Ballpoint Pens

Ballpoint pens were first patented in 1888 by John J. Loud. The American wanted a pen that was capable of writing on leather, and found that by placing a small steel ball in the nib that couldn’t fall out but which could move freely, there seemed to be a solution. Unfortunately, his particular invention wasn’t commercially viable and the patent lapsed. Many tried to improve on Loud’s design but found the engineering challenging. That was until 1931, when the first working ballpoint pent was unveiled at an international fair in Budapest. Patents were subsequently filed, and thanks to a pair known as the Biro brothers, the Biro pen eventually reached UK shores. The basic design of the ballpoint pen hasn’t changed since, and is still in use across the world today. Often referred to as ‘ball pens’ and ‘biros’, they can be found in virtually every office, school and artist’s drawer.

Ballpoint pens and rollerballs are more different than you might think. Rollerballs use liquid ink as opposed to the oil-based ink used in ballpoint pens. This makes the former slightly smoother during use, but ballpoint pens offer a far more controlled action and usually last much longer, too. This also makes ballpoint pens perfect for pen artwork, and there has been a long tradition of using the pens for all manner of artistic endeavours. The best are capable of creating drawings that you’d be forgiven for assuming were created with pencils or brushes and the internet is full of amazing examples of ballpoint pen artwork creations. The reason ball pens are so popular is partly because they can write on pretty much any kind of paper – even poor quality paper (such as that on which receipts are printed) can be written on easily with a biro.