Was the First Ever Ballpoint Pen Thanks to an American Inventor or a Hungarian Editor?

Human intellect has been our greatest weapon in the face of adversity. Whether on the battlefield or in the comforts of home, our minds are always working to keep us on our feet to solve any problem that comes our way.

The ballpoint pen is one of the most common things we see in any office or study desk and for good reason - it helps us write things on any writable object legibly and without the need to dip the tip in an inkwell, which, while fancy, is inconvenient in our modern world.

However, who invented the ballpoint pen, and why did they do it?

The Origins Of The Ballpoint Pen

The fountain pen is quite a fancy writing instrument. According to Nibs, it is equipped with a metal nib usually made of solid gold that uses an ink cartridge, converter, or other internal reservoirs to provide a continuous and refillable ink supply.

It also replaced the dip pens during the 19th century, which were a mix between the fountain pen and feather pens, which are required to be dipped into an inkwell every few lines to maintain ink supply.

However, fountain pens were prone to leaking ink, creating smudges, and pooling ink blots, per the BBC. These problems were an inconvenience to those trying to use them for the first time and those trying to write something in a hurry.

These problems led to the invention of the ball-point pen, which did away with those problems using a special viscous ink that dries quickly and didn't leave smudges.

It is also clean to use and convenient, but when they were first being sold in October 1945, they were not cheap. a ballpoint pen back then would cost $180 now.

Who Invented The Ballpoint pen?

Believe it or not, the first ballppoint pen was invented in 1888 by a tanner named John J. Loud, per History of Pencils. He described his invention as consisting of an improved reservoir or fountain pen, for marking on rough surfaces where an ordinary pen could not be used, per Day Spring Pens.

Unfortunately, Loud's inventionwas great when used on leather, but was too rough to be used on paper. Loud's patent then lapsed overtime, which allowed for better iterations to be created.

It was only until László Bíró and his brother, György, invented their iteration of the ballpoint pen that became the foundation of the ballpoint pen what now know today.

The two brothers were Jewish-Hungarians, with László being a newspaper editor while György was a chemist. One time, László noticed that ink used in newspaper printing dried quickly, so he had György create a new ink based on newspaper ink that is both thick and sticky while being quick to dry at the same time.

The ink the brothers came up with can be described as paste-like.

They then combined the ink with a ball-socket mechanism to make a ballpoint pen that would not allow the ink within to dry inside but would still leave the mark behind when used.

The University of British Columbia mentioned that while László's ballpoint pen still leaked, they worked great for pilots as they did not leak at high altitudes. From there, the British government bought the rights to the "Biro" pen and used them in the Royal Air Force.

Milton Reynolds, an American, saw the pen and knew that they would sell well back in the States. He then used a prototype of the pen and used it to create his own version, which he named the "Reynolds Rocket."

An Italian, Marcel Bich, solved the occassional leakage problem and brought the price down to more affordable levels, leading to the ballpoint pens we now know today.