downs of the ballpoint pen in global markets. His professional interest spurs him on to take on the challenge of working through all the cons of this pen in order to create a better version. Marcel buys the right to the invention from the Biro brothers and starts working.

For about 2 years, the businessman has been researching the pen, studying all the nuances of positive and negative properties. He makes balls at the end of the rod with a diameter of only 1 millimeter, using the Swiss method of metal processing, due to which the ink no longer seeps through the nib.

The victory came in 1952. An improved pen with a new design made of transparent plastic wrote much softer, without smearing paper and writing people. But more importantly, she became collapsible. Ballpoint pen refills are also sold separately.

Marcel later changes his last name to Beek, making it more pronounceable and conquering the world market. He made buyers take a fresh look at ballpoint pens and appreciate them.

Goods of the bourgeoisie

In the Soviet Union, ballpoint pens appeared much later than other countries. The planned deal with Parker after the surrender of Germany did not take place. It was an independent path of research and development. And for a long time nothing worked: the balls did not look like balls, and the ink did not give the desired effect.

In the 1960s, supplies of ballpoint pens from Europe appeared. History remembers what active propaganda was carried out against the writing media of the bourgeoisie. Students' works were rated "two" if they were not written by a domestic writing medium. But the people did not give up, appreciating the convenience of writing them. Schoolchildren were delighted when colored ballpoint pens went on sale. A real boom has begun.

Only in 1965, after purchasing Swiss equipment, did the Soviet Union finally manage to establish its own mass production of ballpoint pens. Things went well.

You with a microphone or a camera?

Today, a ballpoint pen is not just a writing tool or a chic souvenir with a famous label. They managed to fit a microphone, radio, flashlight, clock, photo and video camera into it. The latest invention is the pen-computer. And apparently, this is not the end of the fantasy. More serious models serve as an attribute of prestige, success and prosperity. Everything is evaluated: material, design, functionality.

In business, a pen has long ceased to be a stationery. Now it is one of the important details of the business image. At the signing of contracts, businessmen take not just any pen, but ball brass, which becomes an excellent completion of the transaction. Or even better, they present it as a gift to their partners or dear clients.

• The first advertisement for the pen claimed that it could write underwater. The swimmer hired by the customer demonstrated this clearly.
• Ballpoint pens were originally shaped like an accordion to hold more ink.
• One pen can draw a continuous line 6 km long.
• Ballpoint pens are capable of writing at low temperatures, down to -35 degrees have been recorded.
• Pens were once considered an item of luxury and wealth.
• Every year people die from ballpoint pens.
• The most popular pen is the Bic Crystal, with 14 million produced daily.
• 92% of people on Earth use ballpoint pens.
• The Montegrappa platinum fountain pen worth 1 million euros was listed in the Guinness Book of Records.

Having suffered a lot with feathers, the world breathed a sigh of relief when ballpoint pens were invented. And who is capable of not appreciating this, if everyday life cannot do without them?

Since the time when the ancient man first began to learn to draw and write, there have been many adaptations for this. At first, the role was played by a wooden stick and a stone. They could leave images on the sand or on the rock. In the 4th century BC e. people began to write with bones or wooden sticks on clay tablets soaked in water. In ancient Greece, a stick with a pointed end (stylus) and a tablet covered with a thin layer of wax were used for this. Today we use all the benefits of civilization, but we simply do not pay attention to such a simple and seemingly uncomplicated tool as a pen. Still would! There is an abundance of such goods in any stationery store (and not only): ball, gel, oil, ink ... The range is so wide that the eyes run wide. But it was not always so. Let's trace the history of the development of this product and find out who and when invented the ballpoint pen.

Background. Finding in the pyramids

Who invented the ballpoint pen and when? In fact, the answer to this question is not so clear - some researchers believe that for the first time the idea of ​​​​creating this writing instrument came to the ancient Egyptians. In the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, the progenitor of the modern pen was found - a tube made of lead and having a pointed end. Scientists believe that a reed filled with ink was placed in its cavity, and thus the device was used for writing.

Then, when parchment was invented, attention was paid to the quill pen. It is believed that the Spaniards were the first to use quills for writing. To prepare for use, the pen was first held in hot sand and then sharpened at a certain angle. Depending on this angle, the writing style could change. This is how capital letters were invented. Most often, goose feathers were used for writing. Less common were crows and even peacock feathers. A good pen was considered a prestigious gift, as today, say, products of the Parker brand or S.T. dupont. But who invented the ballpoint pen and when?

