{"id":988,"date":"2010-04-15T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-15T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.paperstone.co.uk\/Wordpress\/?p=988"},"modified":"2016-01-21T12:02:55","modified_gmt":"2016-01-21T12:02:55","slug":"what_s_the_point_","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.paperstone.co.uk\/News\/articles\/what_s_the_point_","title":{"rendered":"What&#8217;s the Point?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"350\" src=\"\/images\/NewsImages\/2010\/biro_nib.jpg\" alt=\"biro nib\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As the General Election campaign hots up (the vote&#8217;s on 6 May), we start an occasional series about the issues that really matter. Beyond mulling over nuanced presentations of taxation and spending cut party policies, voters are trying to fathom profounder issues: What is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.paperstone.co.uk\/paper\">Paper<\/a>? Why is a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.paperstone.co.uk\/desktop-essentials\/staplers-accessories\/c-728\">stapler<\/a> so called? Where do <a href=\"https:\/\/www.paperstone.co.uk\/office-machines-supplies\/printers-fax-machines\/c-2466\">printers<\/a> go when they die?<\/p>\n<p>Today we grapple with the difference between a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.paperstone.co.uk\/pens-pencils\/ballpoint-pens\/l-3020\">ballpoint<\/a> and a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.paperstone.co.uk\/pens-pencils\/rollerball-gel-pens\/l-3121\">rollerball pen<\/a>. Fascinating question, pleasingly simple answer.<\/p>\n<p>A rollerball and a ballpoint pen are in mechanism identical. In both, ink is dispensed at the tip by the rolling action of a very small metal sphere (about 1mm) of brass, steel or tungsten carbide. The difference is in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.paperstone.co.uk\/pens-pencils\/refills-rulers\/c-3221\">ink<\/a>. In ballpoint pens (you may know them as <i>Biros<\/i>, from a trademark that has become genericised) the ink is very viscous. Rollerballs employ the same dispensing mechanism, but with a more fluid ink, usually a dye solution.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.paperstone.co.uk\/pens-pencils\/rollerball-gel-pens\/l-3121\">Gel pens<\/a> are also in this family. In a gel pen the ink is a gel (natch) in which pigments are suspended. Pigments allow for a greater range of colours. Unlike dyes, pigments also reflect light so that pigment-based inks can be applied to dark backgrounds,<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; As the General Election campaign hots up (the vote&#8217;s on 6 May), we start an occasional series about the issues that really matter. Beyond mulling over nuanced presentations of taxation and spending cut party policies, voters are trying to fathom profounder issues: What is Paper? Why is a stapler so called? Where do printers [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Pens_and_Pencils"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What&#039;s the Point?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.paperstone.co.uk\/News\/articles\/what_s_the_point_\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What&#039;s the Point?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; As the General Election campaign hots up (the vote&#8217;s on 6 May), we start an occasional series about the issues that really matter. 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