Illustration: SPLITTING THE PEN.
Illustration: STAMPING THE PEN FROM THE STEEL.
Illustration: BENDING THE PEN.
Steel pens, which have almost superseded quill pens, are made in
great quantities, and, like needles and pins, can only be produced
at a sufficiently low price to meet the requirements of the people,
by those who have erected buildings and fitted up machinery so as to
make the process sufficiently rapid to be cheap. The steel is first
selected of the proper quality, and rolled out into sheets of the
thickness required and of breadth sufficient for the length of the
pens to be made; these are punched out of the proper shape by a punch
worked by a screw, which cuts out a piece at every blow, and also the
perforation which terminates the split. The maker’s name or any other
device is stamped on this flat piece of steel, called a “blank,”
which is then coiled up into the shape required (whether a “barrel”
pen or a “nib”) by a sort of press, worked by a girl, as seen in the
engraving, and the split made by a machine, also engraved. In both
these machines the screw is worked with the left hand, while the
right is engaged in placing the pens under it and pushing out the
pen with the finger after it is bent or slit, these operations, from
constant practice, being performed with great rapidity. The pens have
next to be tempered, by being made red-hot and then thrown into water
or oil, and are afterwards polished by putting them into a barrel
with fine sand, which is turned round by a windlass for several
hours. The nibs or points are then finished at a stone which turns
round, and a varnish of a brown color--made by dissolving shellac
and asphaltum in naptha--is given to the surface to keep them from
rusting. Sometimes the surface is “blued,” which is done by heating
the pens on an iron plate till the blue color appears (see “Steel”).
Pens are sometimes made of other metals besides steel, as brass, or
zinc, and sometimes of gold. Those made of gold are, of course, too
expensive for general use, but as they are never corroded by the ink,
they last a very long time, and can always be cleaned by washing; and
as the whole wear is at the point, this is tipped with an alloy which
is exceedingly hard.