Thursday, September 29, 2016

Cursive Made Easier by This Illegal Immigrant


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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