The ball-point pen was invented by a Hungarian called Lasso Biro. He was the man of many talents. He was a journalist, painter, sculptor and a hypnotist. As an editor it was his job to select, correct and sometimes compose articles. This meant considerable paper work for which he used a fountain pen. Sometimes it scratched the paper. Sometimes it overflowed leaving blobs of ink on the writing. He had to change the paper and rewrite again. All these interruptions irritated Biro. He always dreamt of a pen without these flaws. He worked on it and ultimately succeeded in designing a pen that answered his expectations. Technically it was a superb discovery but its production was expensive. For some time it remained a funny item. It soon caught the attention of air-force pilots who found it ideal for high altitude since it did not depend on gravity and went on writing without having to be ink-filled now and then. Gradually the pen became so famous that in the first market sale organized in 1