Ball point pens have
been around for quite a while. The first patent for one was issued in
1888 to John Loud. He had a small rotating steel ball held in place by a
socket – the key concept for ballpoint pens – but his invention proved too coarse
for letting writing and never gained any traction in the market.
The idea was genius, but creating a ballpoint pen that worked well wasn’t as easy as one might think. Early efforts failed to deliver the ink evenly, and struggled with issues of overflow or clogging. Two things were needed: the right kind of ink and a higher level of precision engineering to create both the ball and socket.
Fifty years after Loud, a Hungarian newspaper editor named Laszlo Biro got fed up with constantly refilling his fountain pen. He and his brother Gvorgy developed a viscous ink formula and coupled it with a ball-socket mechanism that kept the ink from drying in the reservoir while still allowing for controlled flow. Their first patent was in 1938. Three years later they fled Germany and moved to Argentina where they formed Biro Pens of Argentina.
During the Second World War, an entrepreneur named Marcel Bich saw one of Biro’s pens. In 1944, he and his partner bought a factory just outside of Paris. They brought in Swiss technology capable of producing a tiny stainless steel sphere (.039 inches in diameter), and their design team came up with a superb, inexpensive pen. Licensed by Biro, the Bic Cristal was first introduced in December of 1950. Today the clear plastic, hexagonal barrel is instantly recognizable and universally known simply as a “Bic”.
The idea was genius, but creating a ballpoint pen that worked well wasn’t as easy as one might think. Early efforts failed to deliver the ink evenly, and struggled with issues of overflow or clogging. Two things were needed: the right kind of ink and a higher level of precision engineering to create both the ball and socket.
Fifty years after Loud, a Hungarian newspaper editor named Laszlo Biro got fed up with constantly refilling his fountain pen. He and his brother Gvorgy developed a viscous ink formula and coupled it with a ball-socket mechanism that kept the ink from drying in the reservoir while still allowing for controlled flow. Their first patent was in 1938. Three years later they fled Germany and moved to Argentina where they formed Biro Pens of Argentina.
During the Second World War, an entrepreneur named Marcel Bich saw one of Biro’s pens. In 1944, he and his partner bought a factory just outside of Paris. They brought in Swiss technology capable of producing a tiny stainless steel sphere (.039 inches in diameter), and their design team came up with a superb, inexpensive pen. Licensed by Biro, the Bic Cristal was first introduced in December of 1950. Today the clear plastic, hexagonal barrel is instantly recognizable and universally known simply as a “Bic”.
In 2006, the Bic Cristal was declared the best-selling pen in the world after the 100 billionth pen was sold. Today the pen is included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City for its industrial design. With the easy removal of its cap and cartridge, the barrel has also been recognized by elementary students everywhere as a near-perfect vehicle for launching saliva-soaked wads of paper across the classroom.
My own life-long search for the perfect pen ended years ago at a Finance Committee meeting. Our auditors had come that night to share their annual review. They handed out a pen that has since become my favorite: Pilot’s 0.5mm V-Ball. It is, to my mind, the ideal combination of feel, quality and price-point. It doesn’t get any better.
Where do we find life at its best? Every philosopher has sought to define what constitutes “the good life.” Like trying different pens, it is only by putting those philosophies into practice that we can discover how close they come to getting it right. What countless Christians down through the centuries will tell you, however, is that making the choice to follow Jesus is the best thing that ever happened to them. They have found that a walk with Jesus offers life at its very best.
“I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” (John 10:9-10)
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