© Mark Ollig
In the past, people in the Western world wrote with quill pens made from feathers of different birds, such as geese, swans, and turkeys.
When using a feather quill pen, one occasionally dips the nib, the pointed end that touches the parchment surface, into ink to ensure smooth writing.
The US Declaration of Independence was written using a quill pen and oak gall ink.
American inventor Lewis Edson Waterman (1836 to 1901) invented the first modern fountain pen, for which he received US Patent No. 293,545 titled “Fountain Pen” Feb. 12, 1884.
His pens were known for their craftsmanship, reliability, and visual aesthetics, featuring handmade parts and a pen nib feeding mechanism to provide a steady flow of ink.
Waterman fountain pens were made using precious metal overlays of gold and silver and colorful finishes like onyx, turquoise, emerald, jet black, and moss agate, and to this day, remain popular.
American Harvard-educated lawyer, leather tanner, and inventor John J. Loud (1842 to 1916) developed a ball-bearing marking pen in 1888.
Loud needed a writing tool to mark rough leather products, but pencils broke, and fountain pens required a smooth surface.
His pen used a rotating steel ball at the nib, which dispensed ink on rough surfaces, and Oct. 30, 1888, he obtained US Patent No. 392,046 titled “Pen.”
Although Loud had invented a pen unsuitable for writing on paper and his patent expired, his invention played a significant role in developing the modern ballpoint pen.
Laszlo Biro (1899 to 1985), a Hungarian journalist, is credited with inventing the modern ballpoint pen in 1938 with his brother, Gyorgy, a chemist.
They developed a steel ball tip that freely turned inside a socket, evenly accumulating ink from a cartridge and smoothly depositing it on paper while writing.
Biro patented the invention in France in 1938 and would take his family to Argentina in 1943 during World War II.
On June 17, 1943, Biro filed for a patent in the United States.
On Dec. 11, 1945, he was issued US Patent No. 2,390,636, titled “Writing Instrument.”
The patent states there is “a reservoir from which ink is fed to the ball kept practically covered with ink so that on rolling out the inner surface thereof, the ink will mark the paper with well-defined strokes.”
Laszlo Biro founded Biro Pens of Argentina in 1943 and began selling the Birome pen.
American Milton Reynolds (1892 to 1976) was born “Milton Reinsberg” in Albert Lea, MN.
While visiting Argentina before WWII ended, Reynolds purchased several Birome pens and realized they would sell well in the US market.
After founding the Reynolds International Pen Company in Chicago, IL, he teamed up with others to create a modified ballpoint pen that featured a redesigned ink cartridge to avoid infringing on Laszlo Biro’s patent.
On Oct. 28, 1945, the New York Daily Sunday News featured a full-page promotion advertising the next-day sale of Reynold’s International pen as a “miracle pen that would revolutionize writing.”
On Oct. 29, 1945, Gimbels Department Store in New York began selling the first ballpoint pens in the US for $12.50 each, quickly depleting their 10,000-pen inventory within days.
In December 1945, Reynolds hired Paul C. Fisher (1913 to 2006) to assist him with perfecting the ballpoint pen.
Fisher later became a successful inventor and manufacturer of pens, and he played an important role in the NASA space program.
Inspired by President John F. Kennedy’s “We choose to go to the Moon” speech in 1962, Paul C. Fisher invented a ballpoint pen to function in the weightlessness of outer space.
Fisher’s space pen is brass and steel, with chrome plating and a sealed tungsten carbide ballpoint encased in a stainless-steel socket.
The pen’s pressurized, hermetically sealed thixotropic and viscoelastic reservoir cartridge keeps the ink in a gel-like state until the ballpoint’s movement transforms it into a fluid, enabling it to write on any surface.
The space pen operates within a temperature range of 30°F to more than 250°F, writes on most surfaces, can draw a line over three miles long, and has a shelf life of 100 years.
On Nov. 15, 1966, Paul C. Fisher obtained US Patent No. 3,285,228 titled “Anti-Gravity Pen.”
In 1967, Fisher submitted his space pen to NASA, which approved it after thorough testing.
On Oct. 11, 1968, NASA launched the Apollo 7 Saturn IB rocket and Fisher’s space pen.
During a live TV broadcast from the Apollo 7 command module, the astronauts were shown using the Fisher AG7 (Anti-Gravity 7) space pen.
On July 24, 1969, the AG7 traveled to the moon.
NASA opted to use pens instead of pencils due to the potential flammability of graphite dust particles and the risk of broken pencil lead coming into contact with sensitive electronics and causing short circuits.
Writing with ink has come a long way – from the earliest feather quill to the space pen.
