The first commercially successful ballpoint pen made its way onto the market in the 1940s, and this type of pen is now such a common feature in both our home and work lives it is doubtful much thought is given these days to how they came about.
Sold out at nearly every store in the mid 1940's, the ballpoint pen retailed for nearly $12.50 (almost $150 today) for a single pen.
Debuting at Gimbels department store in New York City on 29 October 1945, for US$12.50 each (1945 US dollar value, about $203 in 2022 dollars), "Reynolds Rocket" became the first commercially successful ballpoint pen.
Eisenhower and General Douglas MacArthur presided over the final surrender of Germany and Japan respectively. Each man happened to use a Parker fountain pen, which may not be all that surprising as Parker was one of the most popular American pens at the time.
The big transition in the 1950s was from traditional fountain pens to ballpoints and cartridge pens. By 1960, every pen company that wanted to survive had cartridge pens, and cartridge pens actually became the most popular type of fountain pen.
Back in the 1930s, through until these computer things started to take off, pens were perhaps the most important piece of technology for doing work.
Fountain pens were a stylish statement but messy and impractical. Their replacement was a stroke of design genius perfectly in time for the era of mass production.
In the 1950's filling the fountain pen became easier with disposable cartridges. With the advent of the disposable cartridges, the fountain pen was popularized with college students. By the early 1960's the fountain pen soon became known as the cartridge pen and was the required writing instrument in most schools.
Quill pens were not as common as steel pens, but they were still used by some of the more talented writers. The stub pen was also viewed as a good choice for someone with the skill to wield it gracefully.
Quills were used for writing with ink before the invention of the dip pen, the metal-nibbed pen, the fountain pen, and, eventually, the ballpoint pen.
Their successful performance for the Royal Air Force brought the Biro pen into the limelight, and during World War II the ballpoint pen was widely used by the military because of its toughness and ability to survive the battle environment.
Biro (whose first name is sometimes written as László) invented the ballpoint in 1938. The new invention was so exciting that when ballpoint pens were first sold in the US in 1945, hundreds of people lined up to buy them despite the fact that they cost more than $150 in today's dollars.
Released in 1950 by French company Bic, the Bic pen (officially named Bic Cristal) helped to change the pen market from fountain pens to ballpoint.
The quill pen was replaced by the metal nibs by the 19th century. Throughout the early 19th century, the usage of the quill pen faded and the quality of metal nibs increased. Ballpoint pens also made their mark in the late 19th century, but their patents were not exploited commercially.
For the most part, collectors define vintage pens as those made before c. 1965.
The oldest known fountain pen – still around today – was designed by M. Bion, a Frenchman, in 1702. Peregrin Williamson, a Baltimore shoemaker, received the first American patent for such a pen in 1809.
QUILL PEN used by Queen Victoria to sign her 'Declaration against Popery' (1819-1901, Queen of Great Britain)]
The model which was used by the Queen was the Parker 51 – a fountain pen which was introduced in 1941. It was developed from 1939 and named so as it was Parker's 51st year. It became one of their most iconic models and although production stopped in the 1970s, it remains popular with collectors to this day.
feather, used as the principal writing instrument from the 6th century until the mid-19th century, when steel pen points were introduced.
Parker pens were the most desirable but most of us had the more affordable Platignum pens. There were no other types of pen apart from Dipping pens, fountain pens and biros. Fibre tips, toller ball, fine felt-tips, fibre tips all had yet to be invented or at least to become mainstream.
When it first hit the market in 1946, a ballpoint pen sold for around $10, roughly equivalent to $100 today. Competition brought that price steadily down, but Bich's design drove it into the ground.
Rollerball pens use water-based inks, and writing is sharper and more vibrant. Ballpoint pens use oil-based ink, and writing is lighter and more deliberate. There are benefits to each and reasons why a rollerball or ballpoint pen may be preferable in certain situations.
"Sharpie" was originally a name designating a permanent marker launched in 1964 by the Sanford Ink Company (established in 1857). The Sharpie also became the first pen-style permanent marker.
1923 represents the year the famous Chilton Pen brand was originally established – the collection ushers in a new era for the fabled company. Recall the Golden Age of fountain pens with the thick lacquered barrel etched with an intricate diamond pattern.
A large majority of people wrote with penny pencils, or steel dip pens well into the 1920s.