Everyone knows this pen ✍️
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ก.ย. 2024
- This is the BIC Cristal, possibly the most successful product ever made. From its innovative design to the clever use of physics, discover how this iconic pen became a global phenomenon, selling over 100 billion units worldwide and significantly impacting literacy rates.
Not going to lie, if every ad was a methodical breakdown of the product and how it objectively worked, advertisements would be 100% more effective on me.
I only ever use gel pens and this makes me want to get a bic crystal to try it again
because you’re a visual learner
Sure but now it would be “we made a good thing in a month and then took a year to figure out how to cut down the costs and make it out of disposable garbage so you have to buy it again”
@@4JaayTv No he's an auditory learner because he learnt from the audio of the guy explaining it. Show him the video with no audio and he'd learn nothing he wouldn't understand it
0*2 is still 0
BIC’s ballpoint pen design was so good when it was invented that it almost never changed in its decades of existence. Absolutely outstanding
😄👍
The video uses past tense. Which design elements, used in successors, are so non-obvious that they took decades to come into fruition?
It was also better than any rollerball ink pen the Russians could make at the time, and the U.S. put it into disposable pens
@@steamer2k319The video is talking about the design of the first Bic Crystal. The pens made now are just the same as the first ones, but the ones the video is talking about were chucked away years ago. Hence the past tense.
I'm not sure I've explained it well, sorry if I haven't.
@@Anymouse6980I had a roller ball pen and I don't know what it was made of, but it built up a static charge when I used it, so that I got an electric shocknwhen I touched anything metal acter using it.
Also perfect for rewinding cassette tapes.
Haha so true
Yeah but it doesn't work anymore well with usb keys and streaming, sadly....
This type of bic pen is too thin to fit in the spools of a cassette tape. I really dont get where the whole "pen and cassette" thing came from, it works about as well as just jamming your pinky in there.
@@BobBob-qg4lo It doesnt work if you turni it exactly perpendicular, ifI remember well.
The thing is that the pinky cannot do many turns at onces...
@@AutoNomadeslol yeah its super sad that we dont have to rewind things anymore these days
That specific pen also writes unbelievably smoothly.
Agreed! To this day I still prefer bic-pens and I have them stashed away all over my house! (Although the green and black are my favorite haha)
I'm always the dumb ass who buys the $10 pen hoping it out performs the $1 pen. It never does.
I disagree. I find my fine point sharpie pen writes way better
I would take a Pilot pen to those any day!
As a user of fountain pens, hard disagree!
Finally some Bic pen lore....
The lore we never knew we needed.
Now I need some Bic pen EU in my life.
We got bic pen lore before GTA6
you're not funny
@@RosalinndHumor is subjective. If you want to talk facts, then your comment objectively adds no value to anyone’s life.
"sell me this pen"
"you already have it"
Haha this.
"How come?"
"We track your bank account.."
i don’t have one?
I don’t think..
Similar energy to 'omae wa mou'
@@conatus1306"N~nani?"
it is perfectly designed to stop working right when the test starts, brilliant.
Oh man LOL!!! 😂😂😂
SPOT ON!! :))))
lick the tip, tap it 3 times lightly and write some squiggles.
The ink dries around the rim and keeps the ball from rolling/ink from flowing. Licking it moistens the dry ink, tapping it breaks the crust and drawing squiggles distributes fresh ink onto the ball bearing
or the customer needs to sign for your tip...
It's because you are stingy, and you bought the cheap ones, not from Bic 😂
@@JarthenGreenmeadowim not licking a pen
Forget millions for advertising..
All Bic ever needed was this video
One more thing, BIC pen have a little hole in the middle, the so the preasure remains the same inside and outside the pen. This allows the pen to work in a air plane
really? That's a cool tidbit factoid! That tiny hole was somebody's idea 👏
Yeah other pens explode om airplanes, b cause the air inside is preasurised
Damn that’s actually pretty ingenious
I've heard that this function in case of suffocating with it too. both explanation makes sense
@@shaaak What sci-fi was it where the barrel of a Bic pen was used for an extremely urgent tracheotomy done in the field? Is that real? 😳😱
They also introduced pocket sensors, so the pen would dump all the ink into your pocket when you tried to keep it there.
Lololol..
If you keep it within a certain temperature and pointing down, it will never be a problem. Trust me, I walk with pens on my pockets all the time.
If it's too hot, though, the ink will expand and burst
@@PedroHawk1 isn't the actual reason why Ink just blows out is because pockets covering the small "air hole" at the side of the pen
@@ellieh.5419 great point, they indeed forget to mention that little hole's purpose
That was about the only product of China that worked as intended.
It's the most perfect pen, it design can't get any better and haven't changed for years
npc
They should have changed them the first year they made them. Only to use for landfills. lol
Check out Ballograf pens..