From goose feather to capillary rod

At the end of the 18th century, the pencil lead was first invented. This was done independently by Australian and French inventors. These times are considered the beginning of the development of the stationery industry. In 1803, a prototype of a steel pen appeared. At first, there was no longitudinal slit on the tips of such feathers, so it was inconvenient to write with them. After 27 years, steel nib tips appeared in their improved version. And already at the end of the 19th century, metal feathers completely replaced ordinary ones made of silver, steel and gold from use.

The American inventor Lewis Waterman proposed a new version of the writing instrument - a fountain pen. The principle of its operation was based on the flow of ink through additional holes. Waterman founded the Ideal Pen company, but very soon his invention had a new competitor - a ballpoint pen.

In what year was the first ballpoint pen invented? Idea by John Laud

The process of creating a ballpoint pen has continued over the course of history. Probably, once there was a person who invented the very first pen. It is impossible to say unequivocally who it was and when. John Loud, an American from Massachusetts, invented the ballpoint pen as we know it today. He received a patent for it on October 30, 1888.

In many ways, the first design resembled modern roll-on deodorants. Inside was a thick rod, which gradually let the ink to the paper, leaving traces on it. The first pen was filled with ink different from those used for. Therefore, Laud soon had a lot of competition - many wanted to get their own patent for making ink. Interestingly, John Laud was 44 years old at the time of the invention of the ballpoint pen, and he was an ordinary bank employee.

However, no one managed to get the desired profit, because the inventor carefully concealed his secrets, remaining the undisputed leader. The pens that his competitors tried to sell on the market were of poor quality - the ink leaked, a ball often fell out of them. Although the invention of John Laud had its drawbacks. For example, the ink from his ballpoint pen leaked in hot weather. In winter, on the contrary, they freeze.

Pen improvement by Laszlo Biro

Researchers who find out who and when invented the ballpoint pen often note the name of the Hungarian journalist Laszlo Biro. The thought came to the inventor at the moment when he was watching the printing of newspapers on a printing press. Laszlo wondered if it was possible to invent such a pen that the ink in it would dry out as quickly as during the printing process. He managed to captivate his brother Georg, who was a chemist, with this idea, and already in 1938 an improved version of the ballpoint pen was created.

Start of production

The brothers were able to obtain a patent in Paris, but they were unable to open mass production due to the then political situation. In fact, the fate of the first production of ballpoint pens was in the hands of chance. When the Hungarian journalist invented the ballpoint pen, he didn't have any sponsors to help him launch and sell the product. Once Biro was vacationing on the Mediterranean coast and there he accidentally met Augusto Justo, who at that time was the president of Argentina. The head of state was so interested in the invention of the brothers that he suggested that they open a manufactory for the production of ballpoint pens in their country.

Five years later, the brothers still managed to translate their idea into reality. They emigrated to Argentina and there they asked for help from Juan Mein, a major investor. Their pens began to be sold under the name Birome - from the combined names of Biro and Maine. In Argentina, any ballpoint pen is still called a "beer".

Competitors: the fight to the forefront

When the modern ballpoint pen was invented (Laszlo Biro did not know that this discovery had already been made in America), it was decided to expand its sales market and expand sales beyond the borders of South America. However, the Biro brothers and their sponsor were already ahead of the traveling salesman Milton Reynolds, who had previously visited Argentina and managed to patent the production of the product in the United States. Pens have become very popular with entrepreneurs - and this despite the price of $ 12.5 apiece!

And the ballpoint pen came to the Soviet Union in the 60s. At first, the rods were in short supply, so they organized refilling of pens in household appliances workshops for citizens. Nowadays, a ballpoint pen is used by about 92% of the world's population.

It is difficult to give an exact date when the ballpoint pen was invented. Laszlo Biro, John Loud, Lewis Waterman - each of these inventors contributed to the overall process of creating and improving the pen, so that as a result it became what we see it today. He himself died in 1985 in Buenos Aires. Since then, every year in Argentina on his birthday - September 29 - Inventor's Day is celebrated.

There was a time when a ballpoint pen was forbidden to write at school, as it was believed that it spoils the handwriting. But very little time passed and this ingenious invention made ink pens completely disappear along with blotters, blots in notebooks and stains on clothes.

