Today is Ballpoint Pen Day! Okay, this is one holiday I never heard of before but thought it was be fun to learn as a writer more about the history and fun facts about pens in general. A different kind of blog post this week – more light, joy filled and quirky for summertime!
On June 10th of each year, National Ballpoint Pen Day recognizes the useful writing utensil and commemorates the anniversary of the patent filing on June 10, 1943. Before 1943, anyone who wanted to write a letter or scribble some notes on a piece of paper used a fountain pen or pencil.
Interesting Facts about Pens
- Pens date back to 5000 years ago. Pens have been in use since ancient times with ancient Egyptians utilizing reed straws as pens and making ink out of soot mixed with beeswax.
- The word ‘pen’ comes from the Latin word ‘penna’, meaning feather. Humans used feathers that had sharpened quills for writing and began calling them pens (Middle English).
- Generally, an average pen has the ink to write 45,000 words. Every time your pen runs out of ink, think of the 45,000 words you have written on paper so far.
- The first ballpoint pens sold in New York (1945) cost $12 each – or about a day’s wages
- The United States produces more than 2 billion pens a year while 3.4 billion ballpoint pens are imported into the USA each year.
- The most expensive fountain pen is “Fulgor Nocturnus.” It is made by Tibaldi from Italy and is decorated with 945 black diamonds and 123 rubies. Its price is 8 million dollars.
Any guesses how many pens you have laying around your house? I would be afraid to guess. I have them tucked away all over the place. I did clean out my desk drawers this winter and the jar on my kitchen desk throwing away the ones that no longer worked but wow, I certainly have quite a few pens.
Makes me appreciate this ordinary device and helps me to pause and remember how much we do have to be thankful for – a simple thing like a pen – to capture ideas, to say, “I love you” and “thank you” and put into a book, marking the past page read. So many uses. Blessings in the ordinary all around us if we pay attention.
“Earth is so thick with divine possibility that it is a wonder we can walk anywhere
without cracking our shins on altars.” —Barbara Brown Taylor
What you are learning in ordinary objects?
45,000 words per pen?! I buy my favorite pens (Uniball Signo #207) by the dozen. ‘Think the next time I start a new box, I’ll write the date on it when I start with the first pen. It should be interesting to see how long it takes me to write 540,000 words! (And that doesn’t include the words we type, which surely add up to even more over the same length of time.) Thank you for this fun, eye-opening post, Jean!
Good idea on how to apply this statistic!! I thought this trivia was fun for something so ordinary. I sure do find joy in the simple things at time.
Oh I love this little history and notice of an object that we pick up and use without thinking, Jean. An interesting task to hunt for every pen in the house and add them all up. Makes me a bit more appreciative of all the simple things God has given us and how they make our lives a bit easier.
Bless your week, friend.
I do too. Love the stories behind simple objects like this and sometimes great memories too. Blessings for you too, Linda!