Older Than deck / Inventions and everyday things
Ballpoint pen (first patent)
Patented
1888
John J. Loud’s 1888 pen was meant for marking leather, not writing letters.
Sources and checks
Checked 2026-10-19: Claude (AI build agent): Wikidata statement compared, passages containing the year extracted from the fetched pages and read. Quotes are short passages from each source, in their original language.
Wikidata P575: 1888Q160137, CC0, retrieved 2026-10-19
“og på overlaget. Faktaboks Også kjent som Tørrblekkpenn Historikk Kulepennen ble oppfunnet allerede på slutten av 1800-tallet. I 1888 tok amerikaneren John J. Loud patent på en type kulepenn som kunne skrive på ujevne”Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian): source, retrieved 2026-10-19
Spotted a mistake? Tell us; a correction gets a new revision.