What, approximately, is the earliest possible date that the ballpoint pen could plausibly have been invented?
Earliest possible invention of the ballpoint?
- Thread starter Fabius Maximus
- Start date
shiftygiant
Gone Fishin'
Ballpoints have existed since at least 1888, and was when the patent was filed, but not made until 1938. Reservoir pens had existed longer, all the way back to the 10th Century, and the Fountain was created in 1827. So, 1888 is the earliest, assuming someone experiments with the design.
But would it have been technologically feasible to make ballpoints before 1888, assuming someone had come up with the idea and been interested in exploiting it?
According to wikipedia, the first patent for a ball bearing dates from 1794, so that's probably your backstop date (can't have ballpoint pens without ball bearings) - though the process for mass producing bearings to exact size and roundness wasn't invented until 1888 (the same date as the patent for ballpoints - this is unlikely to be a coincidence), which suggests that any before then would be rare, handcrafted pieces of lower quality and greater technical complexity than fountain pens.