worked for Mitchell, as a boy, and who remembered pens being made for
Sheldon by Mitchell. It is probable at this early period the pens
were made for a few dealers, and the general public was unacquainted
with the names of the manufacturers. This circumstance has no doubt
contributed to involve in obscurity the early operations of Mitchell
and Gillott. In a notice in _Lardner's Cyclopoedia_ (written by Mr.
John Holland, of Sheffield), published in 1833, the names of three
penmakers only are given--Perry, Heeley, and Skinner. From this it
might be supposed that there were no other penmakers at this date; but
Gillott had taken out a patent in 1831, and the names of both Mitchell
and Gillott appeared as penmakers in _Wrightson's Birmingham
Directory_ for 1830. It cannot be supposed that Mr. Holland wilfully
omitted to mention the names of Mitchell and Gillott, for this writer
was an impartial and painstaking collector of facts, but it is
probable the notice was written some time before it was published;
and, like many little masters, Mitchell and Gillot were only known as
penmakers to the wholesale dealers in Birmingham, upon whom they
depended for orders, consequently Mr. Holland would be ignorant of
their existence.
In speaking of the demand for steel pens, the writer in Lardner's
says: "The rage originated chiefly, if not altogether, in the
successful speculations of Mr. James Perry, of London, whose pens,
however short their merits may fall of the praise of the inventor, are
certainly superior to most others composed of a like material. Perry
began to make steel pens, in Manchester, in 1819, and in London in
1824." The press and tools with which these pens were made are still
in the possession of Perry and Co., at their warehouse in the Holburn
Viaduct. This fact tends to confirm the statement that Mr. James
Perry was one of the earliest experimenters in the manufacture of the
article. Levesley says he bought one of Perry's pens, which he saw in
a shop window in Sheffield, in 1825, and he took it to his workshop
and improved upon it. This is somewhat similar to the account given by
Mason of his first experiment in pen making. Mason saw a pen of
Perry's in the window of a bookseller named Peart, in Bull Street,
Birmingham, in 1828, which he purchased and took home. Finding he
could produce a better article, which could be sold at a cheaper rate,
he made some and sent them to Mr. James Perry, in, London, and that
gentleman shortly after waited upon Josiah Mason, at his place of
business in Lancaster Street, and the interview resulted in Mason
beginning to make pens for Perry. It will be remembered that the
writer in the _Sheffield Daily Telegraph_ stated that the earliest
experimenter in form and material was Perry.
Leaving the honor of having originated the application of labor-saving
machinery for the manufacture of steel pens to Mitchell, it would
appear that the merit of having popularized the article is due to
Perry. In 1830, Mr. James Perry issued a circular containing a series
of engravings of metallic pens, showing the improvements he had
patented in their manufacture. In this circular it is stated: "Till
about six months ago the public had heard little of metallic pens. At
present, it would seem that comparatively few of any other kind are in
the hands of any class of the community. This sudden transition may
clearly be traced to the announcement of the Patent Perryian Pens in
various periodicals, about six months ago, and to the general demand
which ensued for that pen in every part of the empire,"
Although this might be regarded as an _ex-parte_ statement, it is
confirmed by independent testimony that Perry popularized the article.
The _Saturday Magazine,_ 1838, says:
"About twelve years ago (1825), the celebrated Perryian pens first
appeared. Mr. Perry may be regarded in the light of a great improver;
many of his pens are ingenious and original in construction. He
arranges his pens into _genera_ and _species._ Mr. Perry first overcame
the rigidity complained of in steel pens by introducing apertures
between the shoulder and point of the pen, thus transferring the
elasticity of the pen to a position below instead of above the
shoulder. This was the subject of his patent in 1830."
Mr. Sam: Timmins, in 1866, writes:
"No skill in manufacture, however, could conquer the prejudice against
any metallic pen, and to Mr. James Perry the world is much indebted
for persevering advocacy of the steel pen, and for one of the most
important improvements in its form. Mr. Perry, with his characteristic
energy, almost forced the steel pen into use, and was supplied
with pens of a first-class quality by Mr. Josiah Mason, of
this town."
