science · 29 October 1945 · 79 years ago
In 1945, the first ball point pen in the U.S. went on sale at Gimbels Department Stores for $12.95. In Jun 1945, Chicago businessman Milton Reynolds, during a visit to Buenos Aires, Argentina, saw Laszlo Biro’s pen in a store, realized the pen’s sales potential and bought a few as samples. He returned to the U.S., and designed a copy in four months. He began production of his Reynolds’ Rocket pen, ignoring the patent rights of the Argentine manufacturer, Eversharp Co. On the first day of sale, $100,000 worth of his pen were sold. The initial success of Reynolds’ ballpoint pen as a fad did not last. It leaked and was unreliable. By 1948, the price fell below 50 cents. By 1951, his enterprise had failed.
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