How was a ballpoint pen, a necessity of modern life, born and accepted?

by dion gillard

" Ballpoint pen " which sells not only at stationery shops but also at stores and convenience stores and station shops is one of the items indispensable for everyday life. Blog media Tedium explains how this ballpoint pen was invented and how it spread worldwide.

Disposable Ballpoint Pen History: Pens for Pennies
https://tedium.co/2018/08/02/disposable-ballpoint-pen-history/

The history of the ballpoint pen is old, and the patent applied by Mr. John Loud of the American in 1888 is the document on the oldest ballpoint pen. However, Mr. Loud's ballpoint pen is more incompatible with the structure than the contemporary one, it is said that ink did not reach practical use because the ink leaked from the ball gap.

In 50 years after that in 1938, Judaic Hungarian Buddhist Ladyslao Bill, who worked at a newspaper company, noticed that the ink used in the newspaper dries faster than the one used in the fountain pen, I thought that I could divert the newspaper ink to stationery. However, when filling the fountain pen with ink for the newspaper, the viscosity of the ink was too strong and ink could not be used without staining to the pen tip.

Therefore, Mr. Billow successfully develops a ballpoint pen that will not cause ink leakage by applying "Mr. Loud's ballpoint pen" and " Capillary phenomenon " that liquid advances through thin tubular objects.

Unfortunately in the Second World War, Mr. Billough who was persecuted by the Nazis · German Army exiled from Hungary to Argentina. Mr. Billow applied for an additional patent in 1943 and established a company in Argentina, commercializing the ballpoint pen he invented. Mr. Bill's ballpoint pen was able to write letters at high places, so popularity came from British and American air force.

After the war, American entrepreneur Milton Reynolds focused on Mr. Bill's ballpoint pen. The patent of the ballpoint pen itself was lost, but patents were additionally applied for Mr. Billow 's ingenuity utilizing the capillary phenomenon. Therefore, Mr. Reynolds devised a new ink extrusion technology using gravity, and in 1945 launched a new ball pen called "Reynolds rocket". This Reynolds rocket was sold at the price of 12.50 dollars (about 15,000 yen at modern value), but it flew mainly in the United States.

Meanwhile, Bill's patent was bought in the 1950s was Big , a French writing instrument manufacturer. Bic is known for disposable products such as disposable lighters and disposable razors, and in 1950 we sold "disposable ballpoint pen" Bic Crystal ". Big crystal was a revolutionary writing instrument as a time when the body was transparent and it was supposed to be able to understand the remaining amount of ink at a glance.

Mr. Bill creates the basic form of a ballpoint pen, Mr. Reynolds creates a market for ballpoint pen and fashion, and Bic has created an inexpensive ballpoint pen that everyone can easily use. And the pen which was a luxury item has become established as a writing instrument which can be obtained cheaply even in the general public at once. According to statistics published by Paper Mate of the writing instrument maker, the percentage of people who stole a pen from a colleague reached 100%, 78% said "I inadvertently forget to return it to his pencil case carefully borrowed" It turned out that it was the situation that it was. Also, I realized that most of the pens go somewhere before I run out. By lowering the value of the pen, it can be said that the ballpoint pen is not used as much as possible until the very end.

Starbucks will abolish plastic straw by 2020, and in 2018 it is in the trend to eliminate plastic products including straws and bags in the world. Although disposable ballpoint pens have become a useful tool for consumers, on the other hand, Tedium points out that they have the same problems as straws on the environmental side.

In the past, pen was valuable in the era when fountain pens were mainstream, and continued to use importantly while replenishing ink. However, with the spread of disposable ballpoint pens, the pen became cheap at a stroke and now it has penetrated until becoming one of the essential necessities. On the contrary, ballpoint pens are used not only as mere writing instruments, but also as a marketing tool, for example hotels and banks to distribute their pen's name for free. Although it is said that the invention of the 20th century is the computer, disposable ballpoint pens may be said to be comparable to computers.