A ballpoint pen ( Philippine English: ballpen, British English: biro ) is a writing instrument, with an internal ink reservoir and a sphere for a point.

Tip of a ballpoint pen highly magnified

The first patent on a ballpoint pen was issued on 30 October 1888, to John Loud, a leather tanner, who was attempting to make a writing instrument that would be able to write on his leather products, which then-common fountain pens could not do.

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.

The pen was sold in Argentina under the Birome brand ( portmanteau of Bíró and Meyne ), which is how ballpoint pens are still known in that country.

However, Space Pens, developed by Fisher in the United States, combine a more viscous than normal ballpoint pen ink with a gas-pressured piston which forces the ink toward the point.

Example of a ballpoint pen work-in-progress by artist James Mylne.

Ballpoint pens are often provided free by businesses as a form of advertising — printed with a company's name ; a ballpoint pen is a relatively low cost advertisement that is highly effective ( customers will use, and therefore see, a pen daily ).

Ballpoint pen artwork continues to attract interest in the 21st Century, with contemporary artists gaining recognition for their specific use of ballpoint pens ; for their technical proficiency, imagination and innovation.

Lennie Mace, Uchuu Neko Parade ( 2005 ) ballpoint pen and hardware on paper.

Color availability and sensitivity of ink to light are among concerns of ballpoint pen artists.

* A history of the ballpoint pen.

Drawing outlines with ballpoint pen, rarely making corrections, he colored his drawings within the lines using watercolors and pastels.

A pen ( also called a stylus ) looks like a simple ballpoint pen but uses an electronic head instead of ink.

Quills were used for writing with ink before the invention of the dip pen, the metal-nibbed pen, the fountain pen, and, eventually, the ballpoint pen.

Vector graphics can be created in hardcopy form using a pen plotter, a special type of printer that uses a series of ballpoint and / or felt-tip pens on a servo-driven mount that moves horizontally across the paper, with the plotter moving the paper back and forth through its paper path for vertical movement.

He managed to beat Eversharp to market in late 1945 ; the first ballpoint pens went on sale at Gimbels department store in New York City on 29 October 1945 for US $ 9. 75 each.

Rollerball pens combine the ballpoint design with the use of liquid ink and flow systems from fountain pens.

The original design was a collaboration between Tom Hardy, corporate head of the IBM Design Program, Italian-based designer Richard Sapper ( noted for the design of classic products such as the Tizio lamp for Artemide, office chair for Knoll, kitchenwares for Alessi and ballpoint for Lamy ) and Kazuhiko Yamazaki, lead notebook designer at IBM's Yamato Design Center in Japan.

The design is said to be based on that of a ballpoint pen.

By the 1960s, refinements in ballpoint pen production gradually ensured its dominance over the fountain pen for casual use.

BIC released a number of new products under its newly-acquired brand, including a Wite-Out ballpoint pen ( November 1996 ) and dry correction tape ( 1998 ).

In the mid-1970s, Kyocera began expanding its material technologies to produce a diverse range of applied ceramic products, including solar photovoltaic modules ; biocompatible tooth-and joint-replacement systems ; industrial cutting tools ; consumer ceramics, such as ceramic-bladed kitchen knives and ceramic-tipped ballpoint pens ; and lab-grown gemstones, including rubies, emeralds, sapphires, opals, alexandrites and padparadschahs.

Early in the 1940s Patrick J. Frawley acquired his first company, a ballpoint pen parts manufacturer that defaulted on its loan.

* Water-based roller ball ink is more likely to smudge than a ballpoint pen's oil-based ink because water-based ink dries more slowly than its counterpart.

1928During the 1940s and 1950s, fountain pens retained their dominance: early ballpoint pens were expensive, were prone to leaks and had irregular inkflow, while the fountain pen continued to benefit from the combination of mass production and craftsmanship.

* In some instances, for example early ballpoint pens, to provide a " secret " method of disassembly.

The manufacture of economical, reliable ballpoint pens arose from experimentation, modern chemistry, and the precision manufacturing capabilities of 20th century technology.

As a result, the ballpoint pens are less likely to leak.

Because of the pen's reliance on gravity to coat the ball with ink, most ballpoint pens cannot be used to write upside down.

Because ballpoint pens are low cost alternatives to both fountain pens and roller-ball pens, they have become largely a disposable product.

Businesses and charities may also include ballpoint pens in direct mail campaigns in order to increase a customer's interest in the mailing.

