He Invented The Ballpoint PenJournalist Laszlo Biro was irritated ir·ri·tate v. ir·ri·tat·ed, ir·ri·tat·ing, ir·ri·tates v.tr. 1. To rouse to impatience or anger; annoy: a loud bossy voice that irritates listeners. with his fountain pen. It often ran out of ink. Refilling the cartridges took too much time. And the whole process was messy. The slow-drying ink would smudge, and the sharp tip of his pen sometimes ripped into paper. The year was 1933, and the Hungarian-born Biro reasoned that a cleaner, easier tool had to be on the horizon. He pondered an invention that was to become the ballpoint 16en. The idea came to him in Budapest while observing a newspaper printing press using ink that dried immediately and did not smear. Biro noticed how the rotary cylinders of the press applied a continuous and uniform stream of ink to paper. "It got me thinking how this process could be simplified right down to the level of an ordinary pen," Biro later recalled. He died in 1985 in Buenos Aires Buenos Aires (bwā`nəs ī`rēz, âr`ēz, Span. bwā`nōs ī`rās), city and federal district (1991 pop. , Argentina. Turning his concept into a suitable handwriting device took several years of experimentation. Biro conceived that a tube filled with special ink attached to a ball bearing tucked inside a metal housing was the way to go. The bearing tip would roll in the socket and be coated in ink from the cartridge as it went across the paper. The problem was that the crucial materials -- small and precise ball bearings ball bearings n → roulement m à billes and the right kind of ink -- were not available. Fix The Flow As Biro worked on his invention, he saw that the quick-drying ink in printing presses was too thick for his pen. It wouldn't flow down the tube to mate with the ball bearing. To help fix that, he turned to his brother, George, a chemist. "It was necessary to make many different classes of ink in order to perform experiments," Biro said in a 1948 interview. The brothers slowly made the ballpoint 16en, with George developing the ink and Laszlo the mechanics. "I developed the ballpoint 16en using whole pens, bodies of several models of fountain pens, spare parts Spare parts, also referred to as Service Parts is a term used to indicate extra parts available and in proximity to the mechanical item, such as a automobile, boat, engine, for which they might be used. Spare parts are also called “spares. and several types of metallic quills," Laszlo said. Biro wasn't the first to conceive the ballpoint 15ncept. In 1888 an American leather tanner named John Loud patented a roller-ball marking pen to write on leather, but it was never produced. Several more inventors tried to develop ballpoint 16ens, but the concepts failed. Biro quite often heard criticism of his efforts, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (body) American Society of Mechanical Engineers - (ASME) A group involved in CAD standardisation. . A detractor said: "You must be mad trying to write with a ball. The writing problem is already solved in our world." The criticism only made him work harder at improving the technology. It would take 10 years before Biro had all the elements in place to prove that his concept worked and could be mass-produced in 1943. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, in a 2005 report on Biro's invention, said: "Despite its apparent simplicity, the ubiquitous ballpoint 16en is a marvel of mechanical engineering. Its current design is practically unchanged today from Biro's original concept." Biro was born in Budapest in 1899, the son of a dentist. He was constantly tinkering tin·ker n. 1. A traveling mender of metal household utensils. 2. Chiefly British A member of any of various traditionally itinerant groups of people living especially in Scotland and Ireland; a traveler. 3. and displayed a variety of interests. He attended medical school in the Hungarian capital but did not graduate, due to an accident. He practiced as a hypnotist for a time, then got a job as an oil company clerk. He had a stint as a car broker. He also indulged in sculpting sculpting Cosmetic surgery The surgical reshaping of a tissue. See Deep tissue sculpting, Facial sculpting. and painting. He even competed in car racing before settling in as a journalist for the Elotte newspaper. Biro kept tinkering. He reportedly recorded 32 inventions, including a washing machine (storage) washing machine - An old-style 14-inch hard disk in a floor-standing cabinet. So called because of the size of the cabinet and the "top-loading" access to the media packs - and, of course, they were always set on "spin cycle". device and an automatic transmission for cars that was bought by the German subsidiary of General Motors GM. The transmission invention might have secured Biro a wealthy life, but GM never used the