Bic Retractable Ballpoint Point Black

Working as I do, for a company that provides promotional pens, I tend to take ballpoint pens for granted. It wasn’t until the other day when I came upon a fountain pen that my Mother had used to write letters to my Father for the duration of World War II, that I became curious with regards to how the ubiquitous ballpoint pen came into being.

In 1888, an American leather tanner named John Loud patented a roller-ball pen for marking leather hides. It was never invented nor was any of the other pens based upon 350 patents over the next 30 years. The ink was the problem -either it was too thin and leaked or it was too thick and it clogged.

In 1935, two Hungarian brothers, Laszlo and George Biro, developed an bettered version of the ballpoint pen. At the time, Laszlo was an editor at a little newspaper. He was very frustrated by the amount of time that he wasted filling his fountain pens and by the fact that the tip of his pens often scratched or tore the newsprint paper. George was a chemist, and together, they devised new pen designs and ink formulations to be applied in them.

While vacationing at the seashore shortly thereafter, the Biro brothers met Augustine Justo, the President of Argentina. He spurred and encouraged them to open a factory in Argentina. When World War II erupted in Europe a few years later, Laszlo and George fled to Argentina, but firstborn stopped in Paris where they received a patent for their pen.

By 1943, the Biros had patented their pen in Argentina and set up a fabricating facility, but the Biro Pen, as it came to be known, was a failure. Like other ballpoint pens before it, the pen relied on gravity to feed ink to the roller ball. That required that the pen be held in an upright position to write and the ink flow was still unreliable. The brothers went back to the drawing board and came up with a new design for the ink cartridge that used capillary action rather than gravity to deliver ink to the textured roller ball. The newly-designed pen went on the market a year later, and though the new design solved the problems, the pen was not a huge mercantile success and the Biros ran out of money.

It was, however, very frequent with American and British fighter pilots who liked the pens because they would write at high altitudes and did not need refilling like fountain pens. The British Government licensed the pen for the RAF and the United States Department of State sent samples of the pen to a number of American pen manufacturers so they could invent a similar pen. In an undertake to corner the market, the Eberhard Faber Company remunerated the Biro brothers $500,000 for the U.S. rights to formulate their ballpoint pen. Eberhard Faber sold the patent rights to the pen to the Eversharp Company, allegedly for $1,000,000, which begun an broad crusade to introduce the pen to America.

In a surprising end-run, a fifty-four year old salesman from Chicago, Milton Reynolds, became the primary American manufacturer to with great success market the ballpoint pen. Reynolds had visited Argentina, where he had seen the Biro’s pen in stores and thought that the pen would trade in America. Reynolds ignored the Biro patents, a good deal of of which had either expired or had never been in the right manner filed in the U.S. and set up a factory. In a bold marketing move, he made a deal with Gimbels to be the basi store to trade the pen. On the initial day that the pen went on sale, 5,000 clients showed up at Gimbels and purchased the entire 10,000 pens that the store had in stock at over $10.00 per pen!

While Reynolds made millions of pens in the months that followed, ballpoint pens fell out of favor with the public as they came upon some of the same difficultnesses with the pens still existed. Somebody necessitated to fabricate a pen that was smooth writing, dried quickly, didn’t skip or fade and, most indispensable of all, didn’t leak.

Two men, Patrick J. Frawley, Jr. and Fran Seech solved the problem. Seech was an unemployed chemist who lost his occupation when the pen company he worked for went out of business. Working in his own home laboratory, he ultimately devised the successful ballpoint pen ink. Frawley, was so impressed with Seech’s ink, he purchased the formula and started the Frawley Pen Company in 1949. Frawley’s pen not only had smear-proof ink, it also had a retractable point. An imaginative selling crusade ensued and soon Frawley’s pen, which he named Paper-Mate, took off. Other brands, such as Parker soon followed suit.

The other person to help revive the ballpoint pen was a French maker of penholders and cases, Marcel Bich. Not only was he appalled by the poor quality, but likewise by the high cost. He did, however, recognize that the ballpoint pen was a true innovation and resolved to develop a low-priced, top-quality pen. Bich went to the Biro brothers and struck a deal to remunerate them a royalty on their patent and then expended two years studying each detail of each ballpoint pen on the market.

