Image courtesy of Nuestro Stories.
For parents, it feels like the most wonderful time of the year. For students, maybe not so much. No matter your feelings on the subject, it is time to go back to school!
As you’re running through the aisles, filling your carts with spiral notebooks and neon highlighters, we thought we would take a moment to honor the man who has undoubtedly provided you with a portion of your penmanship over the years; the inventor of the first commercially successful ballpoint pen, László József Bíró.
Born in Budapest, Bíró lived a fairly normal and simple life. When he finished school, he went to Hungary to work as a journalist. Bíró began to find a deep frustration with the tools at hand through his work as a writer. The ink used for newspaper printing smudged and took too long to dry. Fountain pens had costly ink and an inconsistent flow.
Frustration bred action. Working with his brother Gyorgy, who was a chemist, they developed the mechanism for what is now known as a ballpoint pen. To acclaim, the duo presented the invention at the Budapest International Fair in 1931.
Seven years later, Bíró patented the design in Paris.
Not long after, Bíró and his brother were forced to flee the area as the Nazis began to invade France.
Making their way to Argentina, the two settled in Buenos Aires before filing an additional patent for the writing instrument in the United States. After receiving it, they formed Biro Pens of Argentina, allegedly landing them a contract as the official supplier of the Royal Air Force crew in the UK. The company held the patent for seven years before Marcel Bich bought the patent from Bíró.
Bich made the pen the main product of his company BIC.
Bíró spent the rest of his life in Buenos Aires until his death in 1985.
May this story make you experience the back-to-school season differently!
