Cafe al Fresco Art Forums - Ball Point Pen Art In response to message #0 I'm here presenting the Ball Point Pen Art program. This program is based on what a ballpoint pen can produce. There are hundreds of millions of people out there drawing with the ballpoint pen as we speck. Maybe billions from 1938 when they were brought to market. All the people already writing with them know correctly how to use them. A most common tool used to make pictorial history and speck messages around the world with images. Ball Point Pen Art is here to represent those countless folks doing their art. May their efforts produce health, joy, hope and a living for all. A common ground and focal point is our goal. We are standing in the halls of art history bringing this program forward to help all those others not yet here. May our public presentation bring the eye's of the world together an look closer at this New Art Medium and bring greater rewards to all artists out there using the ballpoint pen. The more people that draw, think, display, sell or surface in the field of art with the ballpoint pen the greater the movement and progress will become.

The world is filled with many people waiting till the day people see our art as real and worth something. All new art mediums face the same situation throughout time. We are no different when it comes to that as well. Yet we are up and running in time recorded as such, as never before. That is were our job has be gone and will work from. I started drawing with the ballpoint pen in 1968 or 34 years ago. Over half the life of the pen, it's self. The half tone is the greatest detailed line in art history and now is in color. This advances the art field in clearity and detail as no other mediums before. The ballpoint pen's half tone is camera ready and used in art production or production art. Artists in all fields of art use the ballpoint pen including commercial artists. Having Ball Point Pen Art reconized and recorded makes all artists works worth that much more. In the world of man, money is the milk of politics, power is derived from money being made and spent. For the capitalist money in their hands made from Ball Point Pen Art is the proof they need. Follow the trail of money! Thank you for your time and views.

We again present art history and our art program. It's all good. We simply wish, hope and pray your life is doing well and health to you all, amen. In response to message #1 Greetings Art World, This is Jerry & Linda Stith founders of Ball Point Pen Art here on the Internet. We are the first and only folks presenting this New Art Medium. Ball Point Pen Art is a New American Folk Art and World Class Art Movement as well. We are represented more on the Web than all other Ballpoint Pen artists combined. We are introducing the Half Tone, which is the most detailed camera ready line in art history. Never before has this New Art Medium presented multi-colored oil-based inks, Yellow being one of those colors. We have a 10 Point Program designed to demonstrate how Ball Point Pen Art works within our Art World. We are the only legally registered owners of ballpointpenart.com & ballpointpenart.net for almost three years. This places us in art history as founders of Ball Point Pen Art. Jerry therefore represents an emerging International artist being founder of a New Art Medium and recorded as such.

We here at Ball Point Pen Art have our 10 Point Program designed to show how this New Art Medium works it�s way into the rest of the Art World. We provide a setting for networking other Ballpoint Pen artists as part of our historical program. We have 50 plus Art Forums for artists to communicate with other artists and 90 art magazines providing art news. Over 800 art related sites bringing a wonderful part of the art world to one location making art research that much easier. A service built for the children, young or beginner artists from around the world. / Jerry started our Ball Point Pen Art program back in 1968 while being only 19 years old. At the age of 20 he was researching art in Paris, France were he examined the Mona Lisa as a portrait artist. After Paris he returned to Cambridge, Mass. along with about 25 other towns or cities studying our art world. At the age of 50 he bought our domain names and has been developing Ball Point Pen Art since then here on the Internet. His art works show greater development 30 years ago than any other ballpoint pen artists of today.

Other than that none of them have any program displayed dealing with the Ball Point Pen Art program we are founders of. Other ballpoint pen artists don�t demonstrate any primary colors in their art works nor any multi-colored inks. Being a colorists I find this rather alarming and decades behind my progress in this art field or medium. We display some Ball Point Pen Art dating back to 1968 here on our communities. Those 34 years have been my entire adult life used in preparing this art program for the Internet and the 330 million other surfers. We give all credit to God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, amen. We are very blessed with this New Art Medium and present it to the other 6 billion people around the world as founders. Thank You, Jerry & Linda Stith. The 100 Billionth BIC Ballpoint Pen Related Entries: Offbeat Danny: Sorry for the none original content, I ran across this off the wire service and thought it had some interesting facts about the plastic BIC pen we all have converted into a spitwad launcher at somepoint in our life. PRNewswire �What would cover 40 times the distance from Earth to the moon, lined up end to end?

What has been sold throughout the world since 1950, at a rate of 57 per second? You�ve heard of BIC and are doubtless aware that the trademark has featured prominently in schoolbags and handbags, on desktops and coffee tables, for more than 50 years. You�ve also noticed, in your travels throughout the world, that BIC is synonymous with quality at an affordable price in the United States, Europe, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and all over the world. You know all this and more � But did you know that BIC has just passed the 100-billion mark? That�s 100 billion ballpoint pens sold over the years by the renowned stationery company! From the classic BIC Cristal introduced more than 50 years ago to the most recent gel ink pens, BIC has successfully expanded its range while remaining loyal to its core philosophy: offering high-quality, affordable products to all � for the enjoyment of trendy teens, hard-working businesspeople, and devoted grandparents around the world! The Ballpoint Pen A ballpoint pen functions by directing ink towards the paper when held point down, due to gravity.

It rolls the viscous ink onto the paper via the ball contained in the point end of the tube reservoir of ink. The ink dries immediately. The ball can be manufactured in brass, steel or tungsten carbide. It acts as a buffer between the paper and ink. The ball is held tightly in position, between the ink reservoir and the paper, by a socket. As the pen moves across the paper, the ball is able to rotate. This means that the ink is sealed from the air, preventing it from drying out in the reservoir. The size of a ballpoint pen's line is determined by the width of the ballpoint. A 0.5mm pen has a ball that will produce a line that is 0.5mm wide. Ultra fine ballpoints produce line that measures 0.1mm in width. Development of the Ballpoint Pen The first patent on a ballpoint pen was issued on 30th October 1888, to John J. Loud. The pen had a small steel ball bearing that could rotate. It was held in place by a socket. It was fitted with a means for supplying heavy, sticky ink to the ball. The pen proved too coarse for letter writing.

