The Pen - A History
Matt Hamrick,
Jul 30, 2013
Pens are one
of the most frequently purchased promotional items. They are inexpensive, easy to distribute, and
functional. You most likely have one
nearby right now!
Have you ever
thought about how that nifty writing utensil came into existence?
The original
patent for the ball point pen was registered to leather tanner John Loud in
1988 for the purpose of marking on leather products. The patent eventually ran out because this
particular pen was not conducive to writing on paper, and apparently the market
for ballpoint pens among leather tanners wasn't as large as he anticipated.
Enter Laszlo
Brio of Hungary, a newspaper journalist who wanted a pen that wrote longer
without refills and didn't smudge his articulate and clever writings. He moved to Argentina, and partnered with his
brother, a chemist, to invent the Birome (what the pen is called
Argentina). An American business man,
Milton Reynolds, discovered this birome, and sold the first set at Gimbles in
America in 1945. The Reynolds Rocket, or first ballpoint pen
sold commercially, was a huge success.
So the next
time you pick up one of your promotional product pens, you can thank the
businessman, the newspaper journalist, and the leather tanner. Without their innovative design and sales, we
might not be writing with these promotional pens today!
The ballpoint
pen is just one of the many (cat) writing utensils we can customize for you
here at Leaderpromos! If you're ready to
write with your own company pen, contact our reps today!
Written by: Buffy Luckman