There were some design changes , I have had the South African rugby springboks version with green casing and gold lid back in 2014 or so
Otherwise I have had many orange caseing ones , the clear case I don't prefer or haven't used all that much
"When the ink did not come out of the pen, the pen was capable of carving granite."
That’s how pyramids were made
Well, he's got a point: if I recall right, the ball is made out of tungsten carbide, which is also used to make the tip of chisels. Source: I'm a stonemason.
In fact, Bic pens write quite well on marble too.
@@silvioruggiero1104that's cool
@@silvioruggiero1104wtf why is it tungsten lmao that shit is hard and expensive as hell
@@peterl3417 you mean the pens or the chisels?
Hexagonal shape didn't stop SHIT from rolling off my desk
That one’s on you ZayZay.
He specified tables. Your problem was that you were using a desk.
@@RobinSamples939Lol. That amused me.
@toshio3772 flat table vs. angled school desk, they could've made it clearer
@@communicationdeficit no, that wasn't what they meant. the comment was satire. the satire being the sarcasm in that it doesn't make sense. he began his comment in a way that could be inferred as an explanation to the issue, but the shock value in there being no explanation after all suddenly makes the entire comment sarcastic, bringing about the humour.
If I'm not mistaken, The hole on the clear side of the pen allows for air to pass to balance the air pressure so the ink can come out
i think it’s also in case it gets stuck in someone’s throat
@@alyx6427You're thinking of the cap; they are referringg to the little hole on the side of the barrel which is most certainly for that the commennter above said.
that and so they don’t explode on planes
an argentinian designed that little hole
Cap 🧢
I love this pen. One of the few low cost pens that flow smoothly and doesn't break up my lines/writing.
"Sell me this pen🖋"
Proceeds to make the hardest pen advertisment
IKR? I was just checking to see if my local supermarket was still open at this time of night so I could run round and buy some
Finally a way to answer that question from Wolf of Wallstreet
Write ur name on that napkin right now@@appledragonfiend2839
What would you prefer...
"You buy pen... it's good"???
You are showing a fountain pen emoji. The fountain pen is superior to the ballpoint by giving the user a more comfortable and smooth experience with thinner ink. Get your facts right, and use the right emoji.
Ball-point: 🖊️ Fountain: 🖋️ or ✒️ or 🔏
And for such a revolutionary pen design, its cheap price makes it all the more appealing. You can get like a dozen for a dollar.
The design is amazing but it’s super cheap to make them.
Yeah 1.25 now cuz dollar stores went up. But still 12 for 1.25 is just 10-11 cents each. And they do last awhile so it's honestly 10/10 design
Except they rarely work properly and always dry out. Sure, they're better than a quill, but what isn't?
@@rickwilliams967my ones always work until they run out of ink
Meatriding a fucking pen is crazy💀
This BIC ballpoint pen is so close to perfect that it has kept the same design for more than 70 years
@@juusukun What would make you think they don't still exist?
@@juusukun ?
C-130 delivered the first one.
@@juusukunthey do. slightly altered since then but mostly identical (they added a hole in the cap so if someone eats it and it gets stuck they can breathe)
Bic Lighter is in second place.
fun fact. Supposedly, until 2017, China didnt know how to make those tiny balls for ball point pen. They had to buy them from Japan/Switzerland/Germany. Even now, its not perfect, given a rough feel. China is still importing most of the balls used in pens.
Yea, they dont inovate or invent, just steal others ideas and products. They are struggling making CPUs now, just like with the ball point. Their machining is like 50 years+ behind the world.
It's amazing to think of how precise the machine work has to be for a simple ball point pen to be made, not to mention mass producible. It took centuries for that level of accuracy to be developed.
Here's a little-known fun fact: China, until recent years and despite producing like half the world's steel, was just not able to manufacture ballpoint pens internally for lack of machining tech to manufacture the balls to the necessarily tight tolerances. Prior to 2017 when they finally produced their first truly all-Chinese manufactured ballpoint pen, they had to import all the miniscule precision steel balls from German manufacturers.
Agreed it is decades of technology improving to be able to do that. I don't think people grasp exactly what that means and how far we've come
@@ParpyduckThank you for that I didn't know that😊
Far from "simple" but that's proof of how good a job they did..
That accuracy and precision is what has made the modern world. I think about my first ‘luggable’, an Otrona, back in the mid 1980’s. My Microsoft Surface has 1,000 times the capability (if not more) for 1/10 the cost in real terms, and weighs 1/10 the weight at 2.5 pounds.
All due to miniaturization. And, oh, I would take it into the mainframe room at BYU to test run my programs before making the punchcards and running it there, as was required by the FORTRAN 77 class… 😂
In my opinion it’s one of the most if not the most reliable pen ever made. It may not be the smoothest, prettiest, or sleekest but it’s definitely one of the best.