However, it could be used to mark rough surfaces, especially leather. However, this patent was commercially unexploited. Another ballpoint pen device was patented by Van Vechten Riesburg in 1916. The patent lapsed without improvement renewal. Commercial models appeared in 1895, but the first satisfactory model of a ballpoint pen was designed by two Hungarian brothers, Lazlo, a journalist and George Biro, a chemist, living in Argentina. Lazlo noticed that the type of ink used in newspaper printing dried quickly, leaving the paper dry and smudge-free. He decided to create a pen using the quick drying ink instead of India ink. As the thicker ink would not flow from a regular pen nib, Biro had to devise a new type of point. To avoid this, Lazlo fitted a pen with a tiny metal ball bearing in its tip. The success of the ballpoint pen is due to the accuracy in which the ball is ground. The ball bearing is housed in a socket, placed at the end of a tube of ink. As the pen moves along the paper, the ball rotates smoothly in a metal seat.

The seat was formed by pressing the ball into the previously machined metal socket to form its own impression. It picks up ink from the ink cartridge and rolls the ink onto the surface of the paper. The ball is constantly bathed in ink from a reservoir. One end of the reservoir is open, whilst the other end is attached to the writing tip. Thus, the ball has two functions � to act as a cap to keep the ink from drying and to let ink flow out of the pen at a controlled rate. The pen could write reasonably even lines, similar to those produced by fountain pens. Early versons of the ball pen were costly to buy, as the nib was attached to the body of the pen. As the nib was easily damaged, the whole pen had to be replaced, if it was broken. Biro Lazlo Biro applied for patents in 1938 and 1940 with the European Patent Office. In 1938, the new-formed Eterpen Company manufactured the Biro pen. Lazlo eventually sold the patents to Eversharp. The ballpoint pen, commonly called the �biro�, became popular in Great Britain during the late 1930�s.

As Biro had neglected to obtain a North American Patent for the pen, he missed the lucrative opportuniting of manufacturing the pen in the US. In addition, this enabled the British Government to purchase the licensing rights. In 1939, the Royal Air Force needed a new type of pen, as the conventional fountain pen was not sturdy enough and leaked when fighter planes flew at high altitudes with reduced pressure. During World War II, the ballpoint pen was widely used by the military because of its toughness and ability to survive the battle environment. By the mid-1940�s, pens of this type were widely used throughout much of the world. The press hailed the success of biro because it could write for a year without refilling. In the United States, the first successful, commercially produced ballpoint pen to replace the fountain pen was introduced by Milton Reynolds in 1945. It used a tiny ball that rolled heavy, gelatine-consistency ink onto the paper. The Reynolds� Pen was marketed as �the first pen to write underwater�, guaranteed to write for two years without refilling and was claimed to be smear proof. The pen retailed at $12.50, which was considered expensive.

However, on its first day of sale, in a New York department store, $100,000 worth of ballpoint pens were sold, primarily due to the introduction of this new technology. Every large fountain pen manufacturing company became involved with the development of the ballpoint pen. Eversharp introduced the capillary action ballpoint pen, based on the original Biro patents, in the spring of 1946. Although the company intended to be the first on the market in the U.S. with a ballpoint pen, they were in fact the second. Legal battles with competitors slowly drained the company�s resources. Few notable Eversharp models appeared in the 1950s. Parker acquired the writing instrument division of Eversharp, Inc. in 1957, in an attempt to penetrate the lower-price ball pen market. Parker Pens believed the release of the product was premature from a technical standpoint. They were proved correct, as these early pens were primitive writing instruments. Many models of pens leaked, did not write evenly and often failed to write. Very high volumes of ballpoints were returned.

By 1948, the price of the Biro dropped to less than 50 cents per pen. However, in 1945, Baron Marcel Bich, a Frenchman, realised the potential of the pen. Bich tested the Biro and concluded that the pen was unreliable because of the heavy ink that was needed to be used. The ink flowed either too freely or not at all. Bich developed gravity-flow inks held in rubber sacks, and then in brass tubes, which proved most popular. Using a layer of heavy grease to force the flow of ink resulted in improved performance. BiC Bich founded the BiC Company, with the philosophy of manufacturing inexpensive ballpoint pens. Adopting rigorous standards of quality control, Bich developed the industrial process for making the pens that lowered the unit cost dramatically. In 1949, Bich introduced his pens in Europe. He called the pens �BiC,� a shortened, easy-to-remember version of his name. In 1955, BiC introduced its pens to the American market. Initially, consumers were reluctant to buy the pens, as so many pens had been introduced in the U.S. market by other manufacturers.

To increase sales, BiC created a televised advertising campaign, with the slogan, �Writes First Time, Every Time!� The pen retailed for only 29 cents. Within a year, competition forced prices down to less than 10 cents each. By the early 1960�s, BiC dominated the ballpoint pen market. Parker, Schaeffer and Waterman captured the smaller upscale markets of fountain pens and expensive ballpoints. Currently, the highly popular modern version of Lazlo Biro's pen, the BiC Crystal, has a daily world wide sales figure of 14,000,000 pens. Biro is still the generic name used for the ballpoint pen in most of the world. The Cheap Disposable vs The Luxury Writing Implement Following tremendous research in 1954, Parker Pen introduced the first ballpoint pen to its range. Known as the �Jotter�, it was fitted with a rotating cartridge refill, that could offer users the advantage of even ball wear, which resulted in smooth writing being produced. The cartridge moved 90o, every time the user �clicked� the pen. Using this rotating feature, up to four different styles of writing could be produced.

