SHORT FEATURE Ballpoint Pen — An Eponymous Invention Chaganty Krishnakumari HE ballpoint pen has a ball at ink through a thin slit to the writing its point, which rotates when surface. A fountain pen reservoir can T dragged across a surface like be refillable or disposable which is a paper, and leaves behind ink that basically an ink cartridge. This may comes from the reservoir of the pen. be refilled with a dropper, or may That is why it is called Ballpoint pen. have a mechanism, such as a piston, The ball may be of different diameter to draw ink from a bottle through the and can be made of brass, steel, nib. Refill reservoirs, also known as or tungsten carbide. The ink dries cartridge converters, are available almost immediately on contact with for some pens which use disposable the surface. cartridges. Ballpoint pens are so ubiquitous Biro had to waste lot of his time that the word “ballpoint” is rarely in filling fountain pens and cleaning used; they’re just “pens”. Though John J. Loud up ink smudges. Besides, the sharp millions of people around the world tip of his fountain pen often scratched everyday use these simple and humble designs could work out satisfactorily or tore through the newsprint (paper). writing instruments, most might not though about 350 patents were issued So, he to avoid clogging his pen with know about its inventor, and how it over the next thirty years. The ink they thick ink, he proposed a tiny metal ball was invented. were using was the major culprit. If the that rotated at the end of a tube of this The story of the ballpoint pen ink was thin the pens leaked, and if it quick drying ink. The ball would act begins in 1888. The first ballpoint was too thick, it clogged. Depending as a cap to keep the ink from drying pen, which could write on leather, was on the temperature, the pen would and also let ink flow out of the pen at invented by a tanner John J. Loud. His sometimes do both. a controlled rate. pen had a reservoir of ink and a small Fifty years after Loud’s patent, With the help of his brother steel ball which was placed so that it an improved version was invented in Georg, who was a chemist, he started could not fall out nor fall in but it still Hungary in 1935, by Ladislas Jose making models of new designs and could rotate freely, applying thick ink Biro. He was working as an editor formulating better inks to use in to leather hides. Loud patented this of a small newspaper and was using their pens. Giving his name to the pen invention in 1888 in America. Fountain pens that had been in use for invention, Biro patented it in 1938. However, his pen could not be used as decades. Just months after he signed a contract a writing instrument, and he failed to with a business partner he had to flee Fountain pens use water-based turn it into a commercial product and Hungary to Argentina to avoid Nazi liquid ink delivered through a nib. The so his patent lapsed. persecution. ink flows from a reservoir through a After his patent lapsed, many "feed" to the nib, then through the nib, One summer day, while walking enthusiastic efforts were made tried to due to capillary action and gravity. The on a sea shore the brothers met improve on his design. But none of the nib has no moving parts and delivers Augustine Justo, the then president 32 | Science Reporter | June 2019 globs on the paper. The brothers devised a new design, which relied on "capillary action" rather than gravity to feed the ink, and succeeded. The first major buyer of the newly created pen was the Royal Air Force. The British government bought the rights to the patented pens so that the pens could be used by Royal Air Force crews. Unlike conventional fountain pens that flooded at high altitudes, ballpoint pens wrote at high altitudes with reduced pressure, also Ladislas Jose Biro did not have to be refilled frequently. Birome’s advertising in Argentine magazine However, consumers soon Leoplán, 1945 of Argentina. Fascinated by their discovered many problems with the model of ball point pen, Augustine ballpoint pens and their demand went Space Pens: Paul C. Fisher, an Justo urged them to set up a factory down. To meet the expectations, American inventor and politician, in Argentina. The brothers came the ball point pen needed to be one invented the Fisher Space Pen. It to Buenos Aires, built a garage of smooth writing, quick drying, is a revolutionary ballpoint pen workshop. They could get a number no skipping, non-fading, and most which works with thixotropic ink of investors in Argentina to finance importantly non-leaking. their invention. In 1943 they set up and a pressurized ink cartridge. a manufacturing plant ‘Biro Pens of Thixotropy is the property exhibited Paper mate: A chemist by name Argentina – factory’ and made the by certain gels and fluids of becoming Fran Speech had been working on first commercial models. The first liquid when stirred or shaken. improvements in ballpoint ink, and successful ballpoint pen was patented Their viscosity decreases when a soon in a tiny home laboratory in in Argentina on June 10, 1943, and stress is applied, as when stirred. So Los Angeles developed a new ink first distributed under the Eterpen space pens can write on almost any formula. Patrick J. Frawley, Jr., brand. substance ranging from butter to steel. bought Speech’s new ink formula The first pens designed by him, They also can survive a wide array of in 1949 and started the Frawley like the earlier designs, depended on temperatures, ranging from -50 to 160 Pen Company. Within one year his gravity for the ink to flow to the roller company made yet another improved degrees Fahrenheit. ball. These pens worked only when model with a retractable ballpoint tip Ordinary ballpoint pens rely on they were held more or less vertically, and with no-smear ink. Within a few gravity to feed the ink and have an and even then the ink flow was years, the Paper Mate pen was selling opening in the top of the ink cartridge sometimes too heavy, leaving smudgy in the hundreds of millions. to allow air to replace the ink as it is Ballpoint Bic: Marcel Bich, a used. There is no hole in space pens, eliminating evaporated or wasted ink Close-up of traditional French manufacturer, went to the fountain pen with Iridium Hungary brothers and arranged to as well as leakage from the rear of nib pay them a royalty on their patent. the ink reservoir. Then for two years Marcel Bich studied the detailed construction of Dr Chaganty Krishnakumari, Retd every ballpoint pen from the market Associate Professor. Address: 204, with a microscope. By 1952, Bich Saradagopalan Apartment, St. No. 8, introduced a smooth-writing, non- Himayatnagar, Hyderabad-500029, leaky, inexpensive ballpoint pen Telangana. and called it “Ballpoint Bic". The Email: chaganty_krishnakumari@ ballpoint pen had finally become a yahoo.com, ckkumari1947@gmail. practical writing instrument. com June 2019 | Science Reporter | 33.