If it’s not smooth, then it’s not reliable. I need a consistently strong flow for it to be a good and reliable pen.
these would always dry out and rip up my notebook paper lmao when I was in russian elementary school i thought they were designed in the ussr
@@amoebatv Consistent and smooth are two completely different things. Smoothness is the feel while you’re putting pen to paper. Consistency would be it consistently putting out ink.
@@peterl3417 Then you most likely had a knock off brand or got a defective batch from a discount store. I never had this issue with these pens. I’m not sure how they are now but back in the day they were very reliable.
Maybe you just don't know how to use them@@peterl3417
I swear this pen made my writing better back in school. Loved that light blue.
It made my handwriting worse than pencil 😭
Pilot G2 gang represent 😤
There's a good chance it really did make your writing better.
Fountain Pen collectors will spend a ton of money looking for a pen that has a nib which works just right for their hand writing. There is no reason that ballpoint pens cannot also have an affect on your writing. The new Sharpie gel ball points that are SUPER smooth... my writing becomes so messy with them because I'm used to pens that have some drag on the paper
@@Man_Emperor_of_Mankindomg that explains so much from whenever i try to use those sharpie pens. i always write messy with them but can go super neat with a standard ballpoint pen
Pencil is the best and pen is overrated why do u have to write in pen in exams it is unfair pencil is objectively better because it feels better and looks better and is better
I agree, solid classic.
So popular in school for writing, or chewing the plastic shell until it broke and getting ink all over, or using it to blow paper ball.
Truly a multi-function tool.
The cap with hole on top also designed to stop people from choking if swallowed.
Also true! Not sure a functional design but a safety feature as well!
Not part of the original design. However it is the only change made to the pen since it's creation in 1950.
The hole is to prevent ink leaking when you are in an aircraft with a pressurized cabin. The fluctuations in air pressure that pop your ears on ascent and descent would make a mess of a sealed ink pen.
That is not true. You'd choke regardless.
I knew a guy who learned that first-hand 😂
This is the first time a product has ever been shown to me and made me want to use it. Well done
Evern the cap was designed with a hole in it so small children can't choke if swallowed.
Thing is, it's everywhere. If you have a pen... that's the pen type you have. That's how good it is. The AK47 of pens.
@@itzastralz1030only ballpens. Not if u use a fountain pen
Think this was the first concept. You've used the product before.
Wolf of wall street tier marketing.
When the interviewer tells you to “sell me this pen”
You wont have think, "If only I had brushed up on my calligraphic engineering before this sales interview"
hahaha very true
Finally 🤣
"Sign me this paper"
"I don't have a pen"
"there you go"
Wolf of Wall Street
Supply and demand my friend
One of the most simple yet perfect inventions. Orgullo Argentino la birome! 🇦🇷
Using knowledge of science to apply a resolution to the inconvenience of quill “pens”.
BIC Ballpoint pen, or a “Biro” awe inspiring invention!
Yes, Biro brothers emigrated to Argentina after their invention.
Not only that, one reason for its massive success is how easy it is to manufacture after the initial set up. Not only is it designed incredibly well, it’s designed to be mass manufactured on top of it
Just like bullets
👍 Yup- such is a sign of good engineering, programming, etc, for sure- Some production tooling only does one operation, while it could have consolidated many into one- getting the most possible processes done before changing the fixturing can save almost unbelievable amounts of time and money- eliminating even one tool change can make a huge difference... I've been trying to apply this in my work more and more, both in the shop and some teaching/tutoring and even writing- it's universal.work smart 🤓!
Cheers!
very uncomfortable and skips often though
Very comfortable for small hands learning to write. Yes, in many countries people learn to write with pens, not pencils.
Was*was it* and it was*
The inventor, Biró, got inspired by looking at the path left by a wet football ball rolling on the street while kids playing in Argentina.
That's the most Argentina sentence I have ever read
Sounds great just not true.
meh, ur just jealous cuz another country thats not the usa Made something important. Go cry elsewhere @@ggjoska
@@ggjoska It is true, but the kids weren't playing football, they were playing with marbles
@@Marshalicious he already invented the ballpen even before he migrated to Argentina.
Fun fact, these type of pens are so common in France that we just call it a bic directly 😅
Being from the states we have Bic lighters from France and USA and I've always wondered if France ever gets American Bic lighters and if anyone ever noticed a difference in quality
Same in iran 😁
Same in iran 2
Aqui no Brasil, apenas o nome Bic, é mais associado ao isqueiro.
Same in Belgium, well some people do atleast
This is one of the most reliable pens... and at one of the better prices per pen. A success.
“An idiot admires complexity, a genius admires simplicity”
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
People who don't know who said that: 😊
People who know: 💀
A great quote from the greatest programmer in the world.
Rest in Peace to the guy who said that 😔
Your comment gets a 5.5/10 on the cringe scale. The usage of the terms "idiot" and "genius" is not unidirectional. A programmer might call his or herself a genius because they know code, but a mechanic might call them an idiot because they have little to no knowledge on a complex vehicle component such as an engine.
