How Fine Ballpoint Pens Work

The ballpoint pen is something we take for granted because it is so commonplace. Yet, it is truly a revolutionary device. When you see fine ballpoint pens, you likely will marvel at the artistic style that goes into creating a truly eye-catching pen. However, one should also marvel at the pen that eventually ended the common use of the fountain pen as a primary writing instrument. In essence, when ballpoints pens emerged on the landscape in the middle of the 20th century they offered a cheaper, less messy, and cost efficient replacement for the fountain pen.

But, how do fine ballpoint pens work? What is the mechanism that allows the ink to flow from pen to paper? Here is a look at the operations at work here:

The traditional version of the fountain pen held ink inside a cartridge which would flow through a nib to the paper. With a ballpoint pen, the nib is replaced by a small brass, tungsten, or steel rotating ball.

The ink flows to the ball and, as you write with the pen, the ink flows out of the pen and to the paper. This is a relatively simple concept and design but it was also an enormous improvement over the older fountain pen instrument.

Fountain pens were notorious for not allowing ink to flow through the pen evenly and also caused smudges and similar issues. Billpoint pens just were much more efficient and easier to use. The ball prevents the ink from flowing out of it too quickly. Additionally, a huge cartridge is not needed to house the ink. As such, it does not flow through quickly or too sloppily.

The public was ecstatic to have such a much more workable pen available to them and the sales of ballpoint pens went through the proverbial roof.

The birth of the pen occurred in the early 1940's when a Hungarian journalist named Laszlo Biro came ud with the idea of a pen that ran its ink from a chamber to a small metal ball.

He eventually founded a patent on the concept with his brother. At the time, World War II involved an enormous amount of air warfare and fountain pens did not work so well in an airplane. The military interest in this new concept of the ballpoint pen gains a great deal of attention. In time, many pen manufacturers started to make their own ballpoint pens and quickly the ballpoint pen chivved away at the fountain pen marketplace. It was not an overnight incident as it took many years for ballpoint to completely replace the fountain pen at the standard writing instrument in the world.

Fine ballpoint pens and standard ballpoint pens both employ the same engineering structure. This is why these pens are as commonplace as they have become. They work, they work well, and they are inexpensive.

Source: http://education.ezinemark.com/how-fine-ballpoint-pens-work-18548c1351e.html

ken block peter thiel texas holdem poker texas holdem poker sheep be master chef