Who invented the ballpoint pen?

John J. Loud

Though his contributions are often lost to history, John Loud is, according to record, the first inventor of the ballpoint pen. Loud was an American leather tanner and a Harvard graduate. After becoming frustrated with fountain pens’ inability to mark up leather, he decided to take the matter into his own hands.

In October of 1888, Loud filed a patent with the U.S. Patent Office for a “pen” (pictured here). His invention consisted of three small metal spheres at the tip of a hollow metal barrel. The “antifriction balls” would evenly disperse the ink, which allowed the pen to mark up the leather.

Loud’s invention was, by all accounts, the earliest version of the ballpoint pen. However, because it was created to write on leather, it did not flow smoothly when applied to paper. The pen’s specific application did not result in widespread use, so the concept of the ballpoint pen was lost to history for a few decades longer.

László Bíró

In early 1930s Hungary, journalist and part-time painter László Bíró was struck with the idea that led to the ballpoint pen’s rebirth.

Pens available at the time were extremely prone to smudging and leakage, which proved to be quite a hassle in everyday use. Bíró was inspired to create the modern ballpoint pen after noticing that the ink used in newspapers dried much faster than that used in traditional fountain pens. He determined that a pen equipped with newspaper ink would not smudge as easily as one that used fountain pen ink. But, when Bíró tried to fill a fountain pen with the quick-drying ink, he discovered that it was far too viscous to flow through the nib. So, he set out to create a brand new kind of pen - one that would dry easily, prevent smudging, and be easily accessible to the general public. Along with his brother, György, he developed a ballpoint mechanism that relied on a tiny metal ball at the tip of the pen..

Marcel Bich

While Bíró may have introduced the ballpoint pen to the world, he was not the only player in the game for long. Several people jumped at the chance to manufacture and sell their own version of the ballpoint pen with varying degrees of success. Milton Reynolds’ pen tended to leak, and Eberhard Faber’s company could not quite get a foothold. The Frawley Pen Company (now known as Papermate) had a good business team and a dependable pen. The established Parker pen company created what quickly became a household favorite in the T-ball Jotter. The ballpoint pen was becoming a worldwide phenomenon, and everyone wanted a piece of the action.

While most of the world was buzzing over this new writing craze, Frenc pen manufacturer Marcel Bich was not exactly sold on the idea, at least at first. He could not fathom why the pen needed to be reinvented, especially when the fountain pen worked well enough already. But soon, he came to appreciate the ease and convenience of the ballpoint pen. After realizing its potential, Marcel Bich was inspired to invest in this revolutionary new idea.