Ball pen is a usual tool for students, employees, writers or simply might all the people who learned to start writing. It is an item that we rarely took notice in our bag, pocket or cases, not when there is something to write. A normal thing in normal everyday life. But do we devote time to learn more things about our pen? Does any person think deeper what is this pen worth and how it works? Do you take some time wondering what is the mechanism of this pen in deeper, more accurate and meaningful understanding? Or you just have the simple explanation that it works as you write on the paper.
Let’s take a different view on how ballpoint pen works.
Pen plays a vital role in the daily lives of every people. It is essential mostly to the students who wrote lectures and notes from the lesson of their teacher, for the businessmen who record and signature to their previous transactions, for the writers who express their artistry and proficiency in their work and for everyone who learns and wanted to learn new things that is worth recording in any writing surface.
In more formal definition, the ballpoint pen is called as such due to its name per se, it is a kind of pen which has a ball that rotates when drawn in a piece of paper or any materials that can write-on, it leaves a mark or ink from its reservoir to a particular writing surface. A ball of a ballpoint pen is either made out of steel, brass, carbide or tungsten and its barrel and cap are mostly made from either metal or plastics.
Unlike any other kind of pen wherein ink is slow to dry and flows unevenly, the ballpoint pen technology is created to ease the long-time of waiting for the ink to dry. As per in this modern world, every single second count and the hassle of cleaning the mess that can be created as it flows unevenly causes a delay for a job to finish on time.
Today, people preferred to be more efficient, they do not want to repeat their respective writing jobs just because of the mess that can be created by any other kind of pen, like fountain and dip pens that emits blotch of ink sometimes. They always wanted their work to be proper and polished.
The ball of a ballpoint pen acts as a cap that continuously keeps the ink from drying, meaning it seals the tip of the pen from the air or any substance or agent that can make the ink from the reservoir dries. Its mechanism also smoothens the continuous flow of the ink that is pulled by the gravity and then it eases the risk of the pen’s ink to leak into the tip as it also acts as a barrier, that the ink will only flow as the ball of the ballpoint pen rolls.
The socket holds the ball of the pen, just like the mechanism of a roll-on antiperspirant (deodorant). But it has enough space for the ball to move and roll freely and the ink flows continuously when used. This mechanism allows the pen to draw the ink from the cartridge to write a consistent line that dries quickly at a time.
These characteristics of this pen are very beneficial to the users as it lessens the time of writing for a piece of work to dry. Ballpoint pen also avoids the tendency of having clog ink at the reservoir. Since it also prevents ink from drying, it is more convenient to use anywhere than dip pens that need to be carried with a bottle of ink.
Aside from its convenience, the ballpoint pen is also relatively cheaper than fountain pens. Since people write almost every hour of their lives just like students, a single pen might just worth one week so buying a ballpoint pen is more financially saving.
Pens are important to us, not only by the sense of using it when we write but also using it in writing our future. Every single pen that we use witnessed every struggle and hardship that we experienced to be at where we at today. It became our companion to achieve what we have right now. That ballpoint pen works as our sword in every battle that we have been through at school or at work.
It works its way to better visualize what we think therefore to show what we are. Like the ballpoint pen, our knowledge is at our reservoir. That ink that will be needed to write our lives is just there, waiting to be used. A good ballpoint pen is just like a good person.
There are other people that are like fountain pens that ink at the reservoir become blotchy or clogged by hatred, wrong beliefs, status quo or ignorance as they draw up or trace their journey. And when they write up their lives, it leaves a mess behind. Not like a ballpoint pen that has a ball or good stand that protects and helps the ink to be perfectly fine stored at the reservoir. And as the ball rotates, as the firm groundwork its way at the journey, it emits perfectly fine knowledge, a perfectly fine ink, and a perfectly fine output. It doesn’t emit inks that are out of place or that are not needed on a certain line.
The ink that was left behind, the ink that draws up our knowledge also dries up well. It doesn’t leave smudges. This represents that every knowledge we use in this life come out to be intact, to not be messed by unwanted factors, to etch every single detail perfectly.
Since the reservoir contains the ink or our knowledge to write up a good path, it could also be used to write up the contrary. Knowledge could lead us to positive outputs in life. With good knowledge, we could use it to have good decisions and actions. But using this knowledge, a knowledge that is perfectly fine stored, we could also use it as a way to work on things that are negatively wrong.
Unlike a fountain pen, it doesn’t emit unwanted, ugly mess, it could draw perfectly thought destructive thoughts. Using this knowledge to do bad things, a ballpoint pen becomes like Pandora’s Box, it could release evil in this world. Through writing, we could spread wrong information, beliefs, thoughts, understanding or opinions on certain things. It is not because we do not know that these are wrong, but with the purpose of really spreading incorrectness.
This knowledge will be used as the ball rolls on the paper to leave marked sinister. As the ball releases this kind of knowledge, it contaminates the paper with wrongness thus making the lines that draw their future or paths relatively wrong. It shows a dark side of this person, a side that will be traced and etched in his very memory or legacy as he exists.
But then, although the ballpoint pen could work at this view, there are still more things to relate it in a good way. Ballpoint pen could not just be a Pandora’s Box, it could also be an instrument for the pinnacle of success. Amidst of the evil in the Pandora’s Box that it could manifest, there is more use of it to work the good. It could be the reason why we are at our pinnacle. It could be a reason why we engrave a positive personality in the mind of others. It could be our way to achieve our dreams. We could work with it to educate others. We could work with it to develop our skills. In short, how ballpoint pen works? It works for a greater good.
In all the things that have been written here, it is not just the technical aspect of how ballpoint pen works that we intended to show or give you knowledge about. It is the essence of that ballpoint pen as it works in our lives. A simple ballpoint pen could work its way for spreading goodness or knowledge but it could also be worked at evil things. It is not just the mechanism that we want to show but the philosophy within that mechanism. Knowing is not just enough, it needs to be understood.
