Bic Cristal

In 1930, László Bíró, a Hungarian-Argentine inventor observed children playing with marbles in a puddle, noticing that the marbles left a trail of water in their wake. Inspired by this observation, he conceived of a mechanism for a pen that used a ball-shaped metal nib to place ink onto a page. He shared his idea with his brother György, a chemist, and together they began researching and experimenting to create such a pen. Eventually, they developed a working prototype that used a viscous ink held in a narrow reservoir, with a tip containing a tiny ball that rotated freely. This design prevented the ink from drying out within the reservoir, and allowed for an even flow onto the page. They presented their invention at the Budapest International Fair in 1931 and patented it in 1938, although they did not market it immediately. With the start of World War II, the brothers immigrated to Argentina, where they founded Biro Pens of Argentina. Their new pens were initially unsuccessful due to the high cost of the product, but gained a boost in popularity due to a contract with the British Air Force. In 1943, the Biro brothers licensed their invention to Eversharp Faber in the United States for $2 million. In 1944, entrepreneur Marcel Bich acquired the rights to Biro’s design. Near the end of the Second World War on the recommendation of an advertising expert, he dropped the "h" from his surname and founded the company BICGroup. He bought a factory in Clichy, a suburb north of Paris,{{cite web |title=Our Heritage, Your Passion |url=https://www.bicworld.com/en/about-us/our-heritage-your-passion |website=BICWorld |access-date=8 May 2024 |language=en |archive-date=15 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130515052501/http://au.phaidon.com/agenda/design/articles/2011/october/19/everyday-icon-3-the-bic-biro/ |url-status=dead }} and with business partner Edouard Buffard founded {{lang|fr|Société PPA}} (later {{lang|fr|Société Bic}}) in 1945. "PPA" stood for {{lang|fr|Porte-plume, Porte-mines et Accessoires}}; pens, mechanical pencils and accessories. During the war, Bich had seen the ballpoint pen manufactured in Argentina by László Bíró. Between 1949 and 1950, the Bic Cristal was designed by the {{lang|fr|Décolletage Plastique}} design team at {{lang|fr|Société PPA}}.{{cite book |title=Phaidon Design Classics – Volume 2 |date=2006 |publisher=Phaidon Press |isbn=0-7148-4399-7 |editor1-last=Fletcher |editor1-first=Alan |edition=1. publ. |location=London }}{{cite web |title=Humble Masterpieces |url=https://www.moma.org/momaorg/shared/pdfs/docs/explore/exhibitions/humble_checklist.pdf |publisher=The Museum of Modern Art |access-date=13 March 2017 |location=New York |date=27 September 2004 }} Bich invested in Swiss technology capable of shaping metal down to {{convert|0.01|mm}}, which could produce a stainless steel {{convert|1|mm|adj=on|spell=in}} sphere which allowed ink to flow freely.{{cite web |title=Everyday Icon #3 The BIC Biro |url=http://au.phaidon.com/agenda/design/articles/2011/october/19/everyday-icon-3-the-bic-biro/ |website=Phaidon |access-date=16 May 2017 |archive-date=15 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130515052501/http://au.phaidon.com/agenda/design/articles/2011/october/19/everyday-icon-3-the-bic-biro/ |url-status=dead }} Bich developed an improved ink with a viscosity that neither leaked nor clogged and, under a ballpoint pen patent licensed from Bíró, launched the Cristal in December 1950.

Bich invested heavily in advertising, hiring poster designer Raymond Savignac in 1952, and won the French {{lang|fr|Oscar de la publicité}} award for advertising. In 1953, advertising executive Pierre Guichenné advised Bich to shorten his family name to Bic as an easy-to-remember, globally adaptable trade name for the pen, which fit in with product branding trends of the post-war era. Early Bic advertisements in France referred to the Cristal as the "Atomic pen".{{cite book |last1=Rota |first1=Matt |title=The Art of Ballpoint: Experimentation, Exploration, and Techniques in Ink |date=December 2015 |publisher=Rockport Publishers |isbn=978-1-63159-057-3 |page=12 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s4aqCgAAQBAJ |access-date=26 March 2017 |language=en |quote=An early BIC ad campaign referred to the pen as the 'Atomic Pen.' }} Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the Bic Cristal's writing tip and ergonomic design helped shift the worldwide market for pens from fountain pens to ballpoints.

