To paraphrase the classic - if there were no ballpoint pens, they would have to be invented. All the conveniences of a ballpoint pen can be fully appreciated only by those who have had a chance to write with fountain pens and bulk pens.
With the arrival of ballpoint pens on the stationery market, schoolchildren were able to breathe a sigh of relief. Blots, blotting paper, ink-filled notebooks, smeared hands, face and clothes are a thing of the past. After all, earlier the task of a schoolchild was not so much teaching writing as the ability to handle pens and inkpots.
The emergence of ballpoint pens
The main inconvenience of fountain pens and fountain pens was the need for regular wetting of the pen with ink, which was still acceptable at school, but significantly slowed down any processes in the adult world - from political to industrial. A special need for transformations was observed in aviation, where pilots were forced to use pencils.
The idea of permanent flow of ink to the nib of a pen has been considered by inventors for a long time. The first analogs of a pen with a ball mounted in a nib were found on the territory of modern Armenia in a drawing dated 1166.
Subsequently, the idea of a rotating tip was returned many times - 350 patents were issued in the United States alone. But the official inventors are the American John D. Loud and the Hungarians Laszlo and Georg Biro, who patented the leak-proof pens.
How ballpoint pens entered the Soviet Union
The idea to organize in the Soviet Union its own production of ballpoint pens arose in 1949. It was not in the tradition of the Soviet state to buy patents, especially for consumer goods. Therefore, domestic copies were created on the basis of the best world samples.
The production of ballpoint pens was carried out by enterprises of the local industry and industrial cooperation. The quality of the product was so low that the introduction of the first ballpoint pens went off without a stir. The bad design of the pen assembly became a problem. Inconvenience was also created by a complex procedure for re-filling the balloon - a ball was removed from the tip, a new portion of ink was pumped through the hole with a syringe, and the ball was rolled back into the sphere. There were even stationary gas stations.
The quality of the ink left much to be desired, for the production of which they began to use a mixture of castor oil and rosin.
At that time, the Union did not have the technological capabilities to eliminate these shortcomings, pens were no longer in demand and they were no longer produced.
The production of ballpoint pens resumed in 1965 at the Kuibyshev Ball Bearing Plant. Then the Swiss equipment for the production of writing units was purchased and it was possible to find out the recipe for Parker ink.
However, the introduction of ballpoint pens into popular culture took place in the early 70s.
The popularization of the model was hampered by educational standards, according to which great importance was attached to the formation of handwriting. The technical capabilities of the ballpoint pen did not allow realizing the requirements for “writing out” letters that were available at that time.
For a long time, the issue of accessories was a problem - it was extremely difficult to replace the written-in rod, it was necessary to buy a new pen.
But with the solution of these issues in the Union, the design boom of ballpoint pens began. Sets of colored pens, automatic, two-, four-, six-color ballpoint pens began to be produced.
An interesting fact: from the Kremlin leaders, MS was the first to sign documents with a Parker ballpoint pen. Gorbachev. Previous chiefs preferred either pencils or solid ink utensils.
