Yesterday was National Ballpoint Pen Day. I know every day seems to have some sort of special item nowadays, but the ball point pen revlutionaize writing when it was invented. This utensil is so common place and used all over the world that's its invention has lost its significance. Prior to this utilitarian instrument writing was a messy process fraught with spills and ink splotches. From quills to fountain pens the struggle was constant until the introduction of the pencil in the 1790's. However, pencil lead is susceptible to abrasion, so it can be smeared and made lighter by pages rubbing against each other.

Then in the summer of 1943, Josef Lazio and Georg Biro invented the now famous biro and patented it on 10th June. History states that Laszlo Biro, while watching children play marbles in a puddle, noticed the marbles left a small trail of water when they rolled on the ground. This led to him creating the now famous ball-shaped metal nib.

A mass market of the biro did not come until 1953 in France by the Baron Marcel Bich, hence BIC. Co.

Today a ballpoint pen is so commonplace we hardly notice it, but due to its reduced mess, portability and reliability it enables millions of people around the globe to write with permanence and ease. This, of course, includes writers who carry several ballpoints on their person at any one time just in case that idea, scene, or character flaw comes to mind.

So let's hail to the ballpoint pen!