18 November 2008
Who invented the ballpoint pen?
Posted by Cecilia under: Culture; Economy .
The story of the invention of the ballpoint pen is quite interesting.
As long ago as 1888, John Loud, an American leather tanner, created a roller-ball-tip marking pen. Unfortunately these pens were never produced.
The origin of the ballpoint pen may in fact lie in Hungary. Hungarian brothers Ladislas and Georg Biro claim the first ballpoint pen in 1935. The ink in the Biro pen wasn’t so thin as to create leaks and wasn’t too thick to cause clogs.
During World War II the brothers fled to Argentina where they designed several models of ballpoint pens. However, the brothers had no success in selling the pen.
Because the Biro patents had expired, fifty-four-year old Chicago salesman Milton Reynolds started productions of the Biro pens successfully in the U.S.
Several people claim to be the first merchant to sell ballpoint pens, among them was New York’s Gimbels Department Store in 1945.
It still took many years until the ballpoint pen was perfected into the design we know today.
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Today in Sikantis - November 18, 2008 « Sikantis Says:
18 November 2008 at 1:54 am.
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