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Even though 3C products gradually reduce the frequency and number of times people write, ballpoint pens have always had a place. Have you ever wondered how the ballpoint pen was invented?
The era without ballpoint pen
In the world before the invention of the ballpoint pen, the fountain pen was the primary writing tool. Although the fountain pen has improved the shortcomings of having to re-dip the ink after writing a few words with the water pen in the early years, the fountain pen is prone to leakage, the ink dries slowly, and the hands are easy to get dirty . Not the best answer for people’s writing tools.
Therefore, the ballpoint pen will appear.
The first ballpoint pen has nothing to do with everyday writing
Interestingly, the first person who came up with the idea of ”putting a small steel ball into the pen to write with ink” did not intend to use this invention to improve everyday writing tools.
In 1888, American amateur inventor John Loud could not find an instrument for writing on rough surfaces such as wood and leather, so he simply did it himself and ingeniously used “the tip of the pen to put a steel ball” to solve the problem encountered. problem. However, the “ballpoint pen” invented by Lauder is not suitable for writing on paper, so it was never mass-produced and entered the life of ordinary people. It became the occasion for the concept of “ballpoint pen” to enter the stage of history for the first time.
▲ It can be said that Lauder is the first person to think of “putting a steel ball in the nib to dip the ink to write”, but Lauder’s invention was never mass-produced and of course it did not replace the status of a fountain pen. (Source: Flickr / Nayuki CC BY 2.0)
Find inspiration from children playing with rocks
In the 20th century, László Bíró, a Jewish Hungarian journalist, also suffered from the flaws of fountain pens and began developing his ballpoint pen across the Atlantic.
According to the Wall Street Journal, one afternoon when the sky was rainy, Biro sat at the window of a street corner bar, thinking about how to improve his pen. By chance, Biro saw a group of boys on the sidewalk playing in the puddle. One of the boys took a stone, put it in the puddle and slowly rolled out of the puddle, leaving a water mark on the sidewalk.
In this brief moment Biro had an idea, and the idea of a “ballpoint pen” gradually formed in his heart.
Where can I find quick-drying ink?
However, this ballpoint pen has a fatal flaw: the ink.
The pen’s ink cannot meet Biro’s standards in indicators such as drying speed, so he turned to his brother Győrgy László, a dentist and amateur chemist, for help. Based on the printing press ink used for news printing at the time, the two successfully developed inks with higher viscosity and quick-drying speed after a small improvement, which solved the problems encountered in the development of pens to ball.
▲ After much confrontation, the Royal Air Force finally approached Biro and ordered 30,000 ballpoint pens from him at once. (Source: pixabay)
I travel to escape from Hungary
It’s a shame that although Biro worked very hard to run the ballpoint pen business, Biro didn’t make a lot of money inventing the ballpoint pen compared to dealers after. Part of the reason was that Hungary’s oppression of Jews was increasing day by day. After looking into the situation, Biro decided to leave his hometown and finally settled in Argentina.
In Biro’s limited career with ballpoint pens, the Royal Air Force (RAF) is undoubtedly a major customer. At the time, the Royal Air Force was looking for a pen that could write at high altitudes. After many attempts with various fountain pens but still failed to meet the requirements, the Royal Air Force became interested in the ballpoint pen developed by Biro and ordered it from them. 30,000 sticks.
Family vs ballpoint pen
While Biro is working hard to expand the ballpoint pen business in South America, the situation in Europe went from bad to worse with the outbreak of World War II and Biro’s idea of taking his family to South America became more and more determined.
In the end, Biro decidedly chose his family between the ballpoint pen and his family, sold the shares in the company he owned and raised a sum of money to take his family to Europe in Argentina.
▲ The first ballpoint pen in the United States was listed on the “Kimbel Department Store” in New York City. At the time, the ballpoint pen was being sold as “premium” and the asking price was $ 160 each. (Source: Advertiser for Gimbels department store, as advertised in the New York Times (September 23, 1910), public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
The window of opportunity is fleeting
While developing Biro’s ballpoint pen business in Argentina, American businessman Milton Reynolds came to Argentina for some reason and was shocked to find the ballpoint pen sold there. After returning to China, Reynolds decided to found the Reynolds International Pen Company and asked the product team to develop their ballpoint pen at full speed to seize the opportunity.
A ballpoint pen asking for $ 12
This rush-to-market mentality has somewhat influenced the Reynolds ballpoint pen. With only 5 months of development, this ballpoint pen still has the flaws of previous pens, such as slow ink drying and easy hand coloring, but it didn’t take long to save the pen. You need to replenish the ink. According to the International Reynolds Ball Pen Company, this ballpoint pen only needs to be refilled every 2 years.
