CORPORATIONS: On the Ball

The "fantastic, atomic era, miraculous pen" of Reynolds International Pen Co. last week wrote some fantastic financial news. In the first six months of the company's existence, up to Jan. 31, 1946, Founder Milton Reynolds ran a $26,000 investment into a profit of $1,558,608, after taxes, on sales of $5,674,329. But the ball-point pen, which Reynolds bragged would write for two years without refilling —and would also write under water—had squiggled some blots on this shiny record. Sample blot: of the 100,000 Reynolds pens sold by Manhattan's Gimbel Brothers, Inc. (TIME, Nov....