In 1959 Bich brought the pen to the American market: the Bic pen was soon selling at 29 cents ({{inflation|US|0.29|1959|r=2|fmt=eq|cursign=$}}) with the slogan "writes first time, every time."{{cite news |url=https://www.courant.com/1995/07/04/who-says-1-dollar-wont-buy-anything-anymore/ |title=Who Says $1 Dollar Won't Buy Anything Anymore |last=Larcen |first=Donna |newspaper=The Hartford Courant |date=4 July 1995 |access-date=9 May 2024 |archive-date=14 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714221426/http://articles.courant.com/1995-07-04/features/9507080125_1_new-dollar-dollar-coin-eisenhower-dollar |url-status=live}} In 1965, the French Ministry of Education approved the Bic Cristal for use in classrooms.{{cite news |last1=Smith |first1=David |title=It's 70 today, but our favourite pen just keeps rolling along |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2008/jun/15/news |work=The Guardian |date=14 June 2008 }}

In 1961, the Bic Orange was introduced, featuring a fine {{convert|0.8|mm|abbr=on}} point and an orange barrel instead of a translucent one. Bic manufactures this pen in its own plants in Europe.

In September 2006, the Bic Cristal was declared the best selling pen in the world after the 100 billionth was sold.{{cite web |url=http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/pen-best-selling/ |title=Pen – best selling |publisher=Guinness World Records |date=9 January 2006 |access-date=13 February 2016}}

File:4 Bic Cristal pens and caps.jpg

The Museum of Modern Art in New York City recognised the Bic Cristal's industrial design by introducing it into the museum's permanent collection.{{cite web|url=http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=82141 |title=Bic Cristal in MoMA collection |publisher=Moma.org |access-date=4 August 2013}}

Its hexagonal shape resembles the typical wooden pencil and grants strength and three grip points giving high writing stability. The pen's transparent polystyrene barrel and polypropylene tube show the ink-level. The only exception is the BIC Cristal UP, a pen marketed by Bic that supposedly creates more vivid lines when used. These pens have a white barrel and, depending on what color the ink reservoir contains, a small area of the pen barrel and cap with the corresponding ink color. A tiny hole in the barrel's body maintains the same air pressure inside and outside the pen.{{cite web|title=FAQ – BIC AU Website|url=http://au.bicworld.com/faq.html|website=au.bicworld.com|access-date=1 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170426202931/http://au.bicworld.com/faq.html|archive-date=26 April 2017|url-status=dead}}

The pen is available in many different ink colors, ranging from the classic blue, black, red, and green of traditional offices, to pink, purple, and other modern and artistic colors. The thick ink flows down due to capillary action from the tube inside the barrel, to feed the ball, which can rotate within a brass bearing.{{cite web|last1=Lemon|first1=Michael|title=Bic Cristal Pens {{!}} The World's Most Popular Pen|url=https://u.osu.edu/bicpens/|website=OSU.EDU|publisher=Ohio State University|access-date=26 March 2017|date=28 April 2015}}

In 1961, the originally stainless steel ball was replaced by a much harder tungsten carbide ball. It is first vitrified by heat, then ground down and milled to an accuracy of {{convert|0.1|µm|in|abbr=on}} between spinning plates coated with industrial diamond abrasives. Since 1991 the pen's streamlined polypropylene cap has a small hole added, to reduce the risk of suffocation if the cap is inhaled. Polypropylene is used instead of polystyrene because it absorbs impact better, reducing the chance of the pen cracking or splitting if it is dropped onto the cap.

The pen's dimensions are {{convert|5+7/8|x|1/2|in|cm}} with the cap, or {{convert|14.5|x|0.7|cm|frac=16|abbr=on}} without the cap.

