László Bíró

László Bíró was a Hungarian-Argentine journalist and inventor whose practical ballpoint pen used quick-drying ink delivered by a rolling ball.

Ballpoint pen: A writing instrument that transfers ink to a surface through a small rotating ball in its tip. Bíró’s invention made this pen type practical for everyday writing.
Budapest: The capital city of Hungary, situated on the Danube River. Bíró was born and began his career in this city.
György Bíró: László Bíró’s brother, a chemist who helped develop ink for the ballpoint pen. His chemical expertise helped make the ink suitable for the rolling-ball design.
Bic Cristal: A low-cost, transparent-barrel ballpoint pen introduced by Bic in 1950. It exemplifies the mass-market success of the pen type Bíró helped make practical.
Ball-bearing mechanism: A mechanism in which a ball rolls between surfaces to reduce friction or transfer motion. A tiny rotating ball meters ink at the pen tip.
Hungarian journalism: The practice and institutions of reporting and publishing in Hungary. Newspaper work exposed Bíró to inks that dried quickly on printed pages.
Juan Jorge Meyne: An Argentine partner who worked with László Bíró on developing and marketing ballpoint pens. Meyne helped establish the venture that brought Bíró’s pen into production.
Royal Air Force: The United Kingdom’s air and space force, founded in 1918. Ballpoint pens suited pilots because they could write at altitude more reliably than fountain pens.
Printing ink: A pigmented or dyed fluid formulated to transfer an image onto a surface. Bíró adapted fast-drying printing ink for a pen that would not leak or smear.
Argentina: A country in southern South America, with Buenos Aires as its capital. Bíró settled there and developed his commercial pen business.

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