In October of , Loud filed a patent with the U. His invention consisted of three small metal spheres at the tip of a hollow metal barrel. However, because it was created to write on leather, it did not flow smoothly when applied to paper. Pens available at the time were extremely prone to smudging and leakage, which proved to be quite a hassle in everyday use. He determined that a pen equipped with newspaper ink would not smudge as easily as one that used fountain pen ink.
So, he set out to create a brand new kind of pen - one that would dry easily, prevent smudging, and be easily accessible to the general public. Later, upon meeting English accountant Henry Martin, they proposed their idea to the British Royal Air Force as a more dependable option for air travel. Several people jumped at the chance to manufacture and sell their own version of the ballpoint pen with varying degrees of success.
The Frawley Pen Company now known as Papermate had a good business team and a dependable pen. The established Parker pen company created what quickly became a household favorite in the T-ball Jotter.
The ballpoint pen was becoming a worldwide phenomenon, and everyone wanted a piece of the action. While most of the world was buzzing over this new writing craze, Frenc pen manufacturer Marcel Bich was not exactly sold on the idea, at least at first. He could not fathom why the pen needed to be reinvented, especially when the fountain pen worked well enough already.
But soon, he came to appreciate the ease and convenience of the ballpoint pen. After realizing its potential, Marcel Bich was inspired to invest in this revolutionary new idea. He used the mechanisms detailed in the patent, in addition to ink formulas derived from his own research and experimentation, to develop his own ballpoint pen: the BIC Cristal. After its commercial release in , this pen quickly became a household item across the globe, continuing to be the most popular pen in the world.
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By choosing I Accept , you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. Reddit Pocket Flipboard Email. Ladislao Biro around , 40 years after he created his famous pen. As James Ward wrote for the Wall Street Journal : A cylinder could only roll backward and forward, while a pen needs to move in all directions. Ballpoint pens changed handwriting forever. Next Up In The Latest. Delivered Fridays. Thanks for signing up! Check your inbox for a welcome email. Email required.
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My hand, trained by the ballpoint, expected that lessening the pressure from the pen was enough to stop writing, but I found I had to lift it clear off the paper entirely. Once I started to adjust to this change, however, it felt like a godsend; a less-firm press on the page also meant less strain on my hand.
My fountain pen is a modern one, and probably not a great representation of the typical pens of the s—but it still has some of the troubles that plagued the fountain pens and quills of old. I have to be careful where I rest my hand on the paper, or risk smudging my last still-wet line into an illegible blur.
And since the thin ink flows more quickly, I have to refill the pen frequently. The ballpoint solved these problems, giving writers a long-lasting pen and a smudge-free paper for the low cost of some extra hand pressure.
But every so often I come across another story about the decline of handwriting. Inevitably, these articles focus on how writing has been supplanted by newer, digital forms of communication—typing, texting, Facebook, Snapchat.
They discuss the loss of class time for handwriting practice that is instead devoted to typing lessons. No need of handwriting? Surely there must be some reason I keep finding pens everywhere. Despite the proliferation of handwriting eulogies, it seems that no one is really arguing against the fact that everyone still writes —we just tend to use unjoined print rather than a fluid Palmerian style, and we use it less often.
I have mixed feelings about this state of affairs. It pained me when I came across a student who was unable to read script handwriting at all. But my own writing morphed from Palmerian script into mostly print shortly after starting college. Given the amount of time I spend on computers, it would be easy for an opinionated observer to count my handwriting as another victim of computer technology.
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