June 10, 1943: The Ballpoint Pen — Ink Dry for Me, Argentina
The Biro brothers made the ballpoint pen workable with a rotating ball that fits loosely enough to move smoothly and let the ink flow, but tightly enough to keep the rest of the ink in the cylinder.
Courtesy Daniel Schwen
1943: Brothers László and Georg Bíró, Hungarian refugees living in Argentina, patent the ballpoint pen. A half-century-old idea is coming to commercial fruition. Lewis Waterman's invention of a practical fountain pen, patented in 1884, had solved the problem of portability. You no longer had to carry around an inkwell to be able to write when and where you wanted. But the ink still took a while to dry and was subject to running and smudging. American banker John L. Loud patented a ballpoint pen in 1888. It used a ball-and-socket to deliver sticky, quick-drying ink. Too sticky: The ink was so coarse, it didn't really work well on paper. (It was a good idea on paper, except literally.) It did find industrial uses for writing on leather and cloth.
Read More http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/06/dayintech_0610#ixzz0qSpOIuLj
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