László József Bíró (Hungarian journalist- inventor of the ballpoint pen) while working as a journalist, Bíró noticed that the ink used in newspaper printing dried quickly, leaving the paper dry and smudge free. He tried using the same ink in a fountain pen, but found that it would not flow into the tip, as it was too viscous.
Bíró presented the first production of the ballpoint pen at the Budapest International Fair in 1931. Working with his brother György, a chemist, he developed a new tip consisting of a ball that was free to turn in a socket, and as it turned it would pick up ink from a cartridge and then roll to deposit it on the paper. Bíró patented the invention in Paris in 1938.
In 1945, Marcel Bich bought the patent from Bíró for the pen, which soon became the main product of his BIC company.
Ωραίο... Δεν το γνώριζα.... Ευχαριστώ
Another fact: no one has ever used up all the ink in this pen.
@@georgesabitbol7636 oh let’s go, congratulations
give me the pen and a sudoku book and i will use up every last drop of that forsaken pen without effort
My chemistry teacher in high school kept all the lost and discarded ball point pens and used them all until they were empty out of sheer bloody-mindedness.
I like to use pens as a woodworker and these are the best. Drained every pen I bought without fail. Just wish the casing was more durable.
@@dougmckay1495 You use pens?
I tend to find while they work well a pencil has more uses, and a scribe can be more accurate
and when your working in anything where those 2 arent as good than a sharpie tends to do best, just my experience though
This is probably the best advertising for a pen I've ever seen
"The hexagonal shape prevent it from rolling away out of a table"
"LIAR!"
Edit: Can someone explain to me why is everyone taking my comment so serious? I just made a joke about how even when the pens/pencils are exagonal they roll of anyway in the worst moment posible.
Well it didn't "roll" off the table, it slid. Technically correct.
Its Correct because a cylindrical shape will easily fall due to rolling easier
and that capillary action doesnt work worth a fuck either. lol
Go invent something ..🤪🤪🤪
It sounds like some of you need to level up some tables/desks. The pen will not roll off even a somewhat level table. Proof that people will b!t(h about anything.
The amazing part about the ballpoint pens is that we can manufacture them at massive scale and change very little for something that is extremely precisely machined. Like we can literally manufacture something to +/- 0.01 mm consistently
I used to work in a machinists shop. +/- 0.01 mm is sloppy work.
The story behind the manufacture of the balls is pretty interesting too, and how they became dirt cheap
@@teebob21 not on something that is literally produced in the millions and sold for pennies
The incredibly high initial set-up cost made it an impenetrable market for Bic's competitors at the time.
@@teebob21 I envy you. I worked in the quality lab in two machine shops, and even +/- 0.03 mm was a tall order most of the time, despite their machines being very high-end and most of their issues only being a matter of simple arithmetic. I was put into the quality labs largely because I was the only one that bothered to produce parts within tolerance, usually +/- 0.005mm (or 0.2 thou) and because I'm good with computers.
That being said, both companies had terrible cultures with low pay and most of the workers were addicted to drugs, so I can't blame them too much for not caring enough to learn and remember what direction X or Y is, or doing the super simple math for making tool offsets.
The very definition of quintessential. A perfect design with no room for improvements.
Except when I have to drag it across a spare scrap of paper to get the ink flowing when it dries out.
@@rustyshackleford7200I normally just use my palm
Nah, Pilot G2 is the 🐐
The space pen is actually the goat though. Pressurized cartridge
It could be more comfortable to hold and use.
i pulled off the tip once during class and put it on the opposite side of the refill. it still worked.
Hungary is a small country but it created big people
Ez így van🗿
With all due respect, the "BIC crystal" is a French product. The original idea is indeed Hungarian (by Biró László) but the pen presented here is a creation of the French Marcel Bich (after having legally bought the patent from Mr. Biró).
@@raphaelpuig9118 so this is just a rebrand?
@@aronhajnal29 No, The Bich company was able to produce the miniature components massively with enough precision to make it a commercially viable product.
@@raphaelpuig9118 It is still not French. The patent is important.
Bic could not build one without it.
After all they did not invent it.
Now I don’t feel as weird for deconstructing my pens in class to see how they worked when I was bored
I did the same thing. I also played with Transformers as well, wonder if there is a correlation
Bien vu Sherlock 😂
You're not alone. China is where they're assembled. The video is not lying about the accuracy of the machining. They took them apart and for decades could not figure out how to manufacture the ball. It was literally only like 6 years and tens of millions of dollars ago did they figure how to finally make them.
You've must've been really bored.
The incredibly high initial set-up cost made it an impenetrable market for Bic's competitors at the time.
Yes many didn't want to invest in the machinery to accurately make the ball many countries could not do it it was a running joke "they cant even make a ballpoint pen" which was actually true at the time
@@backroadscamaro541today that would be the ability to manufacture the smallest microprocessors. Hardly any countries have that capability because it is so very expensive.