Furthermore, it is certain that about this time, steel pens began
rapidly to supersede the use of quills,* and the trade was recognized
as a rising industry. It is true that it still retained the secretive
character with which its operations were conducted in its earlier
days, which indeed in some respects distinguish it at the present
time. Its activity or dullness seldom troubles the writers of the
"Trade Reports" in the local press, although they sometimes inform
their readers about good orders having been placed for mousetraps,
stove screws, snuffer trays, candle extinguishers, and sad irons.
*In a humorous article, "The Web-footed Interests," which appeared in
Tait's Edinburgh Magazine, vol. iii., page 280 (1833), there is a
petition to the House of Commons, from Ganders, Geese & Goslings,
setting forth the evils likely to ensue from the use of metallic pens.
It prognosticates depression in agriculture and manufactures
consequent upon a diminution in the amount of grain consumed, and a
falling off in the demand for penknives; and draws an alarming picture
of the possible failure of the supply of iron ware, and the total
extinction of literature, likely to ensue through a stoppage in the
supply of steel pens,--the web-footed interest being supposed to have
ceased to exist. The petition concludes with a prayer that the
manufacture of metallic pens be prohibited.
To the writers of the present generation, who can purchase fairly-good
pens at one shilling or one shilling and sixpence per gross, it seems
hard to realize that people once gave one shilling each for
substitutes for quills. It is true that quills could then be bought
for a halfpenny and penny each, but how difficult it was to acquire
the art of successfully manipulating the same into a pen the following
anecdote from "Edwards' Life of Rowland Hill" will testify:
"Mrs. Sinkinson, of Jamaica Row, Birmingham, tells me she went to a
school in Hurst Street, and that she remembered that old Mr. Hill came
one day a week to teach arithmetic, and Rowland [Sir Rowland Hill] on
another to teach writing. In those days there were no steel pens, and
Rowland couldn't mend a pen, so that whenever he came he was
accompanied by his brother, Matthew Davenport, whose office it was to
mend the pens used by the pupils the preceding week."
Sir Josiah Mason used to relate a similar circumstance in his own
life, when at Kidderminster, that he accompanied his brother Richard,
who was a Sunday-school teacher, to mend the pens.
Comparing the crude specimens of early steel pens with the finished
productions of the present day, we may be inclined to think that some
praise was due to the people who persevered in the use of them; but
that the purchasers of these early productions did appreciate them we
have the testimony of Mr. Robert Griffin, who says that he wrote for
eight weeks, eight hours a day, with a pen made by Perry, in 1824.
Now, the old _"scribes,"_ as the law stationers' writers were called,
were generally allowed one quill a day, and as the work of the day
usually wore out the longest quill, a considerable amount of time must
have been occupied in the renovation of the article.* This would be a
serious inconvenience to those who could manufacture a quill into a
pen, but as this was by no means an universal accomplishment, we can
form an idea how even these clumsy substitutes found purchasers at
such high prices.
*The writer recollects the tedious waiting for the patient usher, who
from desk to desk with his penknife, mending pens, and paying very
little attention to anything else; also the wonder felt and expressed
at the first sight of steel nibs, and how they dug into the paper.
Tom Hood, in his "Whims and Oddities," gives some idea of the
pre-steel-pen era:
"In times begone, when each man cut his quill,
With little Perryian skill;
What horrid, awkward, bungling tools of trade
Appeared the writing instruments, home made!
What pens were sliced, hewed, hacked, and haggled out,
Slit or unslit, with many a various snout,
Aquiline, Roman, crooked, square, and snubby,
Humpy and stubby;
Some capable of ladye-billets neat,
Some only fit for ledger-keeping clerk,
And some to grub down, Peter Stubbs, his mark,
Or smudge through some illegible receipt,
Others in florid caligraphic plans,
Equal to ships, and wiggy heads, and swans!
To try in any common inkstands then,
With all their miscellaneous stocks,
To find a decent pen,
Was like a dip into a lucky-box;
You drew, and got one very curly,
And split like endive in some hurly-burly;
The next unslit, a square at end, a spade;
The third, incipient pop-gun, not yet made;
The fourth a broom; the fifth of no avail,
Turned upwards, like a rabbit's tail;
And last, not least, by way of a relief,
A stump that Master Richard, James, or John
Had tried his candle cookery upon,
Making 'roast beef!'"
