I use gel pens, because they leave thinner and more black trace. I think ballpoint pen belongs to history.
Gel pens smear when used left-handed. They are unusable for 10% of the population.
How the BIC Cristal ballpoint pen became ubiquitous
101–110 of 135 posts
Re: How the BIC Cristal ballpoint pen became ubiquitous
#102Just signed a contract with a lawyers pen which was too heavy on ink so I got ink all over my hands. Was a pain to put my hat on after without getting ink on it. Seriously considered bringing my own pen before hand. Guess I will next time.
Not only is this pen ubiquitous, but it's ink flow is usually pretty light, which makes it not smear on your hands or the page.
Re: How the BIC Cristal ballpoint pen became ubiquitous
#103I'll tell ya why they took over.
IIRC in the late 70s they sold for nineteen cents each (NE USA).
Ya couldn't beat that with a stick.
Re: How the BIC Cristal ballpoint pen became ubiquitous
#104My favourite thing about Bic's origins: > Marcel Bich bought the patent for the ballpoint pen from Hungarian – Argentine inventor László Bíró Presumably beating his rivals John Pencil and Wolfgang von Fountain-Pen to it...
the word "biro" didn't exist until Biro invented the ballpoint pen, which came to be known after its inventor
Not in English, but the word bíró means judge in Hungarian language. The earliest written memory of the word is from the year 1306, from a land ownership certificate issued that year.
Re: How the BIC Cristal ballpoint pen became ubiquitous
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
> made to last with enough ink to write for an average of 3,5 km measuring ink capacity in km makes total sense but I find it hilarious
The skilcraft US government pen, was spec'd to write 5k in -40F to 160F and is also manufactured by the blind. I've got a box of them spread out anywhere I need a pen. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/0...
My grandfather had a skillcraft stick pen (the cheapest one they make) from his last job before retiring. I'm pretty sure that same pen sat in a cup in his kitchen for like 30 years and was used daily. Never ran out.
Re: How the BIC Cristal ballpoint pen became ubiquitous
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the same sense their vacuums, if they made them, wouldn't suck.
Are you suggesting their lighters are bad? That’s certainly not my experience. I have a Bic mini that has been packed inside my camping stove kit (a small titanium pot containing an iso-propane canister, stove, and rag) for nearly 15 years. Since I use barely any of its fuel, it hasn’t run out yet, and I suspect it could continue to work as a striker whenever the fuel does run out.
Yeah, I'm a bit confused if GP is saying their lighters are bad. Every single person I know who uses a lighter many times a day generally uses a Bic[0] - if they're not, it's one of these cheap plastic ones[1], very similar to the pens GP is referring to. A few of them have Zippos, but those are relatively rare among people I know, at least for everyday use.
[0] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ae/BI...
Re: How the BIC Cristal ballpoint pen became ubiquitous
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
Care to specify what makes this thing that sold 100 billion copies and is instantly, reliably usable in nearly any conceivable context so crappy? Why not also explain your superior design that you think would work so much better.
Other comments note how it creates fatigue within an hour of writing, which is also my experience. Whether that's a result of low quality ink holders, tips that force overgripping, weight or something else, I do not know. I have a pen cup for when I need to jot something quickly and can't be bothered to get my primary pen from another room, and I've noticed that I rarely, if ever, choose the Cristal. Granted, it is f…
>
Other comments note how it creates fatigue within an hour of writing
I don't care about pens, but if this argument was made elsewhere it'd be argued that the ergonomics and fatigue support the concept of seeking rest rather than finding a pen that allows for longer work hours.
Example : if I said I was getting fatigued at the keyboard in some HN thread I would get 30 replies that told me to time my exposure and seek RSI breaks..
Re: How the BIC Cristal ballpoint pen became ubiquitous
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just checked, their website lists 0.28 mm, 0.38, 0.5, 0.7, and 1.0 mm, with examples of each. [0] What pens do you find best and what is your use-case? [0] https://www.jetpens.com/blog/Uni-Jetstream-A-Comprehensive-G...
> Just checked, their website lists 0.28 mm, 0.38, 0.5, 0.7, and 1.0 mm, with examples of each. [0] Except that you forgot to check their website. Jetpens is a reseller. Uniball only acknowledges 0.5mm for Jetstream pens that include multiple ink tubes in one cylinder. My use case is that I carry a pen around in my pocket in case I need to write something down. More rarely, I might actually write something down. I do…
>Except that you forgot to check their website. Jetpens is a reseller.
if you're dead set on making sure brand sites match the actual brand offerings then I hope you have the luck to avoid most obscure engineering brands in your life.
it's absolutely the norm in say, hydraulic pumps, that when an offering isn't available on the website you call the company and they say 'Oh yeah, we have those -- theyre not on the site because no one wants one.."
Re: How the BIC Cristal ballpoint pen became ubiquitous
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you suggesting their lighters are bad? That’s certainly not my experience. I have a Bic mini that has been packed inside my camping stove kit (a small titanium pot containing an iso-propane canister, stove, and rag) for nearly 15 years. Since I use barely any of its fuel, it hasn’t run out yet, and I suspect it could continue to work as a striker whenever the fuel does run out.
Yeah, I'm a bit confused if GP is saying their lighters are bad. Every single person I know who uses a lighter many times a day generally uses a Bic[0] - if they're not, it's one of these cheap plastic ones[1], very similar to the pens GP is referring to. A few of them have Zippos, but those are relatively rare among people I know, at least for everyday use. [0] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/…
Yeah, when I was a smoker (thankfully many years in the past now), I really only ever used bics. I went through phases with Zippos or butane lighters, but they were always maintenance heavy, unreliable and too expensive for something so comonly shared with others. On the flip side, no-name gas station lighters didn't last and were generally unreliable. Bics hit a huge sweet spot of being long lasting, reliable, _and_ cheap enough to be treated as disposable even though they weren't in practice.
Re: How the BIC Cristal ballpoint pen became ubiquitous
#110The BIC Cristal pen was listed by Jerry Seinfeld as one of his 10 essential items that he can't live without in an interview with GQ. He says he always finishes the pens, never loses them, and that he called BIC to (successfully) find out why the cap has a hole in it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL2sr99Sv18&t=157s
He claims the BIC has quintessence, a quality he says he has been devotedly tracking since reading the 1983 book Quintessence : The Quality of Having It by Betty Cornfeld and Owen Edwards: https://archive.org/details/quintessence00bett