Talk:Ballpoint pen/Archive 1

I'd love to try, but I can't read it - anybody know how to get an english translation?Bobzchemist 15:03, 24 May 2007 (UTC)
 * 2006-2009

Shouldn't that be ballpoint? No, the hyphen is needed.Bobzchemist 13:20, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

Introduction
The first sentence is getting unwieldy, and hard to read, any suggestions?:

How about:

A ball-point pen is a modern writing instrument that deposits a line of ink on paper by means of a tiny ball at the tip of the pen. A classic ball-point pen has an internal chamber filled with a viscous ink that is dispensed from the tip during use by the rolling action of a small metal sphere (0.7 mm to 1.2 mm in diameter); the ink dries almost immediately after contact with paper. Inexpensive, reliable and maintenance-free, the ballpoint has almost completely replaced the fountain pen in everyday writing. In British English it is also eponymously known as a "biro" (pronounced bye-roe in Britain but sometimes bee-roh" elsewhere), named after its inventor, László Bíró.Other forms of this type of pen are known as rollerball and gel pens.Bobzchemist 14:48, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

Accents
It's known as a 'biro' in the UK, not a 'bíró' 84.70.234.107 16:18, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

Ballpoint pen general article
I want to add several categories: any comments?Bobzchemist 20:11, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Technical description of how and why they work
 * The introduction of the pens in new york city
 * Their transformation from a luxury item to a mass-produced commodity

Importing from the village pump: the person whom made the ballpoint pen rocks i got too sayy lol love heather myers

Sharp Electronics and Eversharp
Though the story is often repeated, Eversharp (Wahl) was never related to Sharp Electronics. See A Tale of Two Pencils

This line is not right "Inexpensive, reliable and maintenance-free, they have almost completely replaced the fountain pen.". The Fountain Pen industry is alive and well and the Ballpoint pen has not killed it off - well at least not in the UK. To indicate that the fountain pen is as good as dead is misleading.
 * It is perfectly accurate. Would you take issue with the statement that automobiles have all but replaced horses? They have. Chris Cunningham 16:23, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

About pronunciation of "biro"
What's in there currently should stay as it is. Someone edited out the reference to it being pronounced as "bye-row", but I suppose the pronunciation truly is different depending on where you are. My last name is Biro and my family pronounces it bye-row. I have friends from England and they pronounced my name "bye-row" immediately without me having to tell them to, which is very rare for Americans who have just met me. Anyway, I have heard in Hungarian the actual word is pronounced "bee-row". Whatever. So there are two different pronunciations, and that's that. --bī-RŌ 01:48, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

Can we remove ...
... the list of manufacturers and the list of retailers? This is not encyclopedic content; it is simply an advertising list.

Mike Helms 21:48, 11 February 2007 (UTC)


 * I removed the retailer list, as I agree that it was not encyclopedic. I'm less sure of the manufacturer's list. Figma 05:54, 12 February 2007 (UTC)


 * I think the manufacturer's list is appropriate. It is not common knowledge, nor is it readily accessible elsewhere. I could understand challenges to individual items on the list, but as for the list in general, it should stay.

Trivia
The bit about NASA spending millions on a space pen and the Soviets using a pencil is untrue. http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp. The part about 100 people coking to death on them every year is probably also an urban legend. Moberho 17:43, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

I was unable to find a source for the "100 people per year" stat. I was able to find a cite for actual cases of choking (although not death). I replaced the unsubstantiated with the substantiated. WayneConrad 20:47, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

The trivia entry about Anne Frank's diaries, especially the language "supposedly wrote the fabled account" struck me as suspicious, so I went to the annefrank.org web site where I found the issue discussed under the title "Question 4 on the authenticity of the diary of Anne Frank" (http://www.annefrank.org/content.asp?PID=794&LID=2). I have paraphrased the information presented there. This being my first Wikipedia edit, I have no idea how to officially footnote this. Since this calumny seems to be a widespread "urban myth", it seems better to acknowledge and correct it, rather than remove the entry (which was my first inclination). FrankR

Image:Ballpointpentip.jpg
Okay, guys, the picture is overlapping some text. We need to fix that, and I am not that good yet, so could someone fix it? Mew Mitsuki (talk) 22:03, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

Hungarian name
I've never heard the ballpoint pen being called Bíró-toll in Hungarian. Google gives only 4 hits for it, all historical. It is called "golyóstoll" (pen with ball) nowadays. --Tgr (talk) 22:26, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

Optical effects
I am no expert on the subject, but in China we have a system of thought, that for someone with poor handwriting, blue pen is more visually appealing, and for someone with good writing skills, black becomes more appealing. Apparently there is psychology-related research done on this, and there is also the superstition that school students are awarded better marks from teachers where blue pen is used (teachers may be biased towards those with better handwriting) and so many students exclusively use blue pen for this purpose. Has anyone else heard of this and is willing to expand? --  李博杰   | —Talk contribs 04:28, 1 December 2008 (UTC)
 * Sounds interesting, but this probably isn't the most appropriate place for it. Maybe at an article on handwriting or on visual perception, but I dunno. &mdash;Politizer talk / contribs 04:41, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Multi-Colored Pens
Someone just deleted this whole section. While I do think it could use some editing, I don't think it should be deleted completely. How about:

== Multi-colored pens == -     - Some ballpoint pens have multiple colors that can be selected by the user. These are made using the same type of assembly used for single-color pens and for pen refills, but since an     ink resevoir can only have one color of ink filled into it, mult-color pens must use a     different resevoir/tip assembly for each color. All multi-color pens use retractable mechanisms. -     - Multi-color pens come in several varieties. The most common versions of these are the three-color pen, which has black, blue, and red ink colors. Four-color pens also have green ink. A pen has even been produced that has 10 colors in one. Colors that are commonly found in 10-color pens are black, blue, brown, green, orange, pink, purple, red, turquoise, and yellow.

Bobzchemist (talk) 13:34, 26 October 2009 (UTC)