Today, Google is remembering the life of László József Bíró,
inventor of the ballpoint pen.
“Biro was
Jewish. And Hungary, which was at the time allied with Nazi Germany, was
becoming an increasingly hostile place for Jews. In April 1938, Hungary passed
laws limiting Jews’ ability to work; later that year, a law was passed banning
the exportation of intellectual property. So Biro, who claimed to have
converted to Christianity, left the country, carrying his plans with him,
before the law went into effect. He and his brother traveled from Budapest to
Paris, Madrid, and finally Argentina, where Biro began manufacturing the pens commercially.” http://www.vox.com/2016/9/29/13097948/ladislao-jose-biro
Biro likely falsified his immigration papers, which at
that time would have required a disclosure that was Jewish. Biro got his idea
by watching kids play marbles in a puddle. As each marble streamed through the
water, it left a trail. His thought was to use a tiny "marble" (ballpoint) at the end of an ink
cartridge to trail ink along the line traced by the writer. The ballpoint pen
is credited for making cursive a widely used form of handwriting …
until computers. (Thank you, Alan, for the “tip.”)
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