This feature was lacking from other ballpoint pens, including the market leader, PaperMate. It was able to write efficiently and could write five times longer than other models of ballpoints. The Jotter was available in a variety of point sizes, with a rotating cartridge and had large-capacity ink refills. As users found it to write reliably and consistently, sales increased to 3.5 million in its first year. It retailed between $2.95 to $8.75. In 1957, a major technical development in ball pen writing was developed by Parker, with the introduction of a textured tungsten carbide ball, which replaced the solid ball bearing. Known as the T-ball, the textured ball is a technologically perfect sphere that literally grips writing surfaces, including those that are rough, greasy or slick. The surface of the T-Ball surface is actually composed of some 50,000 polished surfaces and pits, with pits joined by even smaller channels. The channels and pits are continuous throughout the interior of the sphere, approximating the interior structure of a sugar cube. The T-ball was incorporated into the Jotter Pen.

Advances in the technology of sintering, the controlled bonding of metal particles by heat transfer, allowed Parker to produce a sintered sphere that holds more ink inside than on the surface. It measures one millimetre in diameter. With these improvements, Parker introduced the T-Ball Jotter and by 1961, it became the best selling ballpoint pen around the world in the quality (over $1.00) price category. A further advance in Parker ball pen technology was in 1963, with the introduction of the stainless steel ball socket. This type of socket is stronger, is more resistant to corrosion and has a significantly longer life span than the soft bronze socket. About durability, it is better suited to the surface of the T-Ball. This development produced a better writing line. In 1970, the futuristically styled Parker �T-l� was manufactured with Titanium components. However, the coice of material caused many technical problems, and the product withdrawn after a few years. The Jotter remains one of Parker�s best selling writing instruments, with annual sales of nearly 17 million. Improvements in paste inks offer greater resistance to weather and extremes of air pressure.

Thus, Parker Pens can perform in the heat of the Sahara Desert, in high altitudes of the Andes and the freezing temperatures experienced in Alaska. The Jotter is currently available with a stainless steel cap, and the barrel in available in a choice of 30 colours. Jotter refills are available in five different point sizes with a choice of four writing ink colours. Parker maintains that the quality and reliability of the T-ball cannot be improved. It is used in every Parker ball pen that is manufactured, from the current Jotter model to the solid-gold Presidential model. Parker black ballpoint pens produce more than 28,000 linear feet of writing, more than five miles, before running out of ink. This offers 7,000 feet more writing service than the competition. Currently, most major ballpoint pen manufacturers use variations of the textured balls to produce their pens. The ballpoint pen can be used to write on carbon paper, photocopying paper and fax paper. The history of writing instruments! By Mary Bellis The history of writing instruments by which humans have recorded and conveyed thoughts, feelings and grocery lists, is the history of civilization itself.

This is how we know the story of us, by the drawings, signs and words we have recorded. The cave man's first inventions were the hunting club (not the auto security device) and the handy sharpened-stone, the all-purpose skinning and killing tool. The latter was adapted into the first writing instrument. The cave man scratched pictures with the sharpened-stone tool onto the walls of his cave dwelling. The cave drawings represented events in daily life such as the planting of crops or hunting victories. With time, the record-keepers developed systematized symbols from their drawings. These symbols represented words and sentences, but were easier and faster to draw and universally recognized for meaning. The discovery of clay made portable records possible (you can't carry a cave wall around with you). Early merchants used clay tokens with pictographs to record the quantities of materials traded or shipped. These tokens date back to about 8,500 B.C. With the high volume of and the repetition inherent in record keeping, pictographs evolved and slowly lost their picture detail. They became abstract-figures representing sounds in spoken communication. The alphabet replaced pictographs between 1700 and 1500 B.C. in the Sinaitic world.

The current Hebrew alphabet and writing became popular around 600 B.C. About 400 B.C. the Greek alphabet was developed. Greek was the first script written from left to right. From Greek followed the Byzantine and the Roman (later Latin) writings. In the beginning, all writing systems had only uppercase letters, when the writing instruments were refined enough for detailed faces, lowercase was used as well (around 600 A.D.) The earliest means of writing that approached pen and paper as we know them today was developed by the Greeks. They employed a writing stylus, made of metal, bone or ivory, to place marks upon wax-coated tablets. The tablets made in hinged pairs, closed to protect the scribe's notes. The first examples of handwriting (purely text messages made by hand) originated in Greece. The Grecian scholar, Cadmus invented the written letter - text messages on paper sent from one individual to another. Writing was advancing beyond chiseling pictures into stone or wedging pictographs into wet clay. The Chinese invented and perfected 'Indian Ink'.

Originally designed for blacking the surfaces of raised stone-carved hieroglyphics, the ink was a mixture of soot from pine smoke and lamp oil mixed with the gelatin of donkey skin and musk. The ink invented by the Chinese philosopher, Tien-Lcheu (2697 B.C.), became common by the year 1200 B.C. Other cultures developed inks using the natural dyes and colors derived from berries, plants and minerals. In early writings, different colored inks had ritual meaning attached to each color. The invention of inks paralleled the introduction of paper. The early Egyptians, Romans, Greeks and Hebrews, used papyrus and parchment papers. One of the oldest pieces of writing on papyrus known to us today is the Egyptian "Prisse Papyrus" which dates back to 2000 B.C. The Romans created a reed-pen perfect for parchment and ink, from the hollow tubular-stems of marsh grasses, especially from the jointed bamboo plant. They converted bamboo stems into a primitive form of fountain pen. They cut one end into the form of a pen nib or point.

A writing fluid or ink filled the stem, squeezing the reed forced fluid to the nib. By 400 A.D. a stable form of ink developed, a composite of iron-salts, nutgalls and gum, the basic formula, which was to remain in use for centuries. Its color when first applied to paper was a bluish-black, rapidly turning into a darker black and then over the years fading to the familiar dull brown color commonly seen in old documents. Wood-fiber paper was invented in China in 105 A.D. but it only became known about (due to Chinese secrecy) in Japan around 700 A.D. and brought to Spain by the Arabs in 711 A.D. Paper was not widely used throughout Europe until paper mills were built in the late 14th century. The writing instrument that dominated for the longest period in history (over one-thousand years) was the quill pen. Introduced around 700 A.D., the quill is a pen made from a bird feather. The strongest quills were those taken from living birds in the spring from the five outer left wing feathers.

