Poll: Ballpoint ... or ... fountain pen?

Sorry, but ... while they were invented in the late 1800s, they were not sold in the US until 1945. "The first great success for the ballpoint pen came on an October morning in 1945 when a crowd of over 5,000 people jammed the entrance of New York’s Gimbels Department Store. The day before, Gimbels had taken out a full-page ad in the New York Times promoting the first sale of ballpoints in the United States.

The ad described the new pen as a "fantastic... miraculous fountain pen ... guaranteed to write for two years without refilling!" On that first day of sales, Gimbels sold out its entire stock of 10,000 pens-at $12.50 each! " http://www.ideafinder.com/history/invent... Even then, it was almost 15 years later before they really "took off" and were popular.

http://inventors.about.com/library/weekl... Everything I am reading about Hero, which is a Chinese company, is that they make fountain pens, not ballpoints. Fountain pens are much more popular in China and Europe, where a lot of their sales are. The "gold arrow" shape you mention in your description - points to the HOODED NIB of a fountain pen, BTW.

So your mom's memory may not be quite right in this matter. As shown in this image of a Hero fountain pen tip: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/e... That said, Hero copied the popular Parker pens for some of their designs. And Parker DID make twin sets of fountain / ballpoint pens (had one myself).

So it is possible that she is mixing memories as well.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.