First, the invention of ballpoint pen
According to the available information, the name of ballpoint pen first appeared in 1888. At that time, an American named John Lauder designed a pen with a ball as the nib, but he failed to make it into a commodity convenient for people to use.
1895, commercial non-writing ballpoint pens were also sold in the British market, but they failed to catch on because of their narrow use. 19 16, Germany designed and manufactured a new ballpoint pen. Its structure is close to today's ballpoint pen, but its performance is poor, which has not attracted widespread attention.
During the period of 1936, Biro of Hungary worked as a proofreader in the news printing plant. When correcting proofs with a pen, ambiguity often occurs. Therefore, Biro began to consider whether he could try another writing tool instead of a pen. After a period of experiments, he filled a steel round tube with quick-drying ink and put a steel ball at one end as a nib. Then, he carried out writing experiments on various materials that can be written, and found that they can leave indelible marks, and the ink in the pen tube is not easy to overflow. The experiment was successful. Born in 1940, he improved his invention, applied for a patent in July 1943, and put it into the market in 1945.
Second, an interesting story about the improvement of ballpoint pen.
Ballpoint pen can write because the ball in the pen tip can take out the quick-drying ink and transfer it to paper when rolling. It is said that the dry ink in the Japanese ballpoint pen core is enough to write 20 thousand words. However, if you write more words, the gap between the steel ball and the steel tube will gradually become larger, so that the ink will leak out from the gap, which will often stain the clothes and make you uncomfortable.
In order to solve the oil spill problem, experts have not racked their brains. Some study the improvement of ink formula; Some study the hardness of steel balls and steel pipes. But it's no use.
Just when this research made no progress, a Japanese small business owner came up with a unique trick: Isn't it because there is enough dry ink to write 20,000 words? Isn't it because it will leak oil when writing? Then I will decorate less dry ink, so that the ink in the refill can only write more than 1000 words, and the problem of oil leakage in the ballpoint pen core will be solved. So, he applied for a patent, specializing in the production of a short ballpoint pen core and ballpoint pen, which was welcomed by customers and soon he became a big entrepreneur.
This method of solving problems seems to be a kind of cutting corners, but in essence it is an innovation, an innovation of ideas and methods to solve problems that people could not solve at that time.
Third, the types of ballpoint pens
There are many kinds and styles of ballpoint pens, which are high, medium and low in quality, but in terms of categories, they can basically be divided into oily ballpoint pens and water-based ballpoint pens.
(1) oily ballpoint pen
Commonly known as ballpoint pen. Most ball heads used are made of stainless steel or cemented carbide. The diameter of the ball determines the thickness of the writing line. There are three common ball diameters: 1mm, 0.7mm and 0.5mm (usually indicated on the pen body or ballpoint pen core of the product). The ink of ballpoint pen is specially made, which is mainly composed of pigment, solvent and viscosity regulator. Common colors are blue, black and red. Ordinary ink is mostly used for general writing and special ink is mostly used for document writing. The ink used for document writing is generally marked on the refill, for example, the domestic refill has the word DA.
(2) Water-based ballpoint pen
Also known as ballpoint pen or ballpoint pen. The pen holder and pen body of ballpoint pen are made of plastic injection molding, which is called all-plastic ballpoint pen; The pen is made of stainless steel by stamping and polishing, and is called semi-steel pearl pen; Both the pen holder and the pen cover are made of stainless steel and are called all-steel ballpoint pens. All plastics are basically disposable, that is, they are discarded when the ink is used up; Semi-steel type and all-steel type mostly adopt replaceable packing structure. Ballpoint pen tips are divided into cannonball type and needle tube type, which are made of copper alloy, stainless steel or engineering plastic respectively. Most balls are made of stainless steel, cemented carbide or alumina. The diameter of the ball written in Chinese is 0.7 mm, and the diameter of the ball written in fine print is 0.5 mm. There are two forms of water storage: fiber bundle water storage and fiber bundle water storage. The colors of ink are red, blue, black and green. Ballpoint pen has the characteristics of both pen and oily ballpoint pen, and it is an ideal writing tool with smooth writing lubrication and even lines.
In addition to the above classification, it is also common to classify by ink color and pen structure:
1. According to the color of ink: (1) Monochrome ballpoint pen: This is the most common ballpoint pen, and the common ones are blue, black and red. (2) Two-color ballpoint pen: generally red and blue. (3) Three-color ballpoint pen: red, blue and black. (4) Four-color ballpoint pen: red, blue, black and green. Besides these four kinds, there are six, eight or even twelve colored ballpoint pens.
2. According to the structure: (1) disposable ballpoint pen, the pen holder is the refill, and neither ink nor refill can be added. The ink is used up and can only be discarded. ⑵ A ballpoint pen with replaceable refill has the functions of button, spring, lock and reset. (3) The pen holder can be rotated to extend or retract the pen core. (4) Combination of ballpoint pen and pen, combination of ballpoint pen and pencil, combination of ballpoint pen and measuring pen, combination of ballpoint pen and miniature light bulb, etc.
A ballpoint pen is different from a fountain pen, because it uses dry and thick ink, which is brought out by the freely rotating steel ball on the pen head and transferred to paper, so it does not leak water, is not affected by the weather, takes a long time to write, and saves the trouble of frequent ink filling. It quickly became popular in the world.