The left wing was favored because the feathers curved outward and away when used by a right-handed writer. Goose feathers were most common; swan feathers were of a premium grade being scarcer and more expensive. For making fine lines, crow feathers were the best, and then came the feathers of the eagle, owl, hawk and turkey. Quill pens lasted for only a week before it was necessary to replace them. There were other disadvantages associated with their use, including a lengthy preparation time. The early European writing parchments made from animal skins, required much scraping and cleaning. A lead and a ruler made margins. To sharpen the quill, the writer needed a special knife (origins of the term "pen-knife".) Beneath the writer's high-top desk was a coal stove, used to dry the ink as fast as possible. Plant-fiber paper became the primary medium for writing after another dramatic invention took place: Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press with replaceable wooden or metal letters in 1436. Simpler kinds of printing e.g. stamps with names, used much earlier in China, did not find their way to Europe. During the centuries, many newer printing technologies were developed based on Gutenberg's printing machine e.g.

offset printing. Articles written by hand had resembled printed letters until scholars began to change the form of writing, using capitals and small letters, writing with more of a slant and connecting letters. Gradually writing became more suitable to the speed the new writing instruments permitted. The credit of inventing Italian 'running hand' or cursive handwriting with its Roman capitals and small letters, goes to Aldus Manutius of Venice, who departed from the old set forms in 1495 A.D. By the end of the 16th century, the old Roman capitals and Greek letterforms transformed into the twenty-six alphabet letters we know today, both for upper and lower-case letters. When writers had both better inks and paper, and handwriting had developed into both an art form and an everyday occurrence, man's inventive nature once again turned to improving the writing instrument, leading to the development of the modern fountain pen. The Origins of the Ball Point Pen There are times when failure is almost inevitable because the product or service introduced is so simple that imitation is all but invited. There are some such inventions, however, that in the hands of a superb businessman could be identified with his company.

The safety razor is one such invention, which in the hands of King Gillette became identified with his company, and the same is true for soaps, toothpaste, breakfast cereals, and many others. More often than not, however, this does not occur, but to my way of thinking, this is not a blunder from which we can learn. Such would be the case of the ballpoint pen. Mr. Reynolds is often portrayed as its inventor, if not that, its first important promoter. Reynolds, who was born in Albert Lea Minnesota, in 1892, where his father was a threshing-machine salesman, was always seeking the main chance. After failing out of high school, he became an automobile salesman, and at the age of 20 was an independent tire dealer. Reynolds experienced great success in this business. By 1918 he was a millionaire, only to lose all of his money within four years. This was a preview of what was to come. During the next eight years Reynolds rode a roller-coaster, which resulted in three bankruptcies.

Reynolds moved to Chicago in the early 1920s, where he became a stock-market speculator and was wiped out in the 1929 stock-market crash. After two days searching for new business ideas he came upon a printing shop that sold commercial signs. He purchased the shop, intending to manufacture the equipment used in sign making, which he marketed as "Print-a-Sign." This was another of Reynolds� successes, and he was liquid once more. He was nothing if not serendipitous. During World War II Reynolds engaged in several businesses, the most successful being the importation of silver cigarette lighters from Mexico, which earned him at least $500,000. While on a business trip to Buenos Aires in 1945 Reynolds came upon an early ballpoint pen invented by Ladislas Biro, a Hungarian journalist. While ballpoint pens were new, the idea went back to 1888, when John Loud, of whom nothing is known but his name, patented a version but never went into production.

A different kind of ballpoint pen was invented by Frank Klimes, a Czech, in the early 1930s and manufactured by him and another Czech, Paul V. Eisner. The first of these instruments, called the Rolpen, was produced and marketed in Prague in 1935. Their patent ran out during World War II, when Klimes was in a concentration camp. Meanwhile Biro, who fled to Paris when Hitler invaded Hungary, met a Hungarian woman who was married to a wealthy Argentinean, who took an interest in Biro and his invention. When attempts to sell the patent rights to Philips failed, the trio went to Argentina and sold the rights to Henry George Martin, a British promoter, who then organized a company to manufacture the pen, which was called the "Eterpen." Some of them were turned out and given gratis to the United States government for distribution to servicemen. The pen was something of a novelty. Not only could it write on almost any service as well as under water, but it was leak proof, which made Eterpen a favorite with those who flew in military airplanes.

The Biro interests licensed its patents for American production in Eversharp, Inc., and to Eberhard Faber in May 1945. Stories of the new pen were now featured in the press, but Eversharp and Eberhard Faber did not move swiftly into production. Saying nothing to Biro or to Martin, Reynolds returned to the United States, where he had his attorneys study the Biro patent. It turned out that the Biro pens supplied the ink to the ball by means of capillary action. Reynolds developed a pen whose ink was delivered by gravity flow, which his attorney told him was different from the Biros, and so was patentable. He obtained a patent on this method and swung into production before the Biros interests could enter the American market. Reynolds capitalized his company, Reynolds International Pen, at $26,000. He started production on October 6, 1945, turning out 70 pens the first day. Reynolds decided to market the pens through Gimbel�s Department Store in Manhattan, where they went on sale on October 29 for $12.50. The pens were an instant hit.

Gimbel�s sold $100,000 worth in one day and then notified Reynolds that it would take all he could deliver. In the first three months Reynolds was able to sell two million pens through 60,000 retail outlets in the United States and 37 foreign countries, for total revenues of $5.7 million, with a net income of $1.6 million. Gimbel�s alone accounted for 100,000 of the sales. It was one of the most successful new product introductions in American history. Stung by Reynolds� success, Eversharp and Eberhard Faber moved into production in December, and their Argentinean-manufactured ballpoint pens to the United States in March, where they were sold as Biros at R. H. Macy & Co. for $19.95. This prompted Reynolds to seek a preliminary injunction against them for harming his sales.

