The Science Behind Ball Pen: How Does It Help Us To Write?

The ballpoint pen, one of the most used devices in the modern world, is arguably the most important one too.

John J Loud is attributed with the first patent for a ballpoint pen in 1888. He was trying to make a writing instrument that would work on rough surfaces. But it was not useful for letter writing and the potential went unused. The 20th century marked numerous developments in technology that eventually led to what we use today. But, how does a ballpoint pen work?

Laszlo Biro invented the modern prototype when he noticed that ink used in newspapers dried faster than fountain pens. So, he worked to design a pen to support such kind of ink.

A ballpoint pen consists of three parts i.e. an ink cartridge, a barrel and if it is retractable, a spring and a thrust device. The barrel covers all the parts of the pen and gives a fashionable outer surface.

The retractable mechanism let us write without worrying about those caps that we always seem to lose.

The bearing ball that gives a ballpoint pen its name. If you look closely at the nib of a ballpoint pen, you would find the bearing ball. Gravity comes into the play and pulls the ink toward the bearing ball covering one half of it with ink.

When we write on paper, the bearing ball rotates in the socket and transfers the ink from the reservoir to the paper. The other half gets re-coated with ink at the same time and as continue writing the cycle goes on.

The ballpoint pen uses oil-based ink that comes out of the tip slower than either fountain pen or rollerball ink but dries off much quicker. And, it is the ink that makes ballpoint pens our favourite.

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