A ballpoint pen is a pen that uses a refill (a tube filled with pasty ink) to write with a ballpoint pen at the end of the tube. The channel through which the ink passes is blocked at the end by a small metal ball, which, when writing, rolls along the surface of the paper, wetted with ink from the back. A small gap between the ball and the walls allows it to rotate and leave a mark on the paper as it rolls. These are the cheapest, simplest and therefore the most common pens. The ink paste used in ballpoint pens is different from the ink used in fountain pens. It is oil-based and thicker, which prevents it from flowing out of the rod.

Below is an excursion into the history of the invention and a video of how ballpoint pens are made.

Who now knows the name of John D. Laud? Meanwhile, this is the first inventor of the ballpoint pen. This American "Kulibin" from Massachusetts, back in 1888, received a patent for a "fountain pen with a rotating tip" - a small ball at the end of a hollow rod filled with ink.

Over the next thirty years, the US Patent Office issued 350 patents for similar ballpoint pens, but none of them became a commodity ...

The main obstacle was the ink! Too liquid left blots on paper and stained the pocket, and too thick froze on the ball. Sometimes it was possible to create suitable controlled conditions, and then the ink acted as it should ... until the air temperature changed. The best that we managed to create was a ballpoint pen, which, as a rule, wrote at an air temperature of + 21 ° C, below 18 ° C it clogged, and above + 25 ° C it leaked and left blots.

So, in addition to the author of the first ballpoint pen, those people who spent more than a dozen years to bring this ingenious invention to mind got on the tablets of history. For each of them, the creation of the mechanism and the design of the pen was an extremely important and very personal matter. It is no coincidence that all the legendary labels on branded and high-quality pens are someone's last name. Each of them has its own saga, a fascinating novel that lasts a century.

Laszlo Biro

Something like this was the situation when the Biro brothers took up this problem. After the First World War, 18-year-old Ladislav Biro (László József Bíró) (1899 - 1985)

He was born in Budapest to a Jewish family. His father, Matthias Biro, was a dentist. The son, it would seem, to follow in the footsteps of the parent. And, indeed, after school, Laszlo entered the Faculty of Medicine, but never received a diploma. For some time he practiced as a hypnotist and worked for an oil company. Then he participated in the then fashionable fad - auto racing, and even came up with an automatic transmission with a friend. The patent for this invention was bought by the American company General Motors in order to prevent anyone from implementing this invention. A kind of recognition that the inventor had a head on his shoulders! In the end, the young man became a journalist. Budapest journalist!

At the beginning of the 20th century, Budapest, which was the second capital of Austria-Hungary, entered into a race as beautiful as it was hopeless. The second capital struggled to become more beautiful than the capital of the first, beautiful Vienna. And, I must say that although the second Vienna from Budapest did not work out, this race still benefited him. And it turned out: in Vienna there is more stiffness and imperial splendor, in Budapest - more provincial warmth. Opera in Vienna, operetta in Budapest. They came to Viennese cafes to sedately eat sweets, to Budapest - to talk and even work. The editorial offices of many Budapest newspapers settled in the nearest cafes. W

Here, over a completely non-Viennese coffee with excellent, but still not Viennese, delicacies, the editors were compiling the next issue. Here, journalists discussed burning topics and wrote topical articles. Reporters came running here and brought the latest news "on the tail" - right into the room. Laszlo Biro first headed the newspaper "Hongrie-Magyarország", which in French and Hungarian meant "Hungary", and after its closure he began working in the newspaper "Elôtte". Naturally, his working tool was a pen.

The ink flowed from the pen onto the newspaper sheet, which soaked up the liquid like a sponge, and the end of the pen tore the paper in this place. In general, the result was not an inscription, but a purple swamp. There were blots even on first-class paper, and ink stains constantly flaunted on Biro's fingers and clothes. Then Ladislav called his brother Georg, a chemist by profession, and the Biro brothers began to develop new fountain pens. After trying dozens of models, the brothers Ladislav and Georg, not knowing that 351 attempts had already been made before them, invented their own ballpoint pen.