patent. The pen invention was something else. It was his crowning act. Some places still call it a Biro. "The ballpoint 16en was a major achievement and one of the progressive steps in communication," said Glen Marcus, a handwriting device enthusiast who chronicles pens at MarcusLink.com. In 1940, the Biro brothers and associate John Meyn left for Argentina to escape the encroachment An illegal intrusion in a highway or navigable river, with or without obstruction. An encroachment upon a street or highway is a fixture, such as a wall or fence, which illegally intrudes into or invades the highway or encloses a portion of it, diminishing its width or area, but of Nazi Germany during World War II. They settled in Buenos Aires and formed the firm Biro-Meyn-Biro, later called Biro Pens of Argentina. The trio believed intensely in the pen and shifted into high gear in 1942, pushing research and development in a garage with 40 employees, then production on a small scale. Acceptable performance required precise ball bearings, which Biro ultimately sourced from a Swedish manufacturer. He applied for patents and received financing. "In Buenos Aires in 1943, I reached a result that was near what was required, and it was the starting point Noun 1. starting point - earliest limiting point terminus a quo commencement, get-go, offset, outset, showtime, starting time, beginning, start, kickoff, first - the time at which something is supposed to begin; "they got an early start"; "she knew from the 15r laboratory tests," he said. With the war raging in Europe, a British official named Harry Martin met in Argentina with Biro, who had production models in hand. Martin realized they could solve a problem facing the British air force, since airmen had trouble using fountain pens at high altitudes Conventionally, an altitude above 10,000 meters (33,000 feet). See also altitude. . The British licensed Biro's design and went into full production in England. Miles Aircraft Miles was the name used to market the aircraft of British engineer Frederick George Miles, who designed numerous light civil and military aircraft and a range of curious prototypes. Co. pumped out 30,000 Stratopens, as they were called, and they were prized by British and U.S. fliers for their leak-free performance above the clouds. "That really pushed the idea of the ballpoint 16en forward," said Richard Lee Richard Lee may refer to:
In 1944, the year before WWII WWII abbr. World War II WWII World War Two ended, Biro marketed his device in Argentina. He called it the Eterpen, the first commercial ballpoint 16en sold in quantity to the public. By then, word of the ballpoint 16en was spreading around the world. In 1945, Biro sold his patents to Frenchman Marcel Bich Marcel Bich (29 July 1914 - 30 May 1994) was the co-founder of Bic, the world's leading producer of ballpoint pens. History In 1945, Bich and his partner, Edouard Buffard, bought an empty factory near Paris, France. , who had a factory that made fountain pens and mechanical pencils A mechanical pencil, lead pencil or clicky pencil (usually called a propelling pencil in British English; other names include clutch pencil, or Pacer . Five years later, Bich introduced a ballpoint based on Biro's patents and called it the Bic. Biro then sold the U.S. rights to Eversharp-Faber. As with many grand inventions, copycats stepped up to cash in, partly a result of Biro's mistake of not filing for patent protection in the U.S. Chicago entrepreneur Milton Reynolds bought Biro pens while visiting Argentina. He reverse-engineered Biro's design and produced the Reynolds Rocket, which went on sale at Gimbels in 1945, but its poor design killed the firm by 1951. Biro sold his company to Parker Pens in 1950. In 1954, Parker introduced its first ballpoint, the Jotter jotter Noun a small notebook Noun 1. jotter - a small notebook for rough notes notebook - a book with blank pages for recording notes or memoranda jotter n (BRIT , which regained consumer confidence. Steadily, the pen came of age. Meanwhile, Bich mastered his Bic design and engineering from Biro's ballpoint. In the 1960s, its advertising campaign, "Writes first time, every time," persuaded a doubtful public to give the pen another shot. Billions The Bic pen most closely based on Biro's design is the Bic Crystal, the world's biggest-selling pen. In 2005, the Bic firm announced it had sold its 100 billionth pen overall. As for Biro's company, Parker Pen Co. of Argentina bought it in 1950. The South American country celebrates his birthday, Sept. 29, as Argentine Inventors Day. In an interview with London's Sunday Mirror this year, Biro's daughter, Mariana, 73, said: "His dream came true. He lived to see ballpoints in use wherever he looked. He died a contented man." 
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