Finally, in 1952, Bich was ready to unveil his new pen. It was an inexpensive clear-barreled, smooth-writing, non-leaking pen called the Ballpoint Bic. The public accepted it with open arms. By the late 1950′s, BIC had captured 70% of the European market.

Today, BIC dominates the market, with other makers like Parker, Sheaffer and Waterman capturing the littler market for upscale fountain pens and ballpoint pens. The innovative version of Laszlo and George Biro’s pen – the BIC Crystal – sells more than 14,000,000 pieces daily. Biro is still the generic name for the ballpoint pen in most of the world. And lastly, Parker black ink ballpoint pens will construct over 28,000 linear feet of writing – more than five miles – before running out of ink.

So the next time an individual gives you a promotional pen or you buy one at the store, do not forget the awful story of the Biro brothers and their gift to the world, the ballpoint pen.

Bic Retractable Ballpoint Point Black

Rubberized pen barrel provides outstanding no-slip grip for better precision and control. Retractable to protect pockets and purses. Filled with water-resistant and quick-drying ink to keep your documents clean. Global Product Type: Pens; Pen Type: Ballpoint; Special Ink Type: N/A; Pen Style: Retractable.

Bic Retractable Ballpoint Point Black Image

Bic Retractable Ballpoint Point Black Photo

Bic Retractable Ballpoint Point Black Picture

Bic Retractable Ballpoint Point Black Photo

Most helpful client reviews

22 of 22 humans found the following review helpful.
A perfective cheap retractable pen
By Jeff
I’m a cheap pen addict. I’ve been through all the gels, the Space pen, and a great deal of fountain pens. I keep coming back to the modest ballpoint because it plainly lasts longer and seems more lasting in day-to-day use. It’s the one type of pen that may write on any type of paper (shiny, porous, etc.) without worry.

I had the chance to undertake a Bic retractable pen a while back. It was emblazoned with galore pharmacy’s name but I was impressed with it is performance. I use black ink completely and, in the cheap pen market, a good black pen is in truth hard to find. Up until now, it was the Fisher Space pen – but it’s far from perfect. The Space pen many times quits before entirely exhausting the reservoir. I compare that with my Bic Crystal experiences from when I was a child. I would hang onto one of those until the barrel was totally clear – all it is ink expelled in use. Anyway, back to the pen at hand here.

I picked up a 12 pack of Bic Soft Feel Retractable pens from a local Walgreens. I haven’t seen them being sold in quantities less than that. Even at a dozen, they were only when it comes to $7 – a little over fifty cents a pen. The barrel isn’t clear so you’ll never recognise when you’re out of ink but the soft feel is exquisite. The click top is a simple (read “cheap”) piece of black plastic but it’s functional and resounds with a satisfying “click” when you use it. Further down the barrel is a somewhat wider barrel wrap – likewise soft feeling. The pen is feather-light and well balanced and the line it lays is as pitch-black as the Space pen (a $25 pen). Making loops with this Bic shows almost zero gapping in the line – actually performing better than the Space pen. All this in a pen I may give away to an individual on the bus (because I keep half a dozen in my backpack). I highly commend this pen and will be picking up a 12 pack of blue ones for my wife (since she alternatively chooses blue to black).

7 of 7 persons found the following review helpful.
Definitely for the left handed
By R. HEINE
These pens are outstanding for the left handed. Most pens I write with smear but these do not for the most part for me. They are the right size as well for comfort. I genuinely go out and make a distinguished trip just to pick these out so thats saying a lot coming from me. But regrettably Office Depot does not trade BIC any more so I will have to buy from Amazon, altho I believe Walgreens may trade these.

9 of 10 persons found the following review helpful.
Best pen I have ever used
By Steven Warfield
I am more or less of a pen snot. I suppose the pen I write with to work almost flawlessly. I have found that in the Bic Soft Feel. The similar Bic Clic Stic is what turned me onto this product in the introductory place – the real vantage the Soft Feel has is that it is much more comfortable to write with over a long amount of time of time.
For the price, you will not find a better pen. I have been using the same Soft Feel for roughly 6 months and it always writes with no problems or difficulties and evenly, never clogs, and has yet to show signs of degrading.

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