[Rollei] Re: Rollei (OT) "Birome"

[Robert Marvin <marvbej >]

Basically correct, except that it was the early '40s. One of the 
first large customers was the RAF--the ballpoint pens were used by 
pilots to take notes at high altitude. The American Eversharp pen 
company bought the rights at enormous cost and introduced a ballpoint 
in the USA in 1946. They were ruined financially when an entrepreneur 
named Reynolds  rushed a ballpoint pen to market using an earlier, 
only semi-functional,  19th Century patent.

Bob Marvin


At 4:25 PM -0700 5/24/03, Carlos wrote:
>  I have something to say
>about the "birome". The "birome" was invented in
>Argentina by  Ladislao Biro, an Hungarian inmigrant at
>early 50's. Ladislao Biro sold his invent to Europe,
>but this pen was made and commercialized in Argentina
>first. That the "birome" is an "argentinean invent" is
>a well-known fact here.
>All the best
>
>

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