The Royal Problem With Ballpoint Pens:
Laszlo Biro
“They’ve become a crucial part of society and can be found in everyone’s pocket, regardless of the person’s financial status”. Although this observation on the american “National Days Today (NDT)” website could apply equally to the ubiquitous mobile phone, in fact it refers to what has become, as they point out, “the dominant writing instrument” throughout the world, namely the ballpoint pen or “biro” as it’s more commonly known in the UK. In the USA, this invention is regarded as so significant that the anniversary of when the Hungarian brothers Lazlo and Gyorgy Biro filed their patent in 1943 is celebrated every year on 10th June as “National Ballpoint Pen Day”. The NDT exhorts its readers to observe the event by buying a “bunch of good ballpoint pens” for their own use or as gifts and to post photos and videos of their favourite pens on their preferred social media platforms.
King Charles III & Queen Consort Camilla with a leaky biro at Hillsborough Castle
King Charles III signalling to an aide to remove the pen box from the table during the signing of the Accession documentation at St James’ Palace London on September 10th 2022
It’s highly unlikely, however, that King Charles III will declare a similar national holiday in the UK. It appears he’s not much of a pen enthusiast, especially – as the Guardian columnist, Harry Taylor, reported on 13th September – when they malfunction. Earlier that day, when signing the visitors book at Hillsborough Castle near Belfast, Northern Ireland, the pen he was using had leaked over the fingers of his right hand, requiring him to wipe the ink away with a handkerchief while remarking to Camilla, the Queen Consort, that he “couldn’t bear this bloody thing – every stinking time”.It wasn’t the first occasion this had happened, either: According to the LBC commentator, Asher McShane, it was just another example of the King’s continuing bad run of luck with pens.
Despite all its obvious advantages, notes Inkbeta.com, the ballpoint pen has always faced issues of “explosion” and of causing a whole lot of mess on our clothes, books and numerous surfaces. The Pen Company explains that the main reason they leak when they are in someone’s shirt pocket is that the temperature of the human body raises the heat of the cartridge, causing the ink to flow and that this is more likely to happen if the pen is not capped or positioned vertically. This can occur even if the pen is in a handbag or satchel, especially in hot weather, which then raises the question as to how the 
stains can be removed from garments, fabrics or furnishings. The Pen Company recommends rubbing them with alcohol or nail polish remover, then blotting them with a clean cloth and finally applying your normal laundry detergent onto the area.
The Penvibe contributor,Tony Bridges, has highlighted the factors that motivated Laszlo Biro, then a newspaper editor in Budapest, and his brother Gyorgy, a chemist, to start experimenting in the 1930’s, with alternatives to fountain pens and quills. They felt that these existing writing utensils weren’t sufficiently reliable and had a tendency to spill and smear both the paper and the surroundings. One of their first customers was the Royal Air Force (RAF), which ordered 30,000 “biros” for their navigators because,
unlike the fountain versions, they wouldn’t leak at high 
altitudes. Inevitably, the Biro brothers soon faced fierce competition. In 1950 they sold their French patent to Marcel Bich, who promptly opened a factory to produce an improved version of the Biro design, the Bic Cristal, and in 1953 set up the company known ever since then as Societe Bic.
The NDT cites statistics indicating that a good ballpoint pen will write approximately 50,000 words, that almost 124 of them get sold every second and that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates around 1.6 billion disposable pens are thrown away every year.
Furthermore, although ballpoint pens are available with a wide range of designs, styles and functions, the global market is dominated by the Societe Bic, which sells 14 million “BIC Crystals” each day around the world, 200 million of these every year in Britain.
Based in Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, this French manufacturing corporation now derives 39.2% of its income from the sale of non-rechargeable lighters, 37.3% from stationary (ballpoints, permanent markers and other types of pens, along with glues and adhesive notepads), 21.9% from razors and another 1.6% mainly from sports articles.
Ballpoint pens are of course not the only potential source of ink stains. The same can happen with cartridges for printers,even though, as ld products.com emphasises, the modern ones are carefully designed to ensure the ink doesn’t spill or dry out. Wiping it from a desk is considered by LD to be relatively simple and hand sanitizer containing alcohol, along with soap and cold water, will break up the ink compounds on the skin. They acknowledge that removing cartridge ink from fabrics and carpets presents much more of a challenge and that it’s essential to act 
quickly, rubbing in some alcohol, hairspray or hydrogen peroxide (if you happen to have some available) to dilute the ink, then pressing two damp towels on either side of the item or garment, before the stain begins to dry. They strongly advise that only cold water should be used, because warm water will actually propel the ink into setting faster.