Eshan Maitra
No matter how much trivial it may sound. But have you ever noticed that, there is a hole on the top of your ball-pen cap? I bet you are looking for your pen just to make sure. Whether it’s a common Matador gripper or some fancy ball-point pen. They all have caps with a hole. Clicker ballpens literally has a hole in front of its ball, since they have no caps.
Why is that? Is it part of conspiracy by the pen companies? There is an open air way so that, the ink would dry out faster. Making us buy more pens. Insane as it may sound, some people actually went crazy with the fact furiously expressed on it. On the other hand, one of the explanation is, the hole is there to balance the air pressure. So that, it would be easier to remove caps. That’s why pens with spiral caps doesn’t require to have holes on top of them. Actually, Bic Cristal, one of the ball-point pioneers, who put the cap-design on their pens stated the reason more clearly. It was to avoid children suffocation risks. After all, it is uncommon for a children to always have a pen with them. If anyone accidentally swallowed a cap, the hole was designed to allow the air to pass through it.