First Ballpoint Pen Patent
Next: October 30, 2027
Write someone a note by hand.
The story
Where it comes from
On 30 October 1888, the United States granted patent number 392,046 to John J. Loud of Weymouth, Massachusetts, for a pen with a small rolling ball at its tip. Loud wanted to mark rough surfaces that an ordinary pen could not, such as wood and coarse wrapping paper, and his pen worked well on leather. It was too coarse for writing letters, so it never went on sale and the patent lapsed. The Story marks the anniversary of the first ballpoint pen patent.
How it's celebrated
There is no organised observance, so mark it the way the ballpoint deserves: pick one up and write someone a note by hand. A birthday card, a thank-you on a sticky note or a letter to a grandparent all count. Germany's patent office tells the pen's story among its inventions that made history, including Loud's patent.
Did you know
- The first practical ballpoint came 50 years later, when the Hungarian journalist László Bíró and his chemist brother György paired the ball with a quick-drying ink like newspaper ink, and Bíró patented it in Britain in 1938.
- Britain's Royal Air Force ordered 30,000 of Bíró's pens because, unlike fountain pens, they did not leak at high altitude.
- China, the world's biggest maker of ballpoint pens, imported the steel for its pen tips until 2017, when the steelmaker TISCO announced its own after five years of trying.
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