The History of the Ball Point Pen

If you look at the tip of a ball point pen you will see that it has a little ball on the very end. This little ball allows the ink to move smoothly around on the paper in a long even line. The ball point pen was not always popular, it went through may trials and tribulations before it was perfected into the pen that it is today. The first ball point pens had a lot of problems that have been ironed out through the years by many different people.

The original ball point pen was invented in the late l800's and it used a tiny ball that rotated and was constantly bathed on one side with ink. The problem with these early pens was getting the ink to run smoothly in a even line Sometimes the pens created little blotches on the paper or the would log up and wouldn't let the ink out at all. T he pens would leak in peoples pockets and ruin clothes. Sometimes it was impossible to mix up a batch of ink that would work properly. For years the ball point pen would work well at 70 degrees but it would clog up at temperatures below 65 degrees and it would leak and smear if the weather was too hot.

It wasn't until World War II that the ball point pen was really made to work great. The U.S. Air force needed a pen that would write upside down so the looked around to find such a pen that would write smoothly even upside down. They found a pen that worked and in l944 production of the first pen that could write upside down was put into production. The pen worked because the ink was siphoned to the front of the pen. That meant the pen no longer depended on gravity to make the ink flow to the point. The ink ran smoother but it still was gloppy and problematic at times. Ball point pens ruined many shirts back then and many people vowed never to buy another ball point pen again. The sales of ball point pens dropped.