The injunction was denied, with Judge Paul Leahy concluding there were too many conflicting questions to act without a jury trial, and as a result, Eversharp and Eberhard Faber were able to market their new American-made Repeater Pen, in May 1946. Reynolds responded that he soon would introduce a second pen with an improved ink chamber that would permit it to write for four years without refilling. Other companies also entered the field, which by the fall of 1946 showed signs of saturation. In February 1947 Macy�s was able to advertise the sale of a Reynolds pen, the Rocket for 98 cents, or three for $2.79. The next day Gimbel�s advertised the Rocket for 94 cents, or three for $2.59. The great ballpoint pen bonanza had ended. Reynolds was undismayed. As legal threats faded and production slowed, he turned to other interests. In mid-1947 he announced that he intended to break Howard Hughes�s record of around-the-world flight of 91 hours and 14 minutes.

Reynolds also claimed the flight was scientific in nature, since he intended to investigate rumors of mountains higher than Mt. Everest in Tibet. Reynolds re-outfitted a surplus Air Force light-attack bomber and then teamed up with a veteran flyer William Odom to make the flight in 1948 in under 79 hours. At refueling stops along the way Reynolds mingled with well-wishers and distributed more than 1000 ballpoint pens. By then the pens were retailing for 39 cents. Soon after his return Reynolds sold his pen business and returned to Print-a-Sign, manufacturing machinery and signs, butt more as a hobby than anything else. He soon dropped from sight. Did Reynolds blunder? When I started out on my research I had second thoughts and decided to drop this chapter from the book. After reflecting on those episodes of business blunders offered, you might try to figure out how Reynolds could have succeeded better than he did with his ballpoints. Robert Sobel, When Giants Stumble: Classic Business Blunders and How to Avoid Them, Prentice-Hall Press, 1999, p.p. viii-xi. The Topic Is Ink � Calvet M.

Hahn 1981 A series of recent expertizing problems has made it clear that not much is known in philatelic circles, even on the expertizing committees, about writing inks and their dates, applications, and characteristics. Because ink analysis is one of the important methods of determining whether a cover is partially forged or has been tampered with, I have pulled together data on inks for my own expertizing. Some of these may have broader philatelic interest. Old inks have characteristics that are not readily duplicated. It is difficult, therefore, for fakers to change old covers in such a fashion that it cannot be detected by experts who do have some familiarity with old inks. In looking at a cover that is under analysis, several questions need to be asked. First, is all the ink on the item the same when some should differ, and does some differ when it should be the same? For example, the address and the manuscript portion of the postmark, if any, should be in different but contemporary inks. This would not be the case, normally, if the writer is the postmaster in which case the two inks should match.

Second, do the inks used all have identical characteristics, or is one of the written portions done with ink of different quality or under different conditions? Obviously, as noted above, inks used at the postoffice and those used by the addressor at home should differ but be of generally similar characteristics. Third, was any portion of the letter or cover written at a substantially different time? Docketing, for example, might date from a considerably later period. However, if the basic writing ink is not correct for the period of the letter than there is likely to be skullduggery a-pen. Such skullduggery is not necessarily designed to completely forge an item, although that does happen. Much more likely is that additions are made to existing covers to enhance their value. A significant date may be incorporated either in the text or docketing. Existing pen work may be 'enhanced' to make it more legible. A supplementary marking may be added. Not too long ago, a well-known, reputable auction house offered a very rare piece of American postal history, of which about five to eight copies were known. It was shipped to me for inspection.

The item itself proved to be perfectly genuine, but as the normal method of delivery was by hand, it should not have had an address-most similar examples did not. In this case, someone decided that an address would help the marketing of the piece and proceeded to add one, with no regard to the problems of the inks involved. The result was a sharp devaluation of a good item in the eyes of a serious collector. The auctioneer withdrew the piece from sale. Not too much has been done in faking stampless covers until quite recently, unless they had good autographic content. Thus, most fakes are recent and the fakers are not familiar with the inks of the periods in question and how they are applied, as well as a number of items that can trip them up. Before proceeding into the nature of old writing inks, it is useful to note how they were applied, both in terms of writing and blotting instruments. Obviously ballpoint pens were not used in the 19th century and the use of such writing ink is clear evidence of fakery. What may not be recognized are the differences between two of the most important writing instruments-the quill pen and the steel pen.

Illustration number 1 shows the difference in writing produced by these instruments. Note that the steel nibbed pen shows a sharp outer and inner line to the shape of the letter, whereas the same lines in the quill pen writing is almost non-existent because of the comparative softness of the quill. . The quill pen came first, as any buff of historical movies or TV can tell us. Quill-written letters show shading in the downward strokes and there is an absence of abrasions of indentations even when the writer is a bit heavy handed. Because quills needed to be sharpened or re-cut frequently, a long letter will show differences between the writing at the end and that of the beginning. It is just about impossible to produce certain characteristics of quill writing with a steel pen, and as few of us today know how to write freely with a quill, forgery is detectable if it is tried. Nibbed quills were invented in 1809, but their use was very rare until after the War of 1812. The development of a nibbed steel pen dates to the initial experimental example of about 1780, and the first ones were on the market about 1803.

Thereafter, steel pen patents began pouring out. Nevertheless, steel pens were not in common use until the 1830s. The early steel pens used in the United States were almost all imports from England where Birmingham specialized in their manufacture. It wasn't until about 1860 that large-scale manufacture of steel pens began in the United States. The early steel pens lacked flexibility, which shows in the writing coming from them. The reason is that it was not until 1830 that the elongated nib was incorporated into the design. The next major development in writing instruments is the reservoir pen. The earliest of this type were the stylographic pens, which came in just about the same time that nigrosine ink was commercially available (1870). This early fountain pen version had no nib to leave nib marks. Its writing is of relatively uniform width and the strokes are comparatively broad. Shortly after the initial stylographic pens came the stub-type pen. It was rare in 1875, but grew in popularity until by 1930 about one-third of all pens were of the stub variety. See illustration 2 for a sample of how this writing looked.

