Bíró ballpoint
László Bíró’s pen with a ball that rolls out quick-drying ink – patented in 1938 and mass-produced after the war.
The Hungarian journalist László Bíró saw how newspaper ink dried quickly and wanted a pen that used the same kind of ink. With his brother György, a chemist, he developed a ball tip and obtained a patent in 1938.
The brothers fled to Argentina, where the pen went into production. British military aircrew were early customers because the pen did not leak at altitude. In Britain ballpoints are still called biros.
Materials: Metal, a steel ball and thick oil-based ink
Manufacture: First made in Argentina, where Bíró lived during the war; licences were sold to Britain, the United States and France.
A small ball in the tip that rolls ink onto the paper.
Thick, viscous ink that dries at once.
Early pens were expensive and refillable, often of metal.