Once, while on vacation, while on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, the brothers started talking about their invention with a certain elderly gentleman. They showed a beautiful writing pen, which he liked. It turned out that this gentleman was the then president of Argentina, Augusto Justo. He invited the Biro brothers to build a ballpoint pen factory in his country. A few years later, World War II broke out and the brothers decided to leave Hungary. They remembered their old acquaintance and turned their eyes towards South America. The brothers landed in Buenos Aires with ten dollars for two. Justo recognized them, and soon, with the help of the president, they were able to win the support of several investors. In 1943, a new factory opened in the city. The effect was grandiose, that is, there was a grandiose failure. The Biro brothers made the same mistake as all their predecessors - they relied on the force of gravity, under the influence of which the ink fell on the ball. This meant that the handle had to be held strictly vertically. But even then, the flow of ink was intermittent, and clots remained on the paper. Ladislav and Georg returned to the laboratory, and soon came up with a new design, capillary. Siphon pumping forced the ink to move towards the ball regardless of the position of the pen.

A year later, the Biro brothers launched a new model for sale in Argentine stores. However, the handles sluggishly diverged. Eventually, the brothers ran out of money and production had to be halted.

But US military pilots flew to their aid. Air Force pilots who frequented Argentina during the war discovered that Argentinean pens can write from bottom to top at any height and do not need to be recharged frequently.

The stay in Paris was short. After the invasion of German troops, the Biro family moved across the ocean to Argentina. On June 10, 1943, Laszlo Biro received an Argentine patent for his invention. And soon he organized a factory for the production of ballpoint pens "Eterpen". The annual sales of Biro pens reached 7 million pieces. But the huge commercial success was local. When Laszlo Biro decided to start the production of his fountain pens in the USA, it turned out that one of the American entrepreneurs had visited Argentina and assessed the commercial potential of a ballpoint pen.

Around this time, a Chicago resident named Milton Reynolds also encountered Biro's pens in Argentina. He returned to the US and found out that such pens had already been patented by John D. Loud and other Americans, but their patents had expired by that time. Therefore, he decided that he could, without fear of anything, copy Biro's design. Yes, the American issued documents in his name. Biro's invention was simply stolen. Litigation ended not in his favor. Joseph Biro did not get the largest US market. Once Biro managed to earn a million, but others have earned tens and hundreds of millions, as is often the case with inventors.

Reynolds sold ballpoint pens for $12.50 through Gimbels' New York department store.

When the first batch of ballpoint pens went on sale in New York in 1945, the authorities had to put up a cordon of several hundred police officers in order to restrain the pressure of people wanting to buy a new pen. On the first day, they managed to sell 10 thousand new products, although they were not cheap.

The novelty attracted attention, and Gimbels sold the entire batch on the first day, all 10,000 pens! Many industrialists wanted to cling to the glory of a successful entrepreneur. Reynolds hired champion swimmer Esther Williams, who demonstrated that a ballpoint pen could write even underwater. Others showed that the pen wrote with the ball up or through a stack of carbon paper.

But one problem still remained: despite the hype started around the novelty, the handles did not work well. They leaked, destroying many important documents and excellent shirts. In addition, the ink dried up in them. The sales volume began to slowly creep down. The price is too. Ballpoint pens, once considered a luxury item, began to sell for as little as nineteen cents. But once having bought a pen even for these pennies and having tried to write, the buyers swore at what the world is worth and swore not to buy ballpoint pens for the rest of their lives ...

The man who forced buyers to recant such oaths was called Marcel Bich (1914 - 1994). He lived in France and was a manufacturer of fountain pens and writing instruments. Marcel took a professional interest in ballpoint pens. At first, he only watched how their popularity soared, and then fell like a stone to the ground and crumbled to dust ...

The root cause of this, of course, was the Second World War - after it, neither in the United States nor in Europe, people could afford expensive things. Everything that was produced at that time was subordinated to the idea of ​​maximum simplicity and utility. And against this background, Bish's idea came to the court. He decided to make the pen disposable and cut the price down to the price of a refill, 29 cents instead of $10. At the same time, the task was not easy - in addition to the low price, it was necessary to ensure reliability at the level of the then fountain pens (which had reached perfection by that time). Otherwise, the pen would hardly have found buyers.

Bish, who built a factory for the production of writing instruments near Paris. The prototype of Marcel Bish's pen was the not-too-successful design of the Hungarians by the Biro brothers. They were not particularly popular due to many shortcomings, but in general they were ballpoint pens in the modern sense, so the brothers agreed to sell the patent. Looking ahead, I will say that Argentina has become the second home for Laszlo Biro. In the Spanish-speaking country, his Hungarian name became Ladislav. And his birthday, September 29, became a national holiday, Inventor's Day.

