Writing instruments, mechanical design

Ladislao Biro (Laszlo Jozsef Biro): inventions and patents

Ladislao Jose Biro, named on his US patent as Laszlo Jozsef Biro of Buenos Aires, Argentina, invented a ballpoint writing instrument. Britannica and the German Patent and Trade Mark Office give his birth as 29 September 1899 in Budapest, and the DPMA says he applied for patents in several countries in 1938. His US patent, filed in 1943 and granted in 1945, claims priority from an Argentine application of April 1943 and describes a ball tip kept coated with thick ink fed from a reservoir. The Argentine Presidency says the name birome combines the surnames Biro and Meyne, that he became a naturalised Argentine citizen, and that Argentina marks Inventor's Day on his birthday, 29 September.^1,2,3,4

Patents

Inventions

• Ballpoint pen (birome), 1943. A writing tip in which branch channels carry thick ink from a reservoir to the socket of a rolling ball, keeping the ball coated while sealing the ink against evaporation. The Argentine Presidency says the British air force first adopted the pen because it could write at high altitude.^1,2

Recognition

• Argentina marks Inventor's Day (Dia del Inventor) on 29 September, his birthday²

Sources

1. Google Patents, US2390636A Writing instrument (accessed 2026-10-28)
2. Casa Rosada, Presidency of Argentina, Inventor's Day: Tribute to Ladislao Jose Biro, the genius behind the ballpoint pen (29 September 2024)
3. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Laszlo Biro (accessed 2026-10-28)
4. German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA), Ballpoint pen, inventions that made history (accessed 2026-10-28)