10 August 2014 :: In a weekly Poll survey by Lenseye.co, Only 15% people Knows Biro Brothers invented the Ballpoint Pen, whereas 85% people said Waterman Brothers invented the Ballpoint Pen. The Question of the Weekly Poll was Who invented the Ballpoint Pen ?
The Nominees were : Biro Brothers, Waterman Brothers, Bicc Brothers, Write Brothers
A ballpoint pen is a writing instrument which dispenses a viscous ink from an internal reservoir through the rolling action of a metal ball at its point. This “ball point” may vary in diameter, and may be made of brass, steel, or tungsten carbide.
Originally conceived and developed as a cleaner and more reliable alternative to quill and fountain pens, ballpoint pens are now the dominant writing instrument. Millions are manufactured and sold every day, worldwide, with low-cost and ubiquity assuring that there is always a ballpoint pen within reach.
László Bíró, a Hungarian newspaper editor frustrated by the amount of time that he wasted filling up fountain pens and cleaning up smudged pages, noticed that inks used in newspaper printing dried quickly, leaving the paper dry and smudge free. He decided to create a pen using the same type of ink. Bíró enlisted the help of his brother György, a chemist, to develop viscous ink formulas for new ballpoint designs.
Bíró’s innovation successfully coupled ink-viscosity with a ball-socket mechanism which act compatibly to prevent ink from drying inside the reservoir while allowing controlled flow. Bíró filed a British patent on 15 June 1938.
In 1941 the Bíró brothers and a friend, Juan Jorge Meyne, fled Germany and moved to Argentina, where they formed Bíró Pens of Argentina and filed a new patent in 1943. Their pen was sold in Argentina as the Birome (portmanteau of the names Bíró and Meyne), which is how ballpoint pens are still known in that country. This new design was licensed by the British, who produced ball point pens for RAF aircrew as the Biro. Ballpoint pens were found to be more versatile than fountain pens, especially at high altitudes where fountain pens were prone to ink-leakage.