There is a characteristic reversal of shading from thick to thin and back again. One of the characteristics of early fountain pens is their failure to deliver ink promptly when first applied to paper. Thus, there are frequently characteristic initial scratch marks, which indicate to an expert the use of an early fountain pen. Although ballpoint pens were first sold prior to 1935, the first real commercial sales overseas were in 1943, and they should not be found on letters prior to that date. In fact, the use of a ball-point in American writing prior to the end of World War II-and even a few years later-makes a cover suspect. The first domestic American ballpoint sales were at Gimbels' department store in 1945. The first ballpoint pens left a coarse structureless line with an abrupt thickness on curves, where the writing changes directions. Ballpoint writing can generally be tampered with fairly easily. About 1952, a new type of ink was introduced for these pens; that ink can identify ballpoints, and writing from pens sold after that date. This difference permits us to tell when a particular ballpoint document was written.

Blotting One problem in analyzing ink written on cover stems from the use of blotting paper. While blotting paper dates to 1465 and was used in the 1500s and 1600s, it was not commonly used. Until almost the end of the 19th century the most common practice was to let ink dry naturally in the air. If blotting was to be done, sand was used and can be found imbedded in the inks of such documents. Many covers show the effect of this sand drying either in the cancellation or in the handwriting. It is a rare cover dating to the period prior to the War of 1812 that would show signs of having been blotted by blotting paper. Such an example would automatically call for expertization if there were any question about authenticity. Sand or air drying were the common methods right on through the prestamp period and up to about the banknote stamp era. Iron nutgall ink, one of the most common writing inks of the 19th century, shows age discoloration much sooner when blotted than when left unblotted.

It will also fade sooner, although it retains a blue color much longer, for most of the darkening agents are removed by the blotting. If the blotter is not applied immediately, only the heavily shaded portion of the writing will show this effect. A characteristic of blotted ink that is important in expertizing is that such ink remains primarily on the surface rather than being absorbed into the paper. Carbon Ink Carbon inks were among the very first used. India ink is among the oldest of these, having been discovered and used about 2000 B.C. Carbon inks are made from charcoal or soot suspended in a gum, glue, or varnish medium. Because much of the best-quality ink was made from lamp black, the color varied from dark brown to blue-black. During the 19th century, commercial carbon ink preparations were artificially darkened with a blue pigment such as Prussian Blue. The nature of the blue pigment introduced helps date India inks. Although India ink is the oldest ink in general use, it is not widely used as a writing ink. The reason is its thick nature, which is not suited for a reservoir pen. Even nibbed pens of the steel variety will clog up with this ink, unless constantly cleaned.

India and other carbon suspension inks do not penetrate paper. Rather, the layer of ink lays on the surface of the paper bound by a thin film of dried glue, with its color primarily derived from the carbon particles deposited on the surface. Because the color comes from a layer of carbon, it is highly resistant to chemical bleaches, although it can be removed by scrubbing with a detergent. Not all the carbon particles, of course, can be eliminated, and attempts to remove carbon inks can therefore be detected by experts. There has been a change in the composition of carbon inks over the years. Modern carbon inks are made with carbon black, not soot, and the binder is no longer hide glue but shellac in a borax solution, to which ammonia is added to promote flow. Because of the alkaline nature of carbon ink, it spreads beyond the nib marks when applied by nibbed pens. Forgers tend to forget that carbon inks are basic in nature and therefore cannot be mixed with the acidic iron-tannin inks to darken them. Such a mixture would cause the suspended carbon to coagulate, leaving a muddy mixture. The dating of carbon inks is primarily done by focusing on the binder and the blue toner added.

Any binder, other than hide glue, indicates modern ink, particularly if there is borate present. In addition, synthetic blue agents that did not exist in the classic stamp period are used as colorants so that their presence on purportedly old covers indicates tampering. Iron-nutgall Ink Iron tannin inks basically replaced carbon inks in the Middle Ages as the general writing ink fluid because they were easier to handle. The large-scale use of these inks arose almost simultaneously with the introduction of paper in Western Europe . Initially, the tannin from hides was used, but it became apparent that nutgalls would serve as well so that most colonial documents use nutgall ink. There were other inks used in the colonial period, particularly during the American Revolution when improvision was the byword. These are frequently less durable and present problems in washing or cleaning covers, which the true iron nutgall inks do not. A typical and famous example is the lovely bayberry ink used at Albany, N.Y., which gives a magenta color. The basic problem with nutgall ink is that it tales time to darken. Thus, freshly prepared inks were barely readable, an unsatisfactory situation for a writing fluid.

When the ink was allowed to appropriately darken by maturing it in a vat, it was found that a large portion of the compound precipitated, creating a sludge that would clog pens. A number of items were added to prevent such precipitation and it was eventually discovered that the addition of gum Arabic hindered the formation of a precipitate although it did not prevent it. Thus, gum Arabic became a standard component of old iron nutgall inks. It gave the violet black inks a glossy look that is characteristic. Another early change occurred when it was discovered that tannin from the tanning industry did not give the best inks, and nutgall tannin was substituted wherever possible. Nevertheless, some hide inks continued to be produced, particularly in rural areas where nutgalls were unavailable. The new nutgall inks were a combination of a solution of five percent tannin with suspension of iron salts (green vitriol) buffered with gum Arabic. The insoluble particles of blue-black ferrosoferric gallate rested on the surface of the paper while the ferrous gallate solution penetrated the paper, oxidized, and served as a mordant to create a permanent dark color.

