Making a ‘pen and ink’ about the pen!

I recently wrote about ink and all the wonderful applications used by it.

Seems only fair that I also ‘pen’ a few lines about our old friend the Ball Point Pen ….

The Ball Point Pen, or more commonly referred to as a Biro, was invented by Laszlo Biro – a Hungarian newspaper editor.

The pen came on to the UK market after WW2.

Its arrival was warmly welcomed in schools which had previously used a special brew of “school ink”, which was a disgusting concoction that was poured into the desk inkwell.

Students then used a school pen with disposable nibs or, if you were lucky your parents bought you a fountain pen and a bottle of Stephenson’s blue-black ink!

When the Biro became available, many children were not allowed to use it as teachers believed that handwriting would suffer. And there is a modicum of truth in this for although the ballpoint pen enables you to write much more quickly, neat formation of letters is not as easy as with a traditional nib.

Do we now write much more than previous generations?

The Biro has made writing quicker and easier and you can carry one around without worrying about ink leaking everywhere. It’s better than a pencil for most purposes and is just about permanent.

Will new technology and electronic notepads slowly replace handwriting?

I hope not …. I like my Biro!!