Happy Birthday, Biro! (Ballpoint Pen to Americans)

[eppur_se_muova]

Did Biros really revolutionise writing?
By Megan Lane
BBC News Magazine

Fifty-seven Bic Biros are sold every second (and then "borrowed" by passing colleagues) - not bad for a 60-year-old product. But did the pens really make that much of a difference?

It was a familiar frustration that led to the invention of the modern ball-point pen - leaky ink.

In 1938, Hungarian newspaper journalist Laszlo Biro noticed the ink used on the printing presses dried quickly and so tried using it in a fountain pen to avoid the problem of leaks, blots and smudges.

But the ink was too thick to flow into the nib. So Biro, with the help of his brother, a chemist, devised a pen tipped with a metal ball bearing that used capillary action to draw ink through the rotating ball.

They brought their invention with them when they fled to the West during a crackdown on Jews later that year. A British firm took over the patent to produce pens for the RAF, and the first Biros went on sale in the UK 60 years ago this week.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6173154.stm

A shame Americans don't remember the name of Laszlo Biro. I guess if we wasn't a Yank we just don't give him a mention.