Ballpoint pen
ALTERNATIVE NAME/S: Biro, Ball pen
DETAILS:
While working as a journalist, Hungarian inventor Laszlo Biro* realized that printing ink was thicker and faster-drying than conventional fountain pen ink. Together with his brother George he produced a pen, which he patented in 1938, that used a small ball (of brass, steel or tungsten carbide) instead of a nib.
As the ball turned, by gravity feed action it received ink from a reservoir and deposited the ink onto the paper. The ball design also had the advantage of acting as a seal to the the reservoir, so that the ink in it wouldn’t leak or dry out. The ball point principle was first made public (though not patented) in 1888 when Scotsman John J. Loud invented a product for marking leather
At the beginning of World War 2, the British government acquired the licensing rights to the Biro and issued them to the Royal Air Force bomber fleet, because unlike normal ink pens the ball point pen wouldn’t leak at high altitudes. The later pressurized "Space Pen" was used by NASA, but sadly the story that it used to launch the lunar module of Apollo 11 is apocryphal (rather a regular one was used for its non-conductive plastic barrell).
ONE LINER: The ball pen
OTHER CONNECTIONS: None
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/question683.htm
http:// www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/a993378