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Bic Cristal
The BIC Cristal (stylised as BiC Cristal and also known as the Bic pen) is an inexpensive, disposable ballpoint pen mass-produced and sold by Société Bic of Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, France. It was introduced in December 1950 and is the best-selling pen in the world, with the 100 billionth sold in September 2006. It has become the archetypal ballpoint pen and is considered ubiquitous, to the extent that the Museum of Modern Art has made it a permanent part of its collection. Its hexagonal form and design mimics a standard pencil and it is sold in six types of point and 18 colours around the world. History In 1944, near the end of the Second World War, entrepreneur Marcel Bich bought a factory in Clichy, a suburb north of Paris, and with business partner Edouard Buffard founded ''Société PPA'' (later ''Société Bic'') in 1945. "PPA" stood for ''Porte-plume, Porte-mines et Accessoires'' – pens, mechanical pencils and accessories. During the war Bich had seen a ballpoint pen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ballpoint Pen
A ballpoint pen, also known as a biro (British English), ball pen (Hong Kong, Indian and Philippine English), or dot pen ( Nepali) is a pen that dispenses ink (usually in paste form) over a metal ball at its point, i.e. over a "ball point". The metal commonly used is steel, brass, or tungsten carbide. The design was conceived and developed as a cleaner and more reliable alternative to dip pens and fountain pens, and it is now the world's most-used writing instrument; millions are manufactured and sold daily. It has influenced art and graphic design and spawned an artwork genre. Some pen manufacturers produce designer ballpoint pens for the high-end and collectors' markets. History Origins The concept of using a "ball point" within a writing instrument to apply ink to paper has existed since the late 19th century. In these inventions, the ink was placed in a thin tube whose end was blocked by a tiny ball, held so that it could not slip into the tube or fall out of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tungsten Carbide
Tungsten carbide (chemical formula: WC) is a chemical compound (specifically, a carbide) containing equal parts of tungsten and carbon atoms. In its most basic form, tungsten carbide is a fine gray powder, but it can be pressed and formed into shapes through sintering for use in industrial machinery, cutting tools, chisels, abrasives, armor-piercing shells and jewelry. Tungsten carbide is approximately twice as stiff as steel, with a Young's modulus of approximately 530–700 GPa, and is double the density of steel—nearly midway between that of lead and gold. It is comparable with corundum (α-) in hardness and can be polished and finished only with abrasives of superior hardness such as cubic boron nitride and diamond powder, wheels and compounds. Naming Historically referred to as Wolfram, ''Wolf Rahm'', wolframite ore was then later carburized and cemented with a binder creating a composite now called "tungsten carbide". Tungsten is Swedish for "heavy stone". Col ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pens
A pen is a common writing instrument that applies ink to a surface, usually paper, for writing or drawing. Early pens such as reed pens, quill pens, dip pens and ruling pens held a small amount of ink on a nib or in a small void or cavity which had to be periodically recharged by dipping the tip of the pen into an inkwell. Today, such pens find only a small number of specialized uses, such as in illustration and calligraphy. Reed pens, quill pens and dip pens, which were used for writing, have been replaced by ballpoint pens, rollerball pens, fountain pens and felt or ceramic tip pens. Ruling pens, which were used for technical drawing and cartography, have been replaced by technical pens such as the Rapidograph. All of these modern pens contain internal ink reservoirs, such that they do not need to be dipped in ink while writing. Types Modern Pens commonly used today can be categorized based on the mechanism of the writing tip and the type of ink: * A ballpoint pen d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French Inventions
Arts and entertainment * Gothic art in the mid-12th century. * Ars nova: a musical style which flourished in the Kingdom of France and its surroundings during the Late Middle Ages. * Oboe, or ''hautbois'', in the mid-17th century France, probably by Jacques-Martin Hotteterre and his family or by the Philidor family. * Burgess, Geoffrey, and Bruce Haynes: 2004, ''The Oboe'', The Yale Musical Instrument Series, New disney world, Connecticut and London: Yale University Press. pp. 27, 28, 102. * Carse, Adam: 1965, ''Musical Wind Instruments: A History of the Wind Instruments Used in European Orchestras and Wind-Bands from the Later Middle Ages up to the Present Time'' New York: Da Capo Press. p. 120. Variants of the oboe like the graïle, the bombard and the piston were later created in Languedoc and Brittany. * Many bagpipes were developed in France, including the Biniou, the bodega, the Boha, the Bousine, the Cabrette, the Chabrette, the Cornemuse du Centre, the loure, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phaidon Press
Phaidon Press is a global publisher of books on art, architecture, design, fashion, photography, and popular culture, as well as cookbooks, children's books, and travel books. The company is based in London and New York City, with additional offices in Paris and Berlin. With over 1,500 titles in print, Phaidon books are sold in over 100 countries and are printed in English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Mandarin, and dozens of other languages. Since the publisher's founding in Vienna in 1923, Phaidon has sold more than 42 million books worldwide. Early history Phaidon-Verlag was founded in 1923 in Vienna, Austria, by Ludwig Goldscheider, Béla Horovitz, and Frederick "Fritz" Ungar. Originally operating under the name "Euphorion-Verlag", the founders settled on Phaidon (the German form of Phaedo), named after Phaedo of Elis, a pupil of Socrates, to reflect their love of classical antiquity and culture. The company's distinctive logo derives from the Greek letter phi, wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Pen Types, Brands And Companies
A pen is a handheld device used to apply ink to a surface, usually paper, for writing or drawing. Additional types of specialized pens are used in specific types of applications and environments such as in artwork, electronics, digital scanning and spaceflight, and computing. The following is a list of pen types, brands and/or manufacturing companies of those writing implements. Related items are listed as well. Types * Active * Ballpoint * Counter * Counterfeit banknote detection * Decoder * Demonstrator * Digital * Dip * Flex nibs * Flux * Fountain * Fudepen (or "brush pen") * Gel * Marker pen, also known as a felt-tip pen ** Connector pen ** Highlighter ** Mean Streak ** Paint ** Permanent * Qalam * Quill * Rastrum * Reed pen ** Kalamos ** Qalam * Rollerball * Ruling * Skin pens * Space Pen * Technical pen Inventors * Alfred Dunhill * George Safford Parker * László Bíró * Lewis Waterman * Petrache Poenaru * Walter A. Sheaffer Brands Related ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Universal Typeface Experiment
The Universal Typeface Experiment was a promotional website funded by Société Bic, the maker of the Bic pen. The website crowdsourced a typeface with mobile users who entered their handwriting on the website using a touchpad and the then newly updated BIC pen called the ''Crystal Stylus'', which included a touchpad-friendly rubber tip. Though it was possible to participate using one's fingers, writing with a pen was significantly easier. Notwithstanding this difference, the website offered the contributor the opportunity to sign in and answer some demographic questions, enabling automatic aggregation of statistics about handwriting that sparked an article in the Smithsonian magazine. The downloadable font created by this ''averaged handwriting experiment'' was heavily influenced by the user prompt, whereby the user was presented with 26 capital letters in random order in the Arial font. Within the confines of this self-selection bias, regional differences were easily recognizable ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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