@@MillillioN Basically Taiwan and the Dutch
Engineering Design that can never be replaced
That Bic lighter is a pretty solid product also. the best disposable lighter by far.
No other disposable comes close. Are you old enough to remember them before the child safety? They were even better in the 80s and early 90s!
French are very good engineers for cheap stuff, like renault, they never did high end, but if you want cheap and actually good they were so inventive back then. (now it's too hard vs cheaper countries)
@@ncrawford1488You can take off the child safety pretty easily by wedging a steak knife underneath it and prying it off
The bic rabbit hole is fucking crazy yall. I studied product design as my major and theres a ton of really interesting stuff there. Truly perfect design is when something feels like it has always existed due to how seamlessly it blends into our world. Bic was and is a pro in this.
@@moussesucree "In France, we don't have petroleum but we have ideas" was a common say in France (the "petroleum" here being a metaphor for money).
Fun fact : if you put it upside down in your pocket not even the laws of physics will save your pants
😂😂😂
The laws of physics get you in the first place, the ink warms up and expands
Yes I’m fun at parties
Nice
@goldenerkese So, technically, its the laws of thermodynamics, not physics. So he is right, sort of.
Proof of intelligent design. There's no way these pens could have evolved naturally.
is this sarcasm?
@@thebaseandtriflingcreature174do you think pens evolve?
@@TreeckoDX64 I don't but some people genuinely think that way so apologies for assuming the worst
@@thebaseandtriflingcreature174 who can you even ask that😂
XD XD XD
BIC is one of the most successful industries from France. It's all over the world😊
The ball is not stainless steel. The Bic Cristal uses a tungsten carbide ball. Much much harder than stainless so that the ball doesn’t wear down on paper (paper is actually quite abrasive).
Particularly to prevent deformation as the pressure in that tiny point is huge when you push on the paper.
I was scrolling a while to find someone posting this correction, Thanks for pointing that out (pun intended).
Correct! Used until 1961
Quite sharp too.
It's not made clear but safe to assume this video is about the original Bic Cristal
And people are talking about baguettes while bic pen and bic lighter are the best gift to the world.
Haha this!
BIC is an S-tier company
I'm surprised BIC doesnt have a thousand machining contracts for everything
They also invented the disposable lighters
Pen is argentina invention 🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🏳️⚧️
The best improvement is the addition of a gel stop behind the ink so you can store it in any position.
Always thought that was to prevent the ink from drying out.
@@badhombre4942 I wouldn't be shocked if it does double duty. It's primarily to prevent air pressure from forcing the ink out if the pen is stored tip up or sideways.
When I was little, I got curious what the gel was for and removed that gel and found the purpose the hard way
@@RomanNumeral04 😂 Oh, bad surprise!!
That's actually okay though if you plan. When I was a kid the gel didn't exist yet as a feature. We used to take the pen apart, pull out the nib and blow like mad on the back of the stem so the ink would blob out. Then we'd smear it around and use the whole pen's worth making ink blot art.
@@RomanNumeral04When I was in a later elementary school grade, I decided to try to suck the seal out of the back of a pen to see what it was. I figured it was some kind of solid-ish stopper and if I slowly increased suction, it'd eventually gradually slide out and I could manipulate it. I found out the harder way that it does not. The teacher was quite angry that I wouldn't respond about what I was doing getting up mid-lecture on the way to the sink until I got there and she found out.
Fun fact: the ballpoint pen was a multimillion dollar project created during the space race so astronauts could write with something in space. And no, pencils could not be used as the tip would fracture into millions of pieces which could damage your lungs and other equipment in zero gravity. But the Russians used pencils anyways
Also perfect for throwing straight into those foam ceilings
Haha yes!
A straw with 6 toothpicks makes a good ceiling dart too.
Also bent paperclip and rubber band. I'll allow you to design your own paperclip projectile as that was half the fun of this one as a kid. Beware they can be chaotic and absolutely have enough force on bad launches to blind one's eye.
@@primalspacehey does this use ai voice? it just sounds a little choppy and also most was pronounced as must
Yes
The pen is makes people smile 🙂
He he
A great reminder that inventions often taken for granted in everyday life are truly some of the most remarkable and amazing.
Good design is exciting and admirable. Excellent design is seamless and forgettable.
now leave it in your pocket for a week with no lid
Because the ball part is pushing against the inside of your pocket, the ink starts to leak as it rubs against the inside
why would you do that! who puts a pen with no lid in their pocket?
@@thedillestpickle i lose the lid
@@reactive9073 who's fault is that?
@@reactive9073you put the lid on the bottom end of the pen so this doesn’t happen
I am in such awe of mechanical engineering, materials sciences and product design. I am always amazed by the precision we are able to achieve. It is beautiful to behold.
