Ball Point Pen

October 29, 2008

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Profile America — Wednesday, October 29th. The scene on this day in 1945 at Gimbel’s Department Store in New York City was a madhouse. Big ads the day before had trumpeted the first sale in the U.S. of a new writing instrument which was guaranteed to write for two years without refilling — the ball point pen. By the end of the day, the store had sold its entire stock of 10,000 at $12.50 each. The new pens were invented by two Hungarian brothers who set up a factory in Argentina. The idea of the ball point pen was first patented in 1888 by John Loud of Massachusetts, who never made any pens. Now, ball points are a standard item in the nation’s 15,000 office supply stores, which have sales of just over $21 billion a year. You can find these and more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at <www.census.gov>.

Sources: Famous First Facts, 8154
2002 Economic Census, NAICS 453210
http://www.census.gov/econ/census02/data/industry/E453210.HTM