These early pens were at first made from a piece of steel formed into
a tube, and filed into the shape of a pen by hand, the joint of the
two edges forming the slit. Afterward a blank was roughly punched
out, filed into shape, and the slit marked out with a chisel while the
blank was in a soft state. It was then shaped, hardened, tempered,
ground, and the slit cracked through by means of a hammer and tool at
the place where the mark had been made. The engravings of the pens by
Edwards, which appeared in _Wrightson's Directory,_ 1823, seem to
indicate that the piercing, side cutting and slitting were executed by
mechanical appliances. Possibly, Edwards was not a manufacturer
himself, but had his pens made for him by Mitchell.
In the pre-steel-pen era there were many attempts made to supersede
quills. In "Peveril of the Peak," Mistress Chiffinch speaks of her
_diamond pen._ There was a pen the nibs of which were of ruby, set in
gold, made by Doughty. Dr. Wollaston made gold pens tipped with,
rhodium.
During the time the early makers of steel pens were perfecting the
article, several experimenters were offering to the public writing
instruments made from various materials. Bramah patented _"quill
nibs,"_ made by splitting quills and cutting the semi-cylinders into
sections, which were shaped into pens, and adapted to be placed in a
holder. Hawkins and Mordan, in 1823, made use of horn and tortoise-
shell, which was cut into "nibs," softened in water, and small pieces
of ruby and other precious stones were then embedded in by pressure.
In this way they insured durability and great elasticity. In order to
give stability to the nib thin pieces of gold or other metal were
affixed to the tortoise-shell.
Looking back at the early operations of the trade, and considering
that steel pens were made by hand at the beginning of the present
century, we can scarcely understand why the idea of cheapening the
production by the application of labor-saving contrivances did not
occur to those inventive geniuses, the proprietors of Soho. Boulton
had expended some time in perfecting the manufacture of steel buttons.
That local Admirable Crichton, Humphrey Jefferies, does not appear to
have ever directed his attention to the manufacture of this article,
which has now become a prime necessity of civilization. Yet we hear
of his success in the improvement of buttons, and button-makers must
have used the screw press and tools for cutting out the blank and
shaping it into form; and the process of slitting had been
anticipated, for printers had a brass rule-cutting machine in use, the
cutters of which bore a strong resemblance to those now used for
slitting steel pens. Like most of the pioneers in the path of
invention, the majority of the early makers of pens were men whose
business pursuits gave them no special facilities for entering upon
the manufacture of steel pens. The progress of the trade from 1829
(with the exception of the period when Perry and Gillott first
commenced advertising) had been gradual, but satisfactory. In one of
Gillott's early advertisements, he stated that he made 490,361 gross
in 1842, and 730,031 in 1843. This was an advance by leaps and bounds
which has not since been maintained. Although Mason commenced making
pens for Perry in the year 1828, yet it was not till 1861 that his
name became known in England as a steel-pen maker. Many merchants in
Birmingham and Wolverhampton, who purchased steel rings from him, had
no idea that he was a maker of pens; yet on the Continent of Europe
pens bearing his name were eagerly sought after. Subsequent to 1861
he was associated with Perry, until, in 1876, the trade-marks,
patents, etc., were purchased by a limited liability company, who now,
under the name of "Perry & Co.," have become the largest manufacturers
of pens in the world.
At the present time (1889) there are thirteen firms engaged in the
trade in Birmingham, and they make up about twenty-four tons of steel
per week into pens and penholder tips. Making due allowance for the
material used in the latter article, this consumption would probably
represent a weekly average production of 200,000 grosses of pens. The
Birmingham penmakers employ about 3,500 women and girls, and 650 men
and boys; and besides these the number of women and girls working at
making paper boxes, in which the pens are packed, would probably
exceed 300. In addition to this there are several mills where steel
is rolled for those firms who have not sufficient power on their own
premises, but there is a difficulty in stating the number of hands
employed. The wages of the females range from four shillings to fifteen
shillings; those of the boys from five shillings to ten shillings.
The unskilled workmen earn from twelve shillings to twenty-four
shillings; and skilled men, or toolmakers, command wages varying from
twenty-five shillings to three pounds. Most of the females work upon
the piece-work system, but the men are paid weekly wages.