I remember when these came out in the '60s. I put away my Waterman fountain pen and never looked back. Genius.
I literally just bought a platinum preppy fountain pen after searching and searching for the perfect pen. It's so smooth, it's like Kristi Yamaguchi ice skating on butter. And I can literally buy ANY ink I want and eyedropper it into the pen. Shimmer inks. Waterproof permanent inks. Pigment inks. Dye inks. PURPLE ink. I just chose the waterproof archival platinum cartridge, because they happened to have a great ink for only $4, and I was using it to write a special recipe book that I needed to be waterproof and archival. I mean, yeah, with ballpoint you don't have to worry about putting a pen in your pocket and it leaking, but the preppy has an airtight cap, you don't have to worry about it drying out. Fountain pens have gotten better, some are super cheap, most are beautifully crafted, and the plethora of inks and colors and nib options make me feel like fountain pens are where it's at. But you grew up with fountain pens and discovered bics, I grew up with bics and discovered fountain pens... The grass always looks greener on the other side.
Be honest though, the results are incomparable.
While I was growing up in Hungary in the sixties, the ballpoint pen was not allowed in my school, had to use fountain pen.
paperclip, Bic pen, and thumb tacks still going strong
So true!
Perfect example of "if it ain't broke, don't f--- with it".
Props to Bic for not nerfing their own designs for profit like lightbulbs did.
tell me you've never used a BIC pen without telling me you've never used a BIC pen.
Neither did the light bulb manufacturers. That's a myth that dies the second you see those so called "long life" light bulbs; they had a longer life because they would only produce a fraction the light of shorter life bulb and do so with worse power efficiency meaning you were burning more power for less light. This gave the whole industry a bad look so they decided to enforce a design that hit the sweet spot between operational life, efficiency, and brightness.
@@dordly makes a good point. Bic pens are genius, but they're not, y'know, good
@@TheRyujinLPIt's not a myth and you are misinformed, we had the means to make long life and efficient lightbulbs a long time ago but the industry chose not to do it for profit
@@DizGaAlcam Yes, but they were crap; as I already explained. Look man, you're wrong. Just accept and move on.
The INK is also the BEST.
I used to draw for a living, and I've used MANY pens from many manufacturers, and the ink stays BLACK for YEARS.
Other pens are nicely made and roll nicely, but The ink will turn purple to PINK over a couple of years, Especially is your TOUCH the ink while on paper.
The Bic™ Pen IS.. The BEST for the money.
Thanks Bíró László inventor. 🖊️🖋️
yes, László Bíró .. that's why a pen is called a Biro in some languages
Marcel Bich bought the patent for the ballpoint pen[5] for US$2 million from Hungarian László Bíró who had been producing such pens since 1943 in Argentina. Using Swiss watchmaking tools, he devised a manufacturing process that produced stainless-steel balls for the tip of the pen,[4] and the Bic Cristal ballpoint pen became his first product in 1950.[
@@SirViving In England used to be.
why is this phrased in the past perfect like its obsolete old technology now, I'm still using these daily 😭
probably cuz it’s AI generated if I had to guess. I notice when language models are prompted to come up with a script for something like this there tend to be odd grammatical choices that aren’t grammatically incorrect per se but don’t make sense in the context of the video
that’s just a guess tho! idk about this account. maybe it makes more sense in the context of the video it’s cut down from. the abrupt change in tense just feels weird tho either way 😂 glad I’m not the only one
@@oregonjohnson ah yeah that might be it, thanks for making me not feel like the only one who noticed it here lol
It’s crazy how much engineering went into something that is so disposable
But that's the thing about good engineering: you only need to do it once. Unlike Boeing engineering.
And so shit
I agree thats why you should pay more for non dusposable pens that you can refill and replace wear components on. There is a huge industry of inks very nice inks and so you can really pick a cool color
@@TheNefastorin the time it took you to type that out, thousands of Boeing planes landed and took off safely.
@@chrisk9808 no they didn't. There's at most 10,000 Boeing planes in service today, it took me less than ten seconds to comment, for your stupid statement to be true, those planes would need to make about one landing per second, 24/7, requiring them to make 86,400 flights per days. With your math skills, sounds like you'd fit well at Boeing, but not at Airbus.
Who knew that a classic, simple Bic ballpoint pen with a clear barrel, was so sophisticated and well engineered.
there's nothing more satisfying than the glide of a ballpoint pen
So true
Soft glide... Bic is really best
I disagree. Every time I use a Bic ballpoint pen, the ink consistency is not there and it always feels rough when I write with it on normal paper…I don't understand how people think that ballpoint pens are top of the line because they prove otherwise in my experience.
It's not made of stainless steel it's made of tungsten carbide which has a scratch resistance close to diamond. Also used in jewellery for it's resistance
If you think this is smooth you should try a fountain pen
I love it when it stops working and clearly have ink inside. It's like walking to McD's with full staffs inside, but they're only taking drive thru.
