I couldn't find an article on my true curiosity this week: how automatic faucets work. We have some in my office building, and I wonder why they hesitate to work when I put my hand under them, and then why they run automatically when no one is even near them.
Instead, let's look at How Ballpoint Pens Work!
(From the article) "A ballpoint pen is a pen that uses a small rotating ball made of brass, steel or tungsten carbide to disperse ink as you write. It is very different than its pen predecessors -- the reed pen, quill pen, metal nib pen, and fountain pen (see A Brief History of Writing Instruments for details)."
Hungarian journalist Laszlo Biro and his chemist brother, Georg, patented the first commercial "Biro pens" in June 1943. They were inspired by the problem of fountain pens' flooding whenever they were subjected to airplane rides--which happened often as WWII progressed.
"The ball is kept in place -- between the ink reservoir and the paper -- by a socket; and while it is in tight, it still has enough room to roll around as you write. As the pen moves across the paper, the ball turns and gravity forces the ink down the reservoir and onto the ball, where it is transferred onto the paper. It's this rolling mechanism that allows the ink to flow onto the top of the ball and roll onto the paper you're writing on, while at the same time sealing the ink from the air so it does not dry in the reservoir."
We take the humble ballpoint pen for granted! If you visit the BicWorld home page, you can opt to learn about the different pens that are sold in tropical climates from the ones sold in cooler climates. Keeping in mind that Bic is a French company, you can get the BIC Cristal(r) for Her in Europe only. Or on Amazon.com. (Check the reviews if you've never seen them before!)
No comments:
Post a Comment