Many of the inks produced in this fashion were quite acidic and eat into the paper as can be seen in a number of old letters. All were acidic and thus not beneficial to the paper, but some were greatly so. In 1834, a major change in iron nutgall ink technology occurred. The English firm of Stephens developed a new writing fluid that was not a part suspension but a solution. This was the first 'blue-black' writing fluid and quickly became one of the favorite inks around the world. What Stephens did was to add to his ink a small portion of indigo, and probably also some logwood. While this use of indigo had been suggested as early as 1785, Stephens was the first to do it commercially. The indigo changed the characteristic initial violet-black into a blue-black. Of course, over time (two to three years), all these inks turned into a permanent black. The use of a Stephens type ink on a document dated before 1834 is a sure sign of forgery. This ink was not introduced in America, in all probability, for several years after that date.

Through the years more and more bluing ingredients were added to these inks to create a darker initial color. Thus they took longer to turn black. Once the new coal tar dyes were commercially available for ink, they were used a colorants, so it is possible to differentiate the blue-black inks of the post 1860s from those used before, a significant point in philatelic analysis. The next big change occurred with the study of iron gall inks by the German government in 1870. Published about 1890, the study set new formulation standards for iron gall inks, which were those subsequently used throughout the world. Logwood Ink Logwood also yielded tannin, and at one time logwood inks were among the most popular in use. The popularity began after Runge discovered what became known as chrome inks , which were put on the commercial market in 1848. Some of the early violet inks came from logwood. The best logwood inks were an intense blue black. They were noncorrosive and flowed freely. Once dry, they could be wetted without smearing or spreading.

Commercially, logwood inks were produced with copper or iron sulphate, with the former preferred but the latter most used. These inks used less logwood and thus were cheaper. They were acidified and thus could corrode pens. For many years such logwood inks were the standard copying ink. Visually, matured logwood and iron gall inks look the same. However, they can be readily identified and separated by use of a 5% hydrochloric acid solution. With this, iron nutgall ink gives an immediate blue or blue green reaction while logwood yields a red or purple red color. A pipette with only a very small amount of acid can be used so that only a tiny portion of the paper is affected, or a flake of ink can be scraped away and tested. In expertizing inks, it is necessary to recognize that logwood inks have peculiar flow that looks unlike other inks. Illustration number 3 shows how logwood ink flows back over itself when a second stroke crosses a first one.

Thus at areas of shading, or where a stroke angles, there can be a flowback of the ink into other portions of the line so that it gives the appearance of retouching although it is not. ENDURING INK. ASCERTAINMENT OF A CORRECT INK FORMULA THE WORK OF OVER A CENTURY--CHARACTER OF THE EVIDENCE WHICH ESTABLISHES IT--THE INVESTIGATIONS OF THE AUTHOR IN THIS DIRECTION AND COMPARISON WITH THOSE OF COMMISSIONER SWAN--ELIMINATION OF THE "ADDED" COLORS AND THEIR ORIGIN-- DISCUSSION OF THE RELATIVE MERITS OF LAMPBLACK, MADDER AND INDIGO--THE DURABLE VIRTUES OF INDIGO WHEN EMPLOYED ALONE--CAUSE OF THE BROWNING OF INKS--LONGEVITY OF INK DUE TO VEHICLE WHICH CARRIES IT--WHEN PERFECT INK WILL BE INVENTED. TO ascertain the correct formula of a substantially permanent ink, as we have learned, has been the aim during a century or more, of able chemists, manufacturers and laymen.

Their experiments and study of ancient and modern documents all point unerringly in the direction of an ink containing iron and galls. Accumulated evidence may be said to establish itself in the light of investigation and experience and becomes more and more a certainty when considered, reviewed and discussed in connection with a chronological history of the "gall" inks since they came into semi-official and other uses centuries ago. Descriptions of MSS. containing ink writings hundreds of years old, many of them as legible as when first written, are silent witnesses whose testimony cannot be assailed. Such information when assembled together minimizes many of the conditions which have existed and interposed in preventing during the last four decades a general adoption or re-adoption of such a tanno-gallate of iron ink, the lasting qualities of which some of our forefathers estimated would, and as we know have stood the test of time. Assuming this character of ink to have been employed in past centuries, the cause or causes for the differentiations in respect to color and durability become of paramount importance.

The investigations of the writer in this direction, while in some respects traveling the same road followed by others, diverged from them and has been more in the nature of a comparative analytical and microscopic examination of ancient with ancient and modern with modern documents in connection with numerous chemical experiments, the manufacture of hundreds of inks and the study of their time and other phenomena. To accomplish this, ancient documents not written with "Indian" ink, but with those obviously containing combinations of iron and galls or other tannins, were selected and grouped into color families. They began with the fourteenth century, continuing well into the nineteenth, to the number of nearly four hundred, each of them of a different date and different year. Some of them were so pale and indistinct as to be illegible, others less so and by gradual steps they approached to a definite black; many of them as rich and deep in color as if they had been written not centuries ago but within a few years. Signatures on the same document represented different degrees of color, so that the question of the material on which the writing appeared affecting the appearance of the ink, was not a factor; but the difference in the inks used to make the signatures was the determining factor.

At this point it may be noted that the investigations conducted by Mr. Swan before referred to and those by the writer and the resultant observations of each were substantially alike. Many of the writer's, however, preceded those of Mr. Swan's, for during the years 1885 and 1886, having had the custody of part of the Archives of the City of New York there were many opportunities to study this subject which were taken advantage of, before and after which time frequent examinations were made of writings much more ancient than those pertaining to New York. Assuming a second premise was to assert that the inks employed in the writing of these documents were "straight" or possessed some "added" pigment or color. Again, the vehicles to hold the particles or possibly preserving substances, might be factors. All literature possible referring to ink formulas was examined to ascertain the names of materials recommended or formerly "added" to gall inks, because if the pristineness of the blacker inks was due to the added pigment it was a safe proposition that it was still existent in the ink, and that if it could be discovered part at least of the problem would be, simplified.

