Ballpoint Pen Day

Happy Birthday Ballpoint Pen! On this day in 1935, Hungarian brothers, Laszlo and Georg Biro invented you and what’s now one of the world’s most common writing instruments.

They weren’t the creators of a “new” pen, but they built upon the ideas of the ballpoint pen’s predecessors. Older models were ineffective and unsuccessful because of there were major problems with the ink – if the ink was thin the pens leaked, and if it was too thick, they clogged. Depending on the temperature, the pen would sometimes do both. The Biros’ new model relied on “capillsry action” rather than gravity to feed the ink. The “ball” at the end of the pen acted like a metal sponge, allowing ink to flow more smoothly to the ball and permitting writers to hold the pen at a slant rather than straight up.

While the ballpoint pen has undergone multiple modifications, the Biros have been credited with developing the prototype of our beloved writing utensil. The novelty of the ballpoint pen allowed for its first great success in October 1945 when New York’s Gimbles Department Store sold its entire stock of 10,000 pens at $12.50 each ($145 adjusted for inflation) in its first day of sales after issuing and ad describing the pen as a “fantastic… miraculous fountain pen … guaranteed to write for two years without refilling!”

Thanks Biro brothers! Without you and your innovative drive, I wouldn’t have any promotional pens to collect.