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1// On average, 100 people choke to death on ballpoint pens every year.
2// More than 2 billion pens are manufactured in the United States annually.
3// There are 5 main kinds of pens used worldwide; ballpoint, fountain, soft-tip. rolling-ball and specialty pens.
4// The first fountain pen was invented by L.E. Waterman in 1883, and had it patented in 1884.
5// The first ballpoint pen was invented by Hungarian journalist Laszlo Biro in 1938, but the first patent belonged to John J. Loud in 1888.
6// In World War II, pilots used ballpoint pens because they do not leak at high altitudes.
7// The oldest surviving fountain pen designed by Frenchman M. Bion, dates back to 1702.
8// The first American patent for a pen was received by Peregrin Williamson, a shoemaker from Baltimore.
9// Today, 4 fountain pen producers have a monopoly on the market, Waterman, Sheaffer, Parker and Wahl-Eversharp.
10// In October, 1945, Milton Reynolds, after a previous visit to Buenos Aires where he discovered the Biro pen, (invented by Laszlo Biro) copied the product in 4 months and launched his own massive campaign in New York City, selling USD 100, 000 worth in the first day.
11// In England, the first pens sold were in December 1945 by the Miles-Martin Pen Company.
12// Parker introduced its first ballpoint pen, called the "Jotter" to the market in 1954, superior to both the Reynolds and Eversharp versions. Because the "Jotter" wrote 5 times longer, annual sales came to USD 3.5 million.
13// The BIC Crystal, the immensely trendy adaptation of the Biro pen sells 14 million pieces daily world-wide.
14// Black ballpoint pens manufactured by Parker have a lifespan five miles long of writing before the ink dissipates.
15// In 1831, John Jacob Parker claimed the copyright to the original self-filling fountain pen.
16// Quill pens were first used circa 700 A.D. and were the popular writing choice for 1, 000 years.
17// The United States of America's Declaration of Independence was written using an eagle feather quill pen by the late President Abraham Lincoln.
18// The pen used by President Abraham Lincoln to sign the Emancipation Proclamation was a steel dip one made by the French Company, Blanzy, Poure & Cie.
19// The Al Faisalia skyscraper in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, takes the shape of a ballpoint pen
20//People speak at about 150 to 180 words per minute, but the best writing speed tends to fall at 35!
