Page "Ballpoint pen" Paragraph 5

In the period between 1904 and 1946 particularly, alternatives or improvements to the fountain pen were invented.

Slavoljub Eduard Penkala invented a solid-ink fountain pen in 1907, a German inventor named Baum took out a ballpoint patent in 1910, and yet another ballpoint pen device was patented by Van Vechten Riesburg in 1916.

In these inventions, the ink was placed in a thin tube whose end was blocked by a tiny ball, held so that it could not slip into the tube or fall out of the pen.

The ink clung to the ball, which spun as the pen was drawn across the paper.

These proto-ballpoints did not deliver the ink evenly.

If the ball socket were too tight, the ink did not reach the paper.

If it were too loose, ink flowed past the tip, leaking or making smears.

Many inventors tried to fix these problems, but without commercial success.