In 1835, upon the authority of a writer in the _Mechanics' Magazine,_
two tons two hundred weight of steel were used weekly in the
manufacture of pens. Mr. Sam: Timmins made an approximate estimate
that six and a half tons of steel were used per week for steel pens in
1849, and again, in 1886, he gives the amount of steel as having
increased to ten tons. It is at all times difficult to form an
accurate estimate of the quantity of material used, but we believe we
are within the mark in putting down the present consumption of steel
at twenty-two tons weekly. From this it would appear that the trade
has doubled its production during the last twenty years. Besides
these Birmingham houses there are some four or five manufactories on
the Continent, and two in the United States, but their productions
have not increased in the same ratio as that of their English rivals.
During the last twenty years a great improvement has taken place in
the style of boxes and labels in which the pens are packed. Formerly
(with the exception of the goods issued by Gillott and Sommerville)
most of the pens were sold in boxes of the plainest description; now
the covers or labels are printed in a number of colors from elaborate
designs, by first-class artists, and in some cases the boxes are
ornamented with well-executed portraits of royal, political, literary,
or artistic celebrities. There are many peculiarities connected with
the public taste as manifested in the demand for pens. The Germans
use a greater variety of patterns than any other nation. The English
taste is more restricted, and is generally confined to articles of the
plainer shapes. Autocratic Russia and democratic America make use of
the fewest patterns. By a regulation of the Imperial Government, pens
in boxes, bearing portraits of the Russian royal family are prevented
from entering the country, and in America public taste does not favor
a demand for portrait boxes. By a law which came into operation the
1st of January, 1886, no pens can be imported into Russia bearing the
name of a Russian firm. The probable purpose of this law was to
encourage the establishment of a Russian manufactory. At present
there are no pen works in Russia. An attempt was made in Moscow, in
1876-8, to manufacture steel pens, but the experiment proved a
failure. The Germans and French are the largest buyers of first-class
pens, but the Italians are content with articles of the commonest
character. The chief demand for three-pointed pens comes from Spain.
At present the demand for steel pens is chiefly confined to European
nations and their descendants. The great Asiatic nations still write
with pens made from reeds, or camel-hair pencils. A few of the
natives of India and Japan, and some of the subjects of the Sultan and
Khe'dive are beginning to make use of steel pens adapted to the
peculiarities of their writing. From this it would appear that the
possibilities of the progress of the trade in the future are very
favorable; but in the meantime its productions are scattered over the
globe, and even in some of the darkest corners of the earth pioneers
of civilization are to be found transcribing the results of their
experience with the aid of that great factor of nineteenth-century
progress--an English Steel Pen.
THE MANUFACTURING PROCESSES
OF STEEL PENS.
The steel from which the greater part of the metallic pens are
manufactured comes from Sheffield. Notwithstanding the many names
given by the venders of steel pens to the material from which they are
manufactured there are but two sorts--good and bad--and therefore
Peruvian, Damascus, Amalgam, and Silver Steel are but fancy names. As
a matter of fact, where a number of prefixes are used to describe the
quality of an article it is generally found to have no claim to any of
them.
The raw material is received from Sheffield in sheets six feet in
length, one foot five inches in width, and 23 or 26 Birmingham
wire-gauge in thickness. The first operation is the cutting of these
sheets into strips of convenient width. They are then packed in an
oblong iron box, placed with the open top downward in another box of
the same material, and the interstices are filled up with a
composition to exclude the air. The boxes are placed in a muffle,
where they remain until they have gradually attained a dull red heat,
and the muffle is allowed to gradually cool, or else the boxes are
placed in a cooling chamber. When the boxes have been reduced to a
temperature which will admit of their being handled, the contents
(technically called a charge) are emptied out. Now, it will be found
that the strips of steel are covered with bits of small scale,
sticking to them like a loose skin, and if this were not removed
before the next process--rolling--the steel, instead of being
perfectly smooth, would be marked with a number of indentations,
rendering it very unsightly. In order to get rid of this excrescence,
the strips are immersed in a bath of diluted sulphuric acid, which
loosens the scale, and are then placed in wood barrels to which broken
pebbles and water are added. The barrels are kept revolving until the
whole of the scaly substance has been removed and the strips have
assumed a silver-gray appearance. The steel is now ready for
manipulation in the rolling mill, where it is passed between
successive pairs of rolls until it has been reduced to the required
gauge, and this operation has to be performed with such nicety that a
variation of one thousand part of an inch in the thickness of the
strip would make such an alteration in the flexibility of the pens
made from it as to cause considerable dissatisfaction to the
purchasers of the article.
