This Is How One Pen Transformed the History of Humankind

Bright Side

The BIC Cristal pen is the most successful product ever made, with over 100 billion units sold since it came out in 1950. Its design hasn't changed in over 70 years, and it still sells 14 million units every day. The pen works using capillary action, which pulls the ink onto the ball without needing gravity. Before the BIC Cristal, pens were expensive and hard to use, but this pen made writing easy and affordable, costing just $2 when it first hit the market. Its simple and effective design, with a hexagonal barrel and clear body, helped boost literacy rates and made writing tools available to everyone.  Credit: Shark Tank Global / YouTube Animation is created by Bright Side.  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV   Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightside Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en   Stock materials (photos, footages and other): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.

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00:00Not so long ago, in the 1950s, the average literacy rate in the world was 35%,

00:07meaning that in a group of 10, 6 people didn't know how to read and write.

00:13However, 50 years later, the literacy rate went to 90%,

00:18leaving only one person in a group of 10 without reading and writing skills.

00:23The key to this lightning-speed growth can be found basically in every house.

00:28Nope, it's not the internet.

00:30The internet, on the contrary, can reportedly make us dumber in no time.

00:35The key to worldwide literacy is this BIC pen you've definitely held in your hands at least once in your life.

00:42Fun fact, this trusty pen has been outselling iconic items like the Rubik's Cube and even the iPhone since the 1950s.

00:51Each second, 57 BIC pens are sold,

00:54while it's 590 iPhones a minute, meaning it's just around 10 devices a second.

01:00Every single day, BIC sells 14 million of their nifty pens.

01:04Despite its popularity, it's often overlooked.

01:08It hasn't become a generic term like Xerox or Kleenex.

01:12When you flick a BIC, you're actually using a lighter, not just another writing utensil.

01:17Back in the day, people used feathers and ink to write.

01:21Fountain pens were a game-changer, but they were pricey and prone to leaking.

01:26Thanks to American inventor John Loud, the first ballpoint pen was born in 1888.

01:32However, it wasn't until Hungarian creator Laszlo Biro stepped in with oil-based ink that the ballpoint pen we know and love today really took off.

01:43He came up with a genius design that would smoothly pull ink onto the ball without any fancy moving parts.

01:49That pen could consistently give you a nice, clean line on paper.

01:54But his pens were crazy expensive, like $190 in today's money kind of expensive.

02:01No wonder they weren't flying off the shelves!

02:04See, back then, only about a third of people could even read and write, so pens were more of a luxury item than a necessity.

02:11And even though Biro had a great design, he couldn't crack the mass market.

02:16French businessman Marcel Bic saw the potential in Biro's pen and bought the rights, leading to the birth of the iconic Bic Crystal in 1950.

02:26With precision steel balls and affordable pricing, the Bic Crystal became a must-have for writers everywhere.

02:33But even so, despite Bic pens defeating illiteracy and stuff, there's another simple invention that may have been even more significant.

02:42Surprisingly, it's the shipping container!

02:45You may not have heard of Malcolm McLean, but this guy invented a standardized steel container that could be stacked on ships, trains, and trucks.

02:54In 1937, McLean had this genius idea, but it took until 1966 for international container shipping to really take off.

03:03There were many crucial events, and the need for quick and efficient transportation of supplies skyrocketed.

03:10By the end of the 1960s, McLean had made $160 million from his container empire.

03:17This invention didn't just save money, it saved time and labor, too.

03:22Before containers, everything had to be loaded and unloaded by hand.

03:27Now, thanks to McLean's invention, it's all seamless and automated.

03:32According to specialists, the impact of containers on our lives is huge.

03:37They made the world smaller and economies bigger.

03:40Thanks to them, you pay less for everyday products.

03:43Let's say you're in the US and you need something imported from Italy.

03:47Air shipping is still ridiculously expensive, so we don't even take it into consideration.

03:53Now, imagine a ship can only transport 5 containers, each of them having 20 products inside.

03:59In total, 100 products.

04:02Let's say such shipping would cost $100, which would add at least $1 to the final price of your product, depending on how greedy the distributors are.

