Classic project

There are patents for ballpoint pen designs dating as far back as 1888, when John Loud filed his design for an early version of the technology. But what we think of today as the ballpoint pen really derives from the 1938 patent (British patent no 498,997) registered by the Hungarian L??szl?? B??r??. It was B??r??´s ´improved fountain pen´ that ushered in the modern age of writing with, as the patent describes, a rotatablymounted ball as the marking element and a soft pulp dye as the marking agent. So profound was the designer´s influence on the world of writing instruments that the word ´Biro´ (always spelled with an upper case ´b´ or you´ll receive a stern letter from the manufacturer´s solicitor) has passed into many languages as a generic term for any ballpoint pen. Seventy-five years after his patent, it is generally accepted that B??r?? is the technology´s inventor.