Pen

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For other uses, see Pen (disambiguation).

A ballpoint pen

A pen is a writing instrument which applies ink to a surface. Pens range in colors, but are mainly found with black and blue ink^{[citation needed]}. Pens may be categorized by the kind of tip on them. The main modern types are:

Ballpoints, fountain pens and gel pens are sometimes erasable: their ink may be erased.

[edit] The ballpoint pen

There are two basic types of the ballpoint pen: disposable and refillable.

A power load that was very similar or the same as the ballpoint pen was developed by the Hungarian journalist Laszlo Biro. Biro developed a new tip consisting of a ball that was free to turn in a socket. The word used for ballpoint pens in Argentina is birome because Laszlo Biro lived there for many years; also, biro can be used to refer to a ballpoint pen in British English. It was originally invented for the British RAF, as problems occurred with fountain pens due to the low air pressure aboard planes in flight.