💡 In 1888, John J. Loud, a Harvard-educated lawyer and leather tanner patented the first ballpoint pen which worked on wood and leather. In his leather tanning business, he often had to mark up leather to note where to cut it, and found that a pencil couldn’t do the job and a fountain pen was just too messy. This challenge inspired him to create a writing instrument with a small rotating metal ball that was held in place by a socket.

📄 On October 30, 1888, Loud obtained patent US #392,046, which is the first patent for the ballpoint pen.

ℹ️ Source: https://www.pens.com/blog/the-inventor-behind-the-modern-ballpoint-pen/