On October 29, 1945, Reynolds’ ballpoint pen made his wish come true and became the first publicly available ballpoint pen in the United States. He chose the location of the Gimbles department store in New York City. Each was priced at $ 12, which is roughly the same as today. 160 US dollars (approximately 4,621 Taiwanese dollars).
Although the asking price was high, according to the New Yorker, people were still waiting in long lines outside the Kimber department store to purchase this “atomic-age miracle pen.” In just one week, Kimball sold 30,000 of the 50,000 pens Kimball originally ordered and in the next six months earned $ 81 million (approximately NT $ 2,339,279,919) for Kimber.
▲ I am Bickey and the “Bic Cristal” ballpoint pen that he developed to really bring the ballpoint pen into people’s daily life. (Source: Trounce, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
The first ballpoint pen that ordinary people can afford
Reynolds’ expensive ballpoint pens are bound not to be the cheap and easy-to-use ballpoint pens that people can easily get today. The people who really made the ballpoint pen achieve this were the Frenchman Michel Bich and his “Bic Cristal” ballpoint pen.
Part of Bic Cristal’s success is due to the rapid development of plastics technology, which has laid an excellent foundation for mass production and small profits but rapid turnover. Furthermore, Bic Cristal mimics the hexagonal pen body of a pencil, the highly recognizable cap, and most importantly, only 19 cents, about 1.50 US dollars (about 43 US dollars) today, made this ballpoint pen, characterized by “Every time you write, like the first time you write”, an instant success, and has truly become a “perfect and affordable feature”. ballpoint pen”.
Biga didn’t invent new things
When Bigey died in 1994, the British “Independent” wrote this eulogy: “Throughout the 20th century, no one understood the potential for” high production and low cost “better than Bigey.”
“Basically, Bige didn’t invent anything new, but he fully understood the enormous power behind the market.”
Empire Hundred Billion Ballpoint Pen
According to Bic, a stationery company founded by Bickey himself, the total sales of Bic Cristal ballpoint pens have so far exceeded 100 billion, there are 160 countries in the world and Bic Cristal products can be seen. In 2019 alone, total sales of Biga products reached US $ 2 billion (approximately NT $ 57,755,999.8,000); at the same time, the Bic Cristal ballpoint pen was listed on the Museum of Modern Art in New York, USA. York) permanent collection of honor, which commemorates the extraordinary influence of this ballpoint pen.
“The counterattack of old school technology: How vinyls, negatives and notebooks can stand steadfast in the face of the digital frenzy” described David Sax: “If there had never been a ballpoint pen in this world, now someone is collecting funds. The idea of a ballpoint pen put forward by the platform will certainly become the most popular proposal. “
▲ Ballpoint pens manufactured by Bic Company are cheap and easy to use, but when the ink of these ballpoint pens runs out, they are often thrown into the bin, causing serious plastic waste problems. (Source: Flickr / Barta IV CC BY 2.0)
Fatal absence
However, the Bic ballpoint pen still has one fatal flaw: plastic trash. According to statistics, more than 1.6 billion ballpoint pens are thrown into the trash every year in the United States alone, and a large amount of plastic waste has also become a problem Bic has to solve.
“Those 100 billion pens may still be in a landfill now,” said Gemma Curtin, curator of the London Design Museum. Most of the time, the reason people abandon the ballpoint pen is not because the barrel of the pen is unusable, but because the core of the pen has no water. In fact, as long as you change the refill, the ballpoint pen can continue to be used.
“It’s just that people throw the whole pen away because there’s no water in the ballpoint, which is kind of weird.”
▲ After years of development, the ballpoint pen has finally managed to replace the fountain pen and become a fully integrated stationery in people’s daily life. (Source: Flickr / Jenny CC BY 2.0)
New material to make the pen tube
In recent years, many ballpoint pen manufacturers have invested a lot of resources to solve the plastic waste problem. Bic started from the pen body material and moved to recycled plastic as the main material of its products. Many manufacturers also actively promote the concept of “refills” to encourage people. Replace the habit of ditching old pens and buying new pens by changing refills.
Ballpoint pen, the lasting invention
After years of development, the ballpoint pen has gone from that expensive “landmark product” to an important invention that is integrated into people’s daily lives and most people don’t particularly care about. In the eyes of business writer Sykes, he believes that regardless of the development of 3C equipment, ballpoint pens will never retire from people’s lives. He said: “When people in the tech circle discuss outdated products, ballpoint pens will never be one of them.”
“Even technicians like Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg or Tesla founder Elon Musk have several ballpoint pens on hand.”
(This article was reprinted with permission from the Earth Atlas Team; first image source: Pixabay)
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