04:12But if you can stack the containers, you can add a second and even a third row of them, which will reduce the price.

04:19You still pay for the ship, it's the same $100, but you transport 200 or even 300 products if you can stack.

04:28Now, this is an imaginary and a bit far-fetched example, but you get the drift.

04:33Why are the containers so significant?

04:36Well, those famous Bic pens that defeated illiteracy were supposed to be delivered all over the world somehow, weren't they?

04:43And it's not only about the pens.

04:45Since we live in the era of globalization, we heavily rely on fast and affordable transportation for food, clothing, and even sponges.

04:56Meet Aaron Krauss, the genius behind the smiley-faced wonder that is Scrub Daddy, the kitchen sponge that went viral on TikTok.

05:04Aaron went from polishing cars with a fancy buffing pad to creating a revolutionary cleaning sponge.

05:10His parents, both doctors, weren't too thrilled when he ditched the idea of a car washing business to pursue his sponge dreams.

05:18So, one day, Aaron was cleaning cars, and he ended up damaging the outside.

05:23But instead of crying over spilled milk, he created a line of buffing and polishing pads.

05:293M thought it was so cool that they bought his company in August 2008.

05:34But they didn't want the sponges Aaron had made, so those were just collecting dust in his factory.

05:40Five years later, Aaron was scrubbing his dishes with those leftover sponges.

05:45Suddenly, a light bulb went off in his head.

05:48He had a million-dollar idea in his hands.

05:51And just like that, Scrub Daddy Inc. was born in 2012 with some grassroots marketing.

05:58Then, on an episode of Shark Tank in October 2012, not everyone believed in his idea.

06:04But Lori Greiner swooped in and made a deal with Aaron for a 20% stake in his company for $200,000.

06:12The next day, they sold a whopping 42,000 sponges in under 7 minutes on QVC.

06:19By the way, this beats Bic records of 57 pens per second.

06:24That day, Scrub Daddies were sold at a speed of 100 sponges a second.

06:29Aaron definitely sells heaps of sponges, but in terms of quantity, it's hard to compete with humble batteries.

06:36Just in the US alone, people buy around 3 billion of them each year.

06:42By the way, they've been around for longer than you may think.

06:46The very first example of a battery, if you let me say so, was found somewhere around Mesopotamia,

06:52and scientists call it the Baghdad Battery.

06:55It was a terracotta pot, about 6 inches tall with a 1.5-inch opening.

07:00Inside, there was a copper cylinder holding an iron rod, all snug as a bug in a rug.

07:06The top of the rod was separated from the copper with some bitumen and stoppers,

07:10so no accidental mixing could happen there.

07:14No one knows exactly what it was for, but there are numerous ideas about its purpose,

07:19from electroplating, meaning putting a layer of one metal like gold onto the surface of another,

07:24to storing sacred manuscripts, or even pickling veggies.

07:29But the real deal started in 1749, when the legendary Benjamin Franklin started experimenting with electricity

07:36and called his set of capacitors a battery, because they worked together like a military unit.

07:43Half a century later, in 1800, Italian physicist Alessandro Volta came up with the first electrochemical battery

07:50known as the Voltaic Pile.

07:53This stack of copper and zinc plates would produce a steady current,

07:57although Volta thought it was an endless source of energy.

08:00Spoiler alert, it wasn't.

08:02Those batteries couldn't be used to power anything, but thanks to them, we got on the road to portable power.

08:09Alessandro Volta's battery was like the hot new gadget that totally revolutionized the way scientists worked with electricity.

08:17By the mid-1800s, the first rechargeable batteries were born,

08:21and a dry cell with liquid electrolyte was invented to make batteries more practical.

08:26Nowadays, we've got rechargeable lithium-ion batteries powering everything from players and toys to smartwatches.

08:33So, why are they some of the most successful inventions of all time?

08:38Well, they're the reason we have electric motors in e-vehicles and machines.

08:43Thanks to batteries, we have lighting all around us.

08:46And can you imagine not having battery storage for our telecommunication devices?

08:51It would be a whole different world!

08:55That's it for today.

08:56So, hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends.

09:01Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!

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