# Why doesn't the ink pour out of a ballpoint pen? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 6, 2009, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-ink-pour-out-of-a-ballpoint-pen/520243 "2009-12-06T22:56:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-ink-pour-out-of-a-ballpoint-pen/520243/21 "2009-12-08T15:29:32Z")
Everybody knows at least one nerd whose ballpoint pen “exploded” in his shirt pocket leaving a Rorschach test on the shirt. That stuff does indeed flow under the right conditions. > [@butler1850](#): > > My personal research went a little bit further. You can also suck on the small “vent” hole in a standard transparent Bic Biro. The ink will flow out of the tube, into the barrel of your pen, and out the vent hole… It does taste nasty, but I must have destroyed dozens of pens that way… It must be asked. Why didn’t you stop after one? > [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > I still remember when the first ballpoint pens came out, sometime before 1950 (since it preceded my going to HS that year). They did leak, often horribly. They cost $15 (think $150 today) and it was not legal to sign checks with them. Obviously today the ink and the ball are engineered to avoid that with the consequence that they will sometimes stop up and there is nothing to do but throw them away. Sometimes a dead ballpoint with plenty of ink can be coaxed to life by holding the tip over a lit match briefly. I don’t know why. But the cheap ones are under $0.10 so it’s probably not worth any effort at all. > [@](#): > > Amusingly, in school, we were not permitted to use fountain pens and had to use steel pens with an inkwell. After ballpoint pens became common (and better) we were allowed fountain pens, but of course, not ballpoint pens. As though there had to be something forbidden. Now fountain are sufficiently rare as to seem almost as an affectation. When I was in the fifth grade in 1968 we were required to use fountain pens; my teacher called ballpoints “glorified pencils.” I still have a fountain pen but I’m so computerized now that the only time I write is on yellow sticky notes, or checks, and can’t be bothered to fetch a fountain pen for that. I do use a calligraphy pen to write a couple of letters a year to friends overseas. I bought one of those dip-it-in-the-inkwell pens at a specialty store in Italy this summer and when I got home and tried to use it I found it just horrible. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-ink-pour-out-of-a-ballpoint-pen/520243/22 "2009-12-08T15:34:08Z")
> [@Kiwi\_Fruit](#): > > Are you using ‘Biro’ as a generic term here? Aren’t Bic and Biro different manufacturers of ball point pens? Biro is a brand name owned by Bic. [Here’s the whole story](http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/ballpen.htm). ---
**Author:** ![butler1850](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@butler1850](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butler1850)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-ink-pour-out-of-a-ballpoint-pen/520243/23 "2009-12-08T17:29:33Z")
> [@Kiwi\_Fruit](#): > > Are you using ‘Biro’ as a generic term here? Aren’t Bic and Biro different manufacturers of ball point pens? [These ones](http://img.findaproperty.com/library/libp3119.jpg) specifically. See _ **CookingWithGas** _’ post on branding/trademarks. Apparently the name Biro is the inventor, and a product name for a pen made by BIC. Story [here.](http://www.findaproperty.com/displaystory.aspx?edid=00&salerent=0&storyid=6881) I had no idea, but it’s an interesting tale apparently. > [@CookingWithGas](#): > > It must be asked. Why didn’t you stop after one? I was once a YOUNG male. As a young male, I did far more stupid things than I do as a nearly 40 male. I still do plenty of stupid things, even knowing the outcome at 40. At 10, exponentially more. I still bite my fingernails too, though I shouldn’t, and have the cuticle (side) injuries to prove it, disuade me, and encourage me next time. ---
**Author:** ![ch4rl3s](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c4cdca/32.png) [@ch4rl3s](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ch4rl3s)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-ink-pour-out-of-a-ballpoint-pen/520243/24 "2009-12-08T20:56:40Z")
[quote=“Napier, post:3, topic:520243”] The viscosity of the ink can hardly be the reason - viscosity creates forces proportional to flow rate, and so can only slow the movement. The ink is able to run out rapidly enough for writing, and yet left in a drawer for years will not drain out. You’re right that viscosity isn’t the whole issue. Ink is more viscous than water, but this can be done with water and a straw. Put straw in water. Place thumb over top end. Lift straw out of water. Water doesn’t flow out. A small enough tube, sealed at one end, might as well be sealed at both. Surface tension keeps the air from getting in. And if the air can’t get in, the liquid won’t flow out. Release the seal and it flows normally again. ---