The "added" color compounds, excluding those of the aniline family which pertain to the more modern ink compositions, are of two classes: those possessing tannin and color-yielding materials and those containing only a color-yielding material. Many of the first class have been used in the manufacture of ink both with infusions of nut-galls or alone, while but very few of the second class have been used for either purpose. The decomposing action of light, oxygen and moisture on many of each class placed them beyond the purview of consideration, while the dates of the discovery and the fact of the small percentage of tannin contained in others permitted them also to be discarded.

For instance: vanadium, which is fairly permanent, was discovered only in 1830; chanchi, the ink plant of New Granada discovered in the sixteenth century, possessing excellent lasting qualities, does not assimilate perfectly with other constituents used in the manufacture of ink, but is best when used alone; Berlin blue (prussian blue) is well spoken of, but was only discovered by accident in 1710 by Diesbach, a preparer of colors at Berlin; logwood, more used for this purpose than any other material, was first imported into Europe in the sixteenth century and causes a deterioration of the durable qualities of the tanno-gallate of iron; Brazil-wood and archil, and their allies, are exceedingly fugitive; bablah, the fruit of the acacia arabica, myrabolams, of Chinese growth, catechu, and sumac which though used in the time of Pliny, each contains a percentage of gallic acid too small to meet the requirements. Divi-divi, a South American product, came into use only at the end of the sixteenth century and has not stood the test of time.

This sifting process completely eliminated all but lampblack, madder and indigo in some form as a permanent "added" color pigment. Lampblack, which is we know forms the basis of "Indian" ink, is not soluble and requires a very heavy gummy vehicle to prevent its immediate precipitation, and while it could have been used in combination with tanno-gallate of iron as an ink, the fact that it was possible to chemically remove the ancient inks which remained black, was a sufficient demonstration that this carbon substance, which is not affected by chemicals, either as contained in the fluid ink or as dusted on after writing, could have formed no part of the ancient tanno-gallate of iron inks. Madder is mentioned as of very ancient times and was cultivated in Europe as early as the tenth century; its addition to an iron and gall ink is said to be an invention of the year 1855; it is certain, however, that it was used for a like purpose as early as 1826, and a fair presumption that it was frequently employed in some form during the preceding four centuries.

It has under certain conditions very lasting properties as the madder-dyed cloths found wrapped around Egyptian mummies demonstrates, but does not assist the tanno-gallate of iron to retain its black color; on the contrary it seems to lessen this quality. That indigo for added color was employed by ink manufacturers in the eighteenth century is shown by the formulas appearing in the literature of that time. It was used alone as an ink long before, as well as contemporaneously with, those of the tanno-gallate of iron family. Its lasting properties are most remarkable if it be true that, used as a dye, there is still in existence specimens of it on cloth five thousand or more years old.

The history of its use ALONE as an ink is difficult to ascertain back of a certain period; the writer has several specimens of it, one written in 1692 whose color is a green blue; another written about a century ago is believed to be as bright blue as the day it was placed on the paper; from 1810 to 1850 it was in common use particularly in hot climates where it was "home-made." Consequently if the old "gall" inks contained a lasting added color, indigo must have been the one, Dr. Stark whose investigations along this line for twenty-three years have already been cited has said that he preferred for his own use an ink composed of galls, sulphate of indigo and copperas (sulphate of iron); this means a tanno-gallate of iron ink with indigo for "added" color. Like formulas calling for different proportions of constituents both before and after his time in England and the continents of Europe and America are to be found in considerable number, proving that its use was more or less constant in this respect.

To determine, then, whether or not the blacker specimens of the ancient writings contained indigo in any of its forms was most important, and the plan adopted most simple. Specimens of writing in ink of which the manufacturer's name was known as well as his formula and only thirty years old showed evidence of considerable "browning;" some of them when tested in juxtaposition with those of from fifty to one hundred years old which had turned completely brown, gave approximately the same results, and differentiated largely from the results obtained from jet black specimens of eighty to five hundred or more years of age.

In a number of the browner ones indigo was found to be present while in many of the black ones it was not, demonstrating that the reason for the continuing blackness of the older inks is not due to an added color or pigment of any kind and furthermore that the "Stark" and corresponding ink formulas after the test of TIME did not retain their original blackness but deteriorated to a brown color; moreover, that their purpose as in the present day was to give an agreeable and immediate color result, a free-flowing ink, and to cheapen the cost of manufacture when compared with that of an unadulterated tanno-gallate of iron ink. No disagreement being now possible as to the lasting color virtues of a properly proportioned tanno- gallate of iron ink WITHOUT an "added" color or pigment, there remained the sole question as to the vehicle utilized to hold this combination in suspension and whether or not it had to do with the continuing blackness of the older inks. The answer must lie between the vegetable product known as gum and the animal product known as gelatine.

The first disintegrates, quickly absorbs moisture and gradually disappears, while gelatine (isinglass) "contains under conditions 50% carbon, although its molecular formula has not yet been determined. It cannot be converted into vapor and does not form well-defined compounds with other bodies; it is insoluble in alcohol which precipitates it in flakes from its aqueous solution. It is also precipitated by tannin, which combines with it to form an insoluble non-putrescible compound. Gallic acid, however, does not precipitate it." (Bloxam.) Possessing an undisturbed and complete history it was the very substance employed long before the discovery of gall ink, and is found present in the earliest specimens of the "Indian" inks which remain to us. It must now be evident that there can be no material difference of opinions as to what has been so clearly and conclusively established, viz. that ink which contains a base of tanno-gallate of iron (without "added" color) is a permanent ink, and the length of its durability and continuing pristineness can be disturbed only by inferior quality of constituents, wrong methods of admixture and its future environment.

Hence any black ink with this combination missing is of no practical value whatever either for record or commercial uses. "Indian" ink, except for specific purposes, belongs to the great past and will so continue with its virtues unchallenged and proven, until some solvent is discovered for the carbon which forms nearly the whole of its composition, at which time THE perfect ink can be said to have been discovered.

Question: What was the well-known surname of the man who patented the ball-point pen in 1943 ?
Answer: (Lazlo) BIRO