History Of Pens And NASA

We have all used a pen in our lives. Many of us continue to use it on a daily basis. But, have you ever thought of the history behind pens and how it evolved? There are many types of pen nowadays, like a ballpoint pen, a gel pen, a fountain pen, and a felt-tip pen among others. But, the pens we know today are very different from the ones that existed before. An important part of that history is the Fisher Space pen in Texas.

By the 1950's, ballpoint pen was being used but, almost all of them used different cartridges. This meant that if you had two types of a ballpoint pen, you would need different cartridges. This is where the history of fisher space pen came into play. In the year 1953, Paul Fisher invented what he called the "Universal Cartridge." This cartridge is compatible with most of the pens. But, Paul did not stop there. He continued to work on a better refill.

After experimenting for quite some time, Paul was able to make the perfect refill using Thirotropic ink-semisolid until the shearing action of the ballpoint pen liquefied it. This meant that the ink would be liquefied when it was in use. The cartridge was pressurized by nitrogen so, it meant that the reliance on gravity was not needed to make the ink flow flawlessly.

The refill worked flawlessly whether you use it underwater, in hot conditions, in freezing situations, it even worked if you used it upside-down. This invention could not have come at a more opportune time as the race at NASA was on. The astronauts had been using a pencil as no pen worked in zero-gravity condition, except that the Fisher pen worked perfectly. From October 1968, The Apollo-7 Mission began to use the Fisher AG-7 space pen and cartridge.