**Author:** ![Kiwi\_Fruit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kiwi_fruit/32/12_2.png) [@Kiwi\_Fruit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiwi_Fruit)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-ink-pour-out-of-a-ballpoint-pen/520243/25 "2009-12-08T22:27:15Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > Biro is a brand name owned by Bic. [Here’s the whole story](http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/ballpen.htm). Thank you. I must have got confused by the common usage when I was young of “Biro” as the generic term for a ballpoint. (NZ, 1960s) ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-ink-pour-out-of-a-ballpoint-pen/520243/26 "2009-12-09T01:15:17Z")
Consider that if the non-ball end is perfectly sealed, then you have a pressure problem in delivering the ink to the ball end. In that, the ink won’t flow towards the ball, either. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-ink-pour-out-of-a-ballpoint-pen/520243/27 "2009-12-09T04:24:14Z")
Ballpoint pens do not work in free fall, right? The astronaut pen is not just a _Seinfeld_ invention? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-ink-pour-out-of-a-ballpoint-pen/520243/28 "2009-12-09T04:28:33Z")
Those astronaut pens are real. I’ve had a couple. No idea how they work, though. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-ink-pour-out-of-a-ballpoint-pen/520243/29 "2009-12-09T13:31:17Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Those astronaut pens are real. I’ve had a couple. No idea how they work, though. Pressurized tubes. I have some mid-range pens that write in any orientation. They all have sealed tubes. One day I hope to own a really high-end pen and see how it works. ---
**Author:** ![ch4rl3s](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c4cdca/32.png) [@ch4rl3s](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ch4rl3s)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-ink-pour-out-of-a-ballpoint-pen/520243/30 "2009-12-09T13:57:29Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > Ballpoint pens do not work in free fall, right? The astronaut pen is not just a _Seinfeld_ invention? I’ve had one, too. Like Balthisar said it’s a pressurized tube. But, I just looked up the story that Americans spent millions on it and the Russians used a pencil. Turns out it’s an urban legend… [the real story.](http://www.thespacereview.com/article/613/1) ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-ink-pour-out-of-a-ballpoint-pen/520243/31 "2009-12-09T20:37:21Z")
> [@sweetie pea](#): > > I feel I must add, in the interest of completeness, that my childhood research showed that if you remove the tube from the pen casing and suck on the open end hard enough, the ink will eventually exit through that open end into your mouth. > > Also it tastes kind of nasty. ::::checks user name:::: ::::scratches head:::: You don’t appear to be me (unless I’ve started going into fugue states, and creating sock puppets and posting to message boards while “out of myself”… I think someone would have mentioned this to me by now, however). so I must only conclude that this sort of experimental endeavor is a sign of a highly developed intelligence and sense of curiosity. I was 9 when I did this, how old were you? ---
**Author:** ![Magicicada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c67d28/32.png) [@Magicicada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magicicada)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-ink-pour-out-of-a-ballpoint-pen/520243/32 "2009-12-10T03:16:15Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > ::::checks user name:::: > ::::scratches head:::: > > You don’t appear to be me (unless I’ve started going into fugue states, and creating sock puppets and posting to message boards while “out of myself”… I think someone would have mentioned this to me by now, however). > > so I must only conclude that this sort of experimental endeavor is a sign of a highly developed intelligence and sense of curiosity. > > I was 9 when I did this, how old were you? Well, I know I was about 12 when the Red Ink Incident\* occurred, and by the time we got all that cleaned up, including soaking the light blue jacket in a bowl of milk for several days, I felt my research was complete. So, yes, 9 sounds about right for a starting point. \*Red ink pen in my pocket + school assembly that failed to hold my attention I also experimented with the effect of hot candle wax on plastic containers and with playing Truth Or Dare with my 2nd best friend’s older brother. Does any of this ring a bell for you? ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-ink-pour-out-of-a-ballpoint-pen/520243/33 "2009-12-10T03:29:48Z")
> [@sweetie pea](#): > > Well, I know I was about 12 when the Red Ink Incident\* occurred, and by the time we got all that cleaned up, including soaking the light blue jacket in a bowl of milk for several days, I felt my research was complete. So, yes, 9 sounds about right for a starting point. > \*Red ink pen in my pocket + school assembly that failed to hold my attention > I also experimented with the effect of hot candle wax on plastic containers and with playing Truth Or Dare with my 2nd best friend’s older brother. Does any of this ring a bell for you? Hmmm… I did rather like playing with candles, it’s a wonder I never burned the house down. I don’t recall any Truth or Dare sessions with older brothers, though we did a fair bit of it at school in 7th grade. So you chose to anoint a blue jacket with red ink. I used blue ink but was wearing a red (well, pink) jumper. I guess we complement each other well 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-ink-pour-out-of-a-ballpoint-pen/520243.md?page=1)