The Cristal's design has been widely copied around the world, especially in the Far East.

One Kenyan manufacturer of the Cristal reportedly lost 100 M KES (approx. 1.3 M USD at 2009 exchange rate) to cheap copies from China, forcing them to negotiate more affordable licensing from Bic.{{cite web |last1=Waka |first1=Brenda |title=Response Strategies of Haco Industries Kenya Limited to the Challenges of Counterfeit Products in East Africa |url=http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke/bitstream/handle/11295/21841/Waka_Response%20Strategies%20of%20Haco%20Industries%20Kenya%20Limited%20to%20the%20Challenges%20of%20Counterfeit%20Products%20in%20East%20Africa.pdf |via=University of Nairobi Digital Repository |publisher=Haco Industries Kenya Limited |access-date=21 April 2017 }}

In 2012, Bic marketed a spin-off product named the "Bic Cristal for Her".{{cite web |last1=Vinjamuri |first1=David |title=Bic For Her: What They Were Actually Thinking (As Told By A Man Who Worked On Tampons) |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidvinjamuri/2012/08/30/bic-for-her-what-they-were-actually-thinking-as-told-by-a-man-who-worked-on-tampons |website=Forbes |access-date=17 April 2017 }} The pen, similar to the original, was supposedly designed specifically for women, and was sold in pink and purple colors. The product provoked outrage and ridicule,{{cite news |last1=London |first1=Lela |title=From 'BIC For Her' To BIC For Them - How Cancel Culture Got BIC Back On Track |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/lelalondon/2020/07/20/from-bic-for-her-to-bic-for-themhow-cancel-culture-got-bic-back-on-track/ |access-date=4 June 2021 |work=Forbes |date=20 July 2020 |language=en}} with television show host Ellen DeGeneres saying "Can you believe this? We've been using man pens all these years," and comedian Bridget Christie titling her 2013 Edinburgh festival show A Bic For Her.{{cite news |title=A Book for Her by Bridget Christie review – a hybrid of writing and performance |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jul/20/bridget-christie-book-for-her-review-hybrid-writing-performance |access-date=4 June 2021 |work=the Guardian |date=2015-07-20 |language=en}} The product also received many sarcastic Amazon reviews.{{cite web|title=Bic Pens 'For Her' Draw Amazon Flames|url=https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/08/bic-pens-for-her-draw-amazon-flames/|website=ABC News|access-date=17 April 2017}} In 2017 it was inducted into the collection of the Museum of Failure.{{cite news |title=At This Museum, Failures Are Welcome |first1=Christine |last1=Hauser |first2=Christina |last2=Anderson |date=21 April 2017 |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/25/arts/museum-of-failure.html }}

In 2014 Bic released a new writing instrument based on the Cristal, a modified pen with a rubber tip opposite the ballpoint. This model, called the "Cristal Stylus", is for use on touchscreens.{{cite news |last1=Liszewski |first1=Andrew|title=The Classic Bic Pen Now Works On Your Smartphone Display Too |url=https://gizmodo.com/the-classic-bic-pen-now-works-on-your-smartphone-displa-1510693371 |access-date=17 March 2017 |work=Gizmodo |date=28 January 2014 }} Bic funded a website to promote the stylus that crowdsourced a new typeface, named the Universal Typeface Experiment.

• List of pen types, brands and companies

{{Reflist}}

• {{Official website}} of the Bic Cristal at {{lang|fr|Société BIC|italic=no}}
• [http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=82141 Bic Cristal] at the Museum of Modern Art
• [http://au.phaidon.com/agenda/design/articles/2011/october/19/everyday-icon-3-the-bic-biro/ Everyday Icon #3 The BIC Biro] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130515052501/http://au.phaidon.com/agenda/design/articles/2011/october/19/everyday-icon-3-the-bic-biro/ |date=15 May 2013 }} at Phaidon Press online
• {{EAN|3086123001060}}

Category:French inventions

Category:Pens

Category:Products introduced in 1950

Category:Writing implements

Category:Disposable products