In 1938 he invented the ballpoint pen. He was a hungarian journalist and realised that the quick-drying ink he had seen used by the printing trade could be adapted for use in a pen.
A lot of improvements were made to pens in general over the years, leading to a battle over the rights to Biro’s invention. The newly-formed Eterpen Company in Argentina commercialized the Biro pen after the Biro brothers received their patents there. The press hailed the success of their writing tool because it could write for a year without refilling.
Then, in May 1945, Eversharp Company teamed up with Eberhard-Faber to acquire exclusive rights to Biro Pens of Argentina. The pen was rebranded as the “Eversharp CA,” which stood for “capillary action.” It was released to the press months in advance of public sales.
Less than a month after Eversharp/Eberhard closed the deal with Eterpen, a Chicago businessman, Milton Reynolds, visited Buenos Aires in June 1945. He noticed the Biro pen while he was in a store and recognized the pen’s sales potential. He bought a few as samples and returned to America to launch the Reynolds International Pen Company, ignoring Eversharp’s patent rights.
Reynolds copied the Biro pen within four months and began to sell his product by the end of October 1945. He called it “Reynolds Rocket” and made it available at Gimbel’s department store in New York City. Reynolds’ imitation beat Eversharp to market and it was immediately successful. Priced at $12.50 each, $100,000 worth of pens sold their first day on the market.
Britain was not far behind. The Miles-Martin Pen Company sold the first ballpoint pens to the public there at Christmas 1945.
By 1957, Parker had introduced the tungsten carbide textured ball bearing in their ballpoint pens. Eversharp was in deep financial trouble and tried to switch back to selling fountain pens. The company sold its pen division to Parker Pens and Eversharp finally liquidated its assets in the 1960s.
Credit : Thought Co.
Picture Credit : Google