Sorry ice cream machine's not working
I have about 10 here and none of them work, I don't know what that's about
Either the ink dried inside if the ball didn't seat right, or some paper fibers got all up inside ... pretty easy do that with such tight tolerance.... I have good luck furiously writing with it until the tip warms up and the ink thins and flows
@@orangemaniabrother2232 when you flip the pen for too long the ink pulls away from the ball point. you can try sitting them upright for a week so the ink flows back down, but I just open up the pen and blow into the ink cartridge. If its really stuck then I also have to pull out the ball holding assembly so the ink flows more freely. works every time.
leftie huh
It has to be the deafult pen at this point
Ol' Reliable.
It is. I've never worked at a company that didn't have boxes of them in the office supplies department.
this was the default at one point but (this looks and feels cheap) now the Pilot G--2 Gel Pen is the default kinda like how the orange Office Depot Brand Wood Pencils use to be the default but (we all know the eraser drys out way to fast and leaves smuges behind) the yellow Ticonderoga Pencil is the default (fixed the reaser problems)
This is the level 1 pen. A fresh one will last you a long time but youll lose it or someone will take it so thats why youll want to buy a pack of like 100
Here in my city, nuh uh in stationary stored there's literally NONE of these pens in any stationary stores the only way to find these pens is go to a stationary store in a nearby city or look through obscure stationary stores and pray you'll find it
The ball are usually tungsten carbide, stainless steel ones usually are really cheap
Although to be honest I'm not sure why carbide is necessary. I know paper is abrasive but... to the extent of wearing out a BIC ball before the ink runs out ?...
@@TheNefastor
Another comment said it could also prevent the ball from deforming under pressure, which may be important if it’s precision machined.
@@TheNefastor When metals rub together there is significant abrasive wear. This wear is at its worst if the hardnesses are similar, like brass and stainless.
And the Bic pen was also a life saver for fixing cassette tapes.
This pen even adds creative designs to your clothing when it breaks in your pocket at no extra cost
Anne Frank was one of the first to use one.
Was looking for someone mentioning this
thats no pen, its a space station.
What?
@@Simon-sed what?
How is it a space station?
Idk it looks so grand in the animation yk i get how it could look like some kinda spacey futuristic architecture spaceship thingy
@benaiahshumaseerd8724 see: starwars (the real movies not the kid or woke ones)
I miss the neon bic crystals from the 2000s era… they were my favorite in middle school lol and they were so pretty
They sell some that are bright
A lot of ball points suck to write with left handed. Right handed writing uses more dragging motions while left handed writing uses more pushing motions, which causes more skipping and less consistent ink application with the steel ball
Im left handed so fountain pens are cool but they suck because im sitting there pushing a fountain pen like as if im tarded
This!
There are some gel pens that simply will not work for lefties
I wondered about this
If you are left-handed (like me) you learn to write in a different way (almost mirroring the RH writing style) otherwise your writings are garbage (like mine because the teachers had no clue). Also, you get a good Yoropen (I have several) to write semi-decently. For example if you write an 'o' you have to do the circle CCW and not CW like the RH writers and you are pushing and not dragging
@@asicdathens I've never heard of a Yoropen before, but now I can't wait to try one. Thanks for sharing!
It was such a brilliant design, so simple and perfect
This rules. I worked in the surface tension (printer) ink business for a while and things like this give me goosebumps. Someone made this. Someone’s mind was amazing enough to think of all these little things.
I think of this with cameras. Who had the mind to invent such a thing
@@gabrielrowellbetancur3298"hey, Louie, you know that whole thing about the physics of light that Einstein kept mumbling about?"
"Yeah, what about it Nicéphore?"
"This whole thing about light made me think... what if we could just... CAPTURE LIGHT IN A PIECE OF PAPER? WOULDN'T THAT BE COOL, LOUIE???"
"This is stupid, I think you're beginning to go insane...- Nicéphore, what are you doing..?"
*"CAPTURING LIGHT!"*
@@gabrielrowellbetancur3298 How about a vacuum tube cathode ray display? Mercury arc rectifier? The transistor? Technology and the story of how it was created is simply amazing. Even Kodak film is crazy.
@@heyfell4301you actually wrote all that 😂
@@AndreiGeorgescu-j9p let's just say I have a bit too much free time XD
The animation is very nice. Textures, materials, lighting, sections. The only minor flaw is that the ink is just ahead of the ball when it’s writing.
My uncle saved a dude’s life w one of these pens. He was driving to work one morning & drove up on a really bad vehicle collision, dude’s windpipe was smashed like a crunched in soda can. He made an incision in the dude’s neck and took a dissembled BIC pen and inserted into his airway so he could breathe.
Emergency tracheotomy
Wow! That's pretty amazing!
wow
I'll take bullshit that never happened for $600, Alex
@@ObservationofLimits my uncle was a registered nurse for 30 years, why would i lie about a very common emergency medical procedure under a niche youtube short lol.
honestly it's the best pen ever made. Simple, unique, & cheap.