The steel on leaving the mill is conveyed to the gauging room, and it
will be found to have increased to three times its original length,
and now appears with a bright surface. Hitherto the operations have
been conducted by men and boys; but now, in the course of manufacture,
the pens will enter on a series of processes in which the quick and
delicate fingers of women and girls play an important part. The
strips of steel are now given out to the cutters. The _Toolmaker,_
who, as a rule, both makes and sets the tools, has placed in what is
known as a bolster a die, having a hole perforated through it of the
exact shape of the blank to be cut; and attached to the bottom of the
screwed bolt of the press is a punch, also bearing the exact shape of
the blank. The girl with her left hand introduces one of the strips
of steel at the back of the press, and, pulling the handle toward her
with the right hand, the screw descends, driving the punch into the
bed, and in so doing has perforated the strip of steel with a
scissors-like cut, making a blank which falls through the opening in
the die into a drawer below. Now, with her left hand she pulls the
strip toward her until it is stopped by a little projection called a
guide; and again the right hand moves the handle, the screw descends,
and another blank is cut. The operation is continued until the whole
of one side of the strip is perforated; it is then reversed and the
other side treated in a similar way. If you were to hold up the strip
thus manipulated--now called scrap--you would find that in some
particular part the perforations approach so nearly to each other as
to form a slight bar, which breaks easily between the thumb and
finger. This is rendered necessary from the fact that steel scrap is
worth only one-fifth of the value of the raw material, and, as under
the most favorable conditions, the scrap averages one-third the
original weight given out for cutting, it behooves the manufacturer to
reduce the scrap as much as practicable. If these blanks are
examined, a small V-shaped indentation, looking like a defect, will be
found upon the upper edge of that part inserted in the holder. This
small mark plays an important part in the succeeding processes. To a
casual observer there does not appear much difference between the two
sides of the blank; but, however well the tools are made, that side of
the blank which is uppermost in cutting out will be rougher than the
under side. This mark enables the operator to distinguish at a glance
the smooth side, and by always keeping the rough side upward the burr
is polished off in a later process. The blanks are now ready to be
passed to the next process--_marking._ This operation is performed by
a female, with the aid of a stamp. The precise mark required is cut
upon a piece of steel, and, being placed in the hammer of the stamp,
the girl puts her right foot into a stirrup attached to a rope, which
is passed round a pulley, and, pressing downward, causes the hammer to
ascend. Taking a handful of blanks with her left hand, by a dexterous
motion she makes a little train of them between the thumb and finger
in parallel order, presenting the first in the most ready position to
be passed to the other hand. The right hand is brought toward the
left, and, taking a blank, places it with the point toward the worker
in a guide upon the bed of the stamp, then by suddenly letting the
hammer descend a blow is struck upon the blank, which gives an
impression of the name cut upon the punch. The quick fingers of the
operator pass backward and forward with such rapidity that a skillful
girl will mark from two hundred to two hundred and fifty gross per
day. If the mark required is unusually large, the marking process is
deferred until after the pen has been pierced, in order that the blank
may be annealed (or softened), which takes the impression more readily
than the hard steel.
Now, in order to make a metallic pen suitable for writing it is
necessary to consider some means of producing elasticity, and also to
devise some method by which the smooth steel shall cause the ink to
attach itself to the pen. This is brought about by the next process--
_piercing._ In this operation the tools are of a very delicate
character, and as the center pierce (the aperture in which the slit
terminates) is frequently of an ornamental design the tools, being
small, have to be made with great precision. The piercing punch and
bed having been fixed in a screw press, and an ingenious arrangement
of guides fastened thereto, the girl selects a blank from a tray on
her left hand, and, placing it in its proper position by the aid of
the guides, pushes the fly of the press from her, the screw descends,
driving the punch into the bed, and the operation of piercing is
completed.