Magyar News, 2004. szeptember-2005. augusztus (15. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2005-03-01 / 7. szám
Baron Marcel Bich, 1914-1994 worked only when they were held more or less straight up, and even then the ink flow was sometimes too heavy, leaving smudgy glob on the paper. The Biro brothers returned to their laboratory and devised a new design, which relied on "capillary action" rather than gravity to feed the ink. The rough "ball" at the end of the pen acted like a metal sponge, and with this improvement ink could flow more smoothly to the ball, and the pen could be held at a slant rather than straight up. One year later, the Biros were selling their new, improved ballpoint pen throughout Argentina. But it still was not a smashing success, and the men ran out of money. The new-formed Eterpen Company in Argentina commercialized the Biro pen. The press hailed the success of this writing tool because it could write for a year without refilling. In 1945 Eversharp Co. teams up with Eberhard-Faber to acquire the exclusive rights to Biro Pens of Argentina. The pen rebranded the “Eversharp CA” which stood for Capillary Action. Less than a month after Eversharp/Eberhard close the deal with Eterpen, Chicago businessman, Milton Reynolds was visiting Argentina. While in a store, he sees the Biro pen and recognized the business potential of it. He bought some pens and brought those to America.. Establishes the Reynolds International Pen Company disregarding patent rights. Reynolds advertised it as the pen "to write under water." and guaranteed to write for two years without refilling. Also claim ed to be smear proof. In four months he sells his pens at Gimbel’s department store in New York City. Reynolds’ imitation immedietly conquers the market. At the price of$12.50 a piece, on the first day $100,000 worth sold. The Reynolds’ pen leaked, skipped and often failed to write. Eversharp’s pen did not live up to its own advertisement. The British Government got in line and bought the licensing rights to this patent for the war effort. The British Royal Air Force needed a new type of pen, one that would not leak at higher altitude in fighter planes as the fountain pen did. Their successful performance for the Air Force brought the Biro pens into the limelight. in Britain a ballpoint pen is usually referred to as a "Biró". This name is used in a big part of the world There were many inventors, investors, companies who tried their hands with the ballpoint pens. Patrick J. Frawley Jr. met Fran Seech, an unemployed Los Angeles chemist who had lost his job when the ballpoint pen company he was working for had gone out of business. Seech had been working on improvements in ballpoint ink, and on his own he continued his experiments in a tiny cubbyhole home laboratory. Frawley was so impressed with his work that he bought Seech’s new ink formula in 1949 and started the Frawley Pen Company. As more and more retailers accepted the pen, which Frawley named the "Papermate," sales began to skyrocket. Within a few years, the Papermate pen was selling in the hundreds of millions. In 1954 Parker Pens introduced its first ballpoint pen, the Jotter. The Jotter wrote five times longer than the Eversharp or Reynolds pens. It had a variety of point sizes, a rotating cartridge and large-capacity ink refills. Best of all, it worked. Parker sold 3.5 million Jotters @ $2.95 to $8.75 in less then one year. In 1950 the French Baron called Marcel Bich, manufacturer of penholders and pen cases, went to the Biro brothers and arranged to pay them a royalty on their patent. Then for two years Marcel Bich One ofBIC’s ballpoint pen package studied the detailed construction of every ballpoint pen on the market, often working with a microscope. By 1952 Bich was ready to introduce his new wonder: a clearbarreled, smooth-writing, non-leaky, inexpensive "Ballpoint Bic" - dropping the “h” from his name. The ballpoint pen had finally become a practical writing instrument. The public accepted it without complaint, and today it is as standard a writing implement as the pencil. By the end of the 1950's BIC held 70 percent of European market. In a few years BIC owns 100 percent of Wa'terman Pens and starts selling ballpoint pens in U.S. for 29 - 69 cents. .Today, the highly popular modem version of László Biro's pen, the BIC Crystal, has a daily world wide sales figure of 14,000,000 pieces. This Hungarian, László Biro, really stirred up a lot of excitement in manufacturing,, business, and had an enormous effect on the life of the people in the world. Gave many people an instrument that helped opening the door to learn writing and to have it in their life. László Bíró was so highly respected in Argentina that the Argentine Inventors Day is celebrated on his birthday September 29th. László Bíró died on November 24th 1985 in Buenos Aires. NATIONAL HOLIDAY Remembering Kossuth, Táncsics, Petőfi, Bem Apó, and all the others of March 15,1848. Organized by the Pannónia Club with guest speaker and a program at the St Emery’s Church Hall MARCH 13, 4 p.m. 838 Kings Highway, Fairfield, CT Cafe Budapest Debutant Diner Dance Saturday,MARCH 5 Westport Longshore Inn Call: 203 373 9958 Tickets: $85.00; Youth $45.00; Debutantes and Escorts Free WORLDaRENOWNED Bartók Quartet Calvin United Church of Christ Thursday Evening, March 10 901 Kings Highway, Fairfield, CT SORRY,“The Karády Katalin Emlékest” has been cancelled due to illness. At an appropriate time it will be announced Page 3
