The concept of using a „ball point“ within a writing instrument to apply ink to paper has existed since the late 19th century. In these inventions, the ink was placed in a thin tube whose end was blocked by a tiny ball, held so that it could not slip into the tube or fall out of the pen.The first patent for a ballpoint pen was issued on 30 October 1888 to John J. Loud, who was attempting to make a writing instrument that would be able to write „on rough surfaces—such as wood, coarse wrapping paper, and other articles“ which fountain pens could not. Loud’s pen had a small rotating steel ball held in place by a socket. Although it could be used to mark rough surfaces such as leather, as Loud intended, it proved too coarse for letter-writing. With no commercial viability, its potential went unexploited, and the patent eventually lapsed.László Bíró, a Hungarian newspaper editor frustrated by the amount of time that he wasted filling up fountain pens and cleaning up smudged pages, noticed that inks used in newspaper printing dried quickly, leaving the paper dry and smudge-free. He decided to create a pen using the same type of ink. Bíró enlisted the help of his brother György, a dentist with useful knowledge of chemistry, to develop viscous ink formulae for new ballpoint designs. Bíró’s innovation successfully coupled viscous ink with a ball-and-socket mechanism that allowed controlled flow while preventing ink from drying inside the reservoir. Bíró filed for a British patent on 15 June 1938. We celebrate this remarkable invention with an AI image of a ball point pen …