Ballpoint pen

Ballpoint pen
	A retractable ballpoint pen assemblage (Schneider K15)
Inventor	John J. Loud (original); László Bíró (modern);
Inception	1888

A ballpoint pen, also known as a biro^[1] (British English), ball pen (Hong Kong, Pakistani, Indian and Philippine English), or dot pen^[2] (Nepali English), is a pen that dispenses ink (usually in paste form) over a metal ball at its point, i.e., over a "ball point". The metals commonly used are steel, brass, or tungsten carbide.^[3] The design was conceived and developed as a cleaner and more reliable alternative to dip pens and fountain pens, and it is now the world's most-used writing instrument;^[4] millions are manufactured and sold daily.^[5] It has influenced art and graphic design and spawned an artwork genre.

^ Cite error: The named reference About was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Karn, Sajan Kumar (2012). "On Nepalese English Discourse Granting Citizenship to English in Nepal via Corpus Building". Journal of NELTA. 16 (1–2): 30–41. doi:10.3126/nelta.v16i1-2.6127. ISSN 2091-0487. Archived from the original on 2 August 2021. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
^ "How does a ballpoint pen work?". Engineering. HowStuffWorks. 1998–2007. Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 16 November 2007.
^ Cite error: The named reference bpp encyc was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference How ballpoints work was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

A retractable ballpoint pen assemblage (Schneider K15)
Inventor	John J. Loud (original) László Bíró (modern)
Inception	1888; 136 years ago (1888)