Since their invention and subsequent proliferation in the mid-20th Century, ballpoint pens have proven to be a versatile art medium for professional artists as well as amateur doodlers.

Effects not generally associated with ballpoint pens can be achieved.

For artists whose interests necessitate precision line-work, ballpoints are an obvious attraction ; ballpoint pens allow for sharp lines not as effectively executed using a brush.

Finely applied, the resulting imagery has been mistaken for airbrushed artwork and photography, causing reactions of disbelief which ballpoint artist Lennie Mace refers to as the Wow Factor.

Famous 20th Century artists such as Andy Warhol, among others, have utilized ballpoint pens to some extent during their careers.

In the mid-2000s ( decade ) Juan Francisco Casas generated Internet attention for a series of large-scale, photo-realistic ballpoint duplications of his own snapshots of friends, utilizing only blue pens.

Using ballpoint pens to create artwork is not without limitations.

A few weeks before the war, he went so far as to pen a letter to every governor asking for their support in ratifying the Corwin Amendment as a means to avoid secession.

Quills went into decline after the invention of the metal pen, which was first patented in America in 1810 and then mass produced by 1860, although mass production began in Great Britain as early as 1822 by John Mitchell of Birmingham.

The Stratemeyers protected their Syndicate pen names to preserve series continuity as contributors to the series came and went.

According to Ward, she was threatened with a razor by Lipscomb during an argument over a fountain pen, and in the ensuing struggle the gun went off.

For some time, problems at the front of the pen went unnoticed, except by those affected, as attention was absorbed by the match.

After the general layout of the page was planned ( e. g., initial capital, borders ), the page was lightly ruled with a pointed stick, and the scribe went to work with ink-pot and either sharpened quill feather or reed pen.

Originally given the role of script editor, Barwick went on to pen 18 of the 32 episodes himself, and was also often required to make substantial changes to other writers ' work.

Later that night, I drew a few curves on the foam with a red marking pen and went to bed.

It was also home to writers such as Catherine Johnson ( who went on to pen Mamma Mia, the ABBA musical ) and Matthew Graham ( This Life, Doctor Who and co-creator of BBC One's Life on Mars ).

Esterbrook later went on to become one of the largest steel pen manufacturers in the world before eventually going out of business.

Despite sinking with relatively little trace, Wendy Page and Jim Marr went on to pen some big hits for Martine McCutcheon ( Perfect Moment ) and Billie Piper ( Honey to the Bee, Because We Want To ) and also wrote and produced Dangerous To Know on Hilary Duff's second album.

His real name was, but he also went by the pen names, ( his principal literary pen name ), and.

Another pen went to the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, and one to MacArthur's aide.

Although in later life Brownell often went by the name Sonia Orwell, this was never legally her name as ' Orwell ' was merely a pen name that her husband ( real name Eric Arthur Blair ) had chosen.

He carried paper and pen wherever he went and is known to have composed almost everyday, in shopping malls, restaurants, and even on buses.

Collins went on to pen several more bestsellers ; American Star ( 1993 ), Hollywood Kids ( 1994 ) and the fourth Santangelo novel, Vendetta: Lucky's Revenge ( 1996 ).

" The Royale " and " Manhunt " went through such significant rewrites and treatments before being filmed that Tormé insisted he not be credited directly ; using the pen names Keith Mills and Terry Devereaux respectively.

The partnership went on to pen " Hurricane " and other tracks later featured on Desire.

The writer Alan Bleasdale went on to pen many more acclaimed television dramas, of particular note being The Monocled Mutineer ( BBC1, 1986 ) and G. B. H.

After leaving the cast of the programme, Ian Marter went on to pen several novelisations of Doctor Who stories for Target Books, writing an original novel, Harry Sullivan's War, for them in 1985.

Edith Pargeter, who under her pen name of Ellis Peters wrote the Brother Cadfael novels, went to school in Dawley.

When Nixon went into semi retirement at the beginning of 1999 ( relinquishing Beryl the Peril at the same time ) several different artists took up the pen, including David Sutherland ( who also draws The Bash Street Kids from The Beano, and used to draw Dennis the Menace ) at first, Steve Bright ,, Lesley Reavey, Dave Windett later on ( who introduced a mouse called Squeak and his friends to the cast ), and, by 2003, Henry Davies, who was creating hybrid strips from Charles Grigg's classic Korky strips and new elements drawn by Davies.

After the Z-Man Games book officially went out of print due to Z-Man Games retreating from the pen & paper RPG sector, the Omlevex setting and its characters lay dormant for several years.