Ball-point pen
In the 1930’s, in Hungary, Ladislao Biro was getting fed up with his old-fashioned fountain pen. He was tired of the way it leaked and had to be endlessly refilled. Fidding around in his workshop, Biro filled a pen with printer’s ink and on the tip of it he fashioned a little ball that picked up more ink as it rolled.
In England, Biro helped set up a factory to manufacture “high-alititude, nonleaking writing sticks ” for the British Air Force. The factory was eventually taken over by Bic, a French company, which developed an even better and cheaper throw-away pen.
In American, following World War ll, Milton Reynolds invented his own version of the ball-point-pen. As a sales gimmick, he advertised it as the “pen that writes underwater”. To attract customers, he arranged a demonstration in the display window of a department store. While sitting in a tank of water, a demonstrator scribbled with a ball-point pen on while plastic. In one day, nearly 10,000 had been sold! The price: $12.50 apiece.
圆珠笔
20世纪20年代，匈牙利人拉迪斯劳·比罗越来越无法忍受他那支老式自来水笔了。他讨厌这支笔总是漏墨水，害得他必须没完没了地往里续墨水。有一天，比罗在自己的工作室里瞎鼓捣的时候，随手把打印机上用的墨装到钢笔芯里，并在笔尖处装了一个小圆珠，这样墨水便随着圆珠的滚动流了出来。
比罗在英国建了一家工厂，专门为英国空军生产这种“高纬度防漏书写棒”。后来，法国的BIC公司接管了这家工厂，并研制出更好用、更便宜的一次性圆珠笔。
第二次世界大战后，美国人弥尔顿·罗纳德发明了自成一体的圆珠笔。作为推销手段，他在广告中宣称这是一种“水下书写笔“。为了吸引顾客，他在一家商场的橱窗搞了一个现代演示：演示者坐在一个装满水的鱼缸里，用这种圆珠笔在白色塑料上写写划划。仅仅一天，上万支圆珠笔就销售一空！当时每支圆珠笔的价格为12.5美元。