So, in 1950, Marcel Bish bought L. Biro's patent and seriously improved his invention. M. Bisch used the method of metal processing invented in Switzerland with an accuracy of hundredths of a millimeter and began to produce steel balls with a diameter of only 1 mm. Thanks to this, Biro's ballpoint pen began to write thinner, and the ink did not seep through the writing knot at all and did not leave dirty spots on the paper.

For two years, Marcel Biche bought up all the models of ballpoint pens that appeared on the market and meticulously tested them, revealing the positive and negative sides. In 1952, Bish achieved a triumph: a cheap hexagonal pen made of transparent plastic wrote softly, without dripping or drying out.

Beek later recalled: “I thought it would be ideal to throw out the old thing in one place and buy a new one in another. I plunged into dreams: if only I had so much money that it would not be a pity to throw anything away. Then I realized: you just need to make things very cheap.” And then the enterprising Marcel makes his BIC pens collapsible (if you want, buy a rod and change it, only it cost the same as the pen itself), and starts advertising the product.

Bish called the pen of the new design "Crystal" and in 1950 began the production of these pens in France.

In 1953, Bish began mass production, and two years later two hundred and fifty thousand of his pens were sold a day.

And in 1958, Bish protected his invention with a US patent and entered the American market by founding BiC. BiC began mass production of the cheapest disposable ballpoint pens made of lightweight plastic. These pens, hexagonal like a pencil, have practically ousted other writing instruments from the American market.

Having studied the international market, Marcel Bish realized that with his name he could not break through in America. Then he changed the spelling of the name so that it could be correctly and easily pronounced wherever his new pen would be sold - Bik. The Bik model immediately won world recognition.

It is also worth mentioning that soon Marcel Bish was able to acquire the Waterman company, which specializes in stylish fountain pens.

Marcel Bic invented new models, came up with various designs of handles, but the old, reliable Bic never ceased to be the main source of income for the company.

The famous Bic Crystal is still the most popular among pens - 14 million pieces are produced per day (and no one can count fakes for it). Its body is specially made transparent, as if to say: "the main thing is the content, the shell is nothing." However, fountain pens still find their customers - people who care not about the content, but the image, or just rich people. Billions of pens, the style of which almost did not change, were sold, used, lost, disassembled into parts, disappeared no one knows where, but acquired again ... After all, without them, it would be like without hands!

Today, the production of pens has been significantly improved: pens are produced with clocks, radios, digital voice recorders. The latest invention in this area is the pen-computer. She writes with ordinary ink, but on special paper, the built-in camera "translates" the scribbles into plain text and sends the images to the computer.

Despite the development of high technology, an ordinary ballpoint pen is in no hurry to give up its position. In the same way, a wooden pencil, created back in 1790, is still successfully used.

Now it is difficult to imagine that once there was no ballpoint pen. It was created relatively recently, for a long time people used pen and ink. This article is written about the development and creation of a ballpoint pen.

Who and when invented the ballpoint pen

Scientists around the world have been developing pens for a long time. The principle of operation of products was often ill-conceived and inconvenient. For the first time, it was possible to create and patent a pen for writing only at the end of October 1888. The much-needed product was invented by John Loud. The product was patented in the USA. After such an invention, new models, more modernized, were often produced.

After the creation of the first model, scientists from other countries began to actively improve the invention. Already in the twentieth century, pens were found literally at every step, and ink and pen remained in the past. In the middle of the twentieth century, people actively used pens, no one remembered about pens. Such a product as a ballpoint pen has changed the world, now it is difficult to imagine a person who would write with a pen. The handles are incredibly comfortable and practical. Using them is very simple and pleasant.

Now handles are made from a variety of materials. They may have different inks. Pens now write not only in black, but also in other shades. Blue ink pens are the most popular. Manufacturers make their products incredibly durable and of high quality.

Ballpoint pens are very convenient to use, because the ink dries on paper instantly, they do not smudge. The inscriptions are accurate. Manufacturers are striving to make their handles even more comfortable. Even now, new models are being developed, more modernized.

It is hard to imagine life without this invention. This is a small item that people can hardly do without. Even the smallest children are taught to write with such a subject. Toddlers love to use the handles. Manufacturers create special products for children that are small in size. Such handles are adapted for small, children's palms.