A classic.
Nice to see a bit of texture / patina on the 3D - good job it helps visualise this tiny thing 😎☺️
yeah, the cnc marks on the outside do a good job selling it
Most sold item in the world with estimated 100 BILLION productions since the 50s
Pretty amazing
The most produced item on the other hand is transistors we create about 2⁷² semi-conductors every year. Or about 2 sextilliion (21 zeros after the 2)
@@PaulRudd19412x10^72**
@@PaulRudd1941 True but they aren't sold as transistors most of the time. That's like saying atoms of carbon are the most sold item because they are part of a lot of stuff.
@woutverjans2928 they're still individual on/off switches, even though they are microscopic.
Comparing a product of fusion and a product of lithography doesn't work, buddy. False equivalency.
One was produced in a sun, and the other was produced right here on earth as a piece of a microchip. You pedant.
"Sell me this pen 🖊️"
their pen literally made me fall in love with drawing i'm studying art history now and making art every day always be thankfull for bic
It really is the perfect pen for that!
This is why product design is important.
Now my life is a little bit better knowing I wasn't imagining the little ball in ball pens clicking.
Perfect pen for finishing your diary 10 years after you've passed away . . .
What a great story
If you’re actually interested in the truth and not spreading Neo Nazi conspiracy theories I suggest looking at the evidence on the Anne frank house website
That’s more convincing to buy a bic pen than literally any writing tool commercial I’ve ever seen
A brilliant idea is to put the text in the middle of screen so that it hides everything. Bravo!
The subtitles don’t block anything important
@@AsdAsd-rd6ceOh look! Its "THAT" guy...
You've gotta be blind as sh it bro
Thanks for saying this. It's my pet peave.
To be fair, the subtitles are at least clearly visible and not hidden behind all of that at the bottom. Which I think is really a nice touch for those who aren't quite fluent in English or have hearing problems.
True, they could have placed the subs at the top but, I don't know, it'd kinda feels weird wouldn't it?
Tl;dr they did the most with what they could work with.
My pencil: nah I like the floor more than the table
This is what Terrance Howard was talking about lol
The dude who lied about having 10k patents . Or the schizo dude who talked about multiplying and dividing colors ?
@@JoeRogansForehead I think it's about the dude who said he can recreate Saturn and its rings...
@@JoeRogansForehead no the one who said we're going to kill gravity soon
I hope I'm inside when it happens
@@JoeRogansForehead That's the same person innit
T. Howard has like 3 patents in his name used today but more patents under a similar name
Still, delusional
@@Dicksquish no he dosnt . If you look up his name there is 2 patent APPLICATIONS and both of them never were approved .
The BIC pen... My favourite when I was in university and high school.
Weird how the greatest improvements often become the most overlooked.
The ball is tungsten carbide, not stainless steel (far as I know).
Because a minor nick or dent in the ball would render the whole thing useless
It's also because stainless and brass are similar in hardness which makes them very abrasive to each other
When i write with this pen. Oh boy.
Feels soft and clear. Dark clear.
You made me fall in love with a pen I would normally discard as boring. I love that it doesn't have to be thrown away and that the refills are widely available.
Interesting fact, China only worked out how to make a ball in a ballpoint pen 4 years ago. Previously they had to import them from Germany who have been making them for over 100 years.
I just commented something similar below. This always made me laugh whilst in China
It's worth noting that once it became a point of political insecurity, they solved it very quickly
And it was made by a Hungarian guy.
They also make incredibly awesome spit ball cannons....... that I never took part of in high school..... I swear.
I remember watching a Bewitched episode where Sam and Darrin ended up going back in time to Salem. Details are sketchy but I remember Darrin using a bic pen to sign something and they all stared and yelled "WITCHCRAFT".
Damn. You beat me to it lol
OTRA CORONACION DE GLORIA 🇦🇷
Bíró László was hungarian btw
@@j.adam1Y Argentino
@@j.adam1 He was a nationalized to Argentina (living there) when he patented the invention. You can consider him also as a Bulgarian, but the invention is Argentine.
@@PatoGamerGD No, he didn't invented it in Argentina.
he invented the ball pen 13 years before he left to Argentina. Invented In 1930 Hungary and it was already introduced in 1931 in Budapest, patented in 1938 in Paris, then he moved into Argentina only in 1943
This is actually my favorite pen!! And i love that it comes in so many colors ❤
Another fun fact: if you hold one upside down and it doesn't have a stopper on the end and roll the ball, a bubble will form and break the seal, meaning you get ink everywhere
Pretty sure the ball is a alloy cuz I remember hearing that it contains tungsten carbide
I think you're right
Ball points do have tungsten carbide balls but pure tungsten carbide is referred to as a ceramic material rather than an alloy