Things We Take for Granted: The Ballpoint Pen

We write with them every single day, but do we know anything about our trusty ballpoint pens? I didn't, until now.

On this date in 1945, the ballpoint pen was first sold in the United States. People lined up for hours just to buy them! The first place you could buy them was at Gimbel's Department Store in New York City and they sold for a whopping $9.75 each.

Before then, fountain pens and pencils were the main writing tools. That meant you had to sit at a writing desk to put pen to paper. How inconvenient!

Here some interesting facts about our friend pen:

1. The actual inventor of the ballpoint pen, Laszlo Biro, created the pen to write on leather. Unfortunately, the pens could not write on paper because of their coarseness. He let the patent lapse and never saw a dime for his invention. That sucks. Thank you Mr. Biro!

2. A good pen can write up to 50,000 words before running dry.

3. 125 pens are sold each second worldwide.

4. each year, about 100 people die by choking on a pen.

Now to the explanation of how these modern wonders work!