take the shape of a pen it is necessary that they should be softened,
which is effected by the process called _annealing._ The blanks
having been freed from the dust and garbase that has become attached
to them are carefully placed in round iron pots, which are again
inclosed in larger ones and covered over with charcoal dust to prevent
the entrance of gases, and put into the muffle, heated to a dull red,
and then allowed to cool.
The blanks are now soft and pliable, readily taking the various shapes
into which pens are made by the next process, called _raising._ This
operation is performed by the aid of a punch and die fitted into a
screw-press. The punch is fitted into a contrivance called a false
nose, fixed in the bottom of the screw of the press; and the die or
bed is placed in a cylindrical piece of steel (called a bolster) with
a groove cut for the reception of the die, the bolster being fastened
to the bottom of the press by a screw underneath. The punch and die
being fixed so as to exactly fit each other, the toolmaker places a
small piece of tissue paper between them, takes an impression,
examines it, and proceeds to rectify any inequality in the pressure,
so as to insure perfection in the shape. This being accomplished, the
toolmaker fixes four pieces of steel (called guides) to the bolster in
such positions that the operator is enabled to slide the blank into
the bed, where it is held by the guides till the punch descends,
forces the blank into the bed, and gives the pen its shape. The
article is now narrower than it was in its blank form, and the girl
pushes it through the tools with a small stick held in the hand with
which she works the press handle, while with the other hand she places
another blank in its position in the bed.
The pen is now shaped or raised, but it is still soft, and
consequently another process is necessitated--_hardening._ This is
effected by placing the pens in thin layers in round pans with lids.
They are placed in the muffle for a period varying from twenty to
thirty minutes, during which time they have acquired a bright red
heat. The workman then withdraws them and empties the contents into a
large bucket immersed in a tank of oil. The bucket is perforated at
the bottom, and being elevated, the oil drains off. The pens are next
placed in a perforated cylinder, which, being set in motion, revolves
and drains off the remainder of the oil. The pens are still greasy,
and as brittle as glass; and in order to free them from the grease
they are again placed in perforated buckets and immersed in a tank of
boiling soda water. After they are freed from the grease the pens are
put into an iron cylinder, which is kept revolving over a charcoal
fire until they are softened or tempered down to the special degree
required. In this process the workman is guided by the color, which
indicates the varying temperature of the metal of which the articles
are made. Brittleness has given place to pliability, but the pens are
black in color and scratch at the point, and to remedy this defect
they are subjected to the next process--_scouring._ In order to do
this the pens are dipped in a bath of diluted sulphuric acid--called
pickle--which frees the articles from any extraneous substances they
may have acquired in the hardening and tempering processes. This
requires to be done with great care, or the acid would injure the
steel. The pens are then placed in iron barrels with a quantity of
water and small pebbly-looking material. This latter material is
composed of annealing pots broken and ground fine enough to pass
readily through a fine riddle. The barrel being set in motion, the
pens are scoured for periods varying from five to eight hours, and are
placed again in barrels with dry pot for about the same period, after
which they are put into other barrels together with a quantity of dry
sawdust. On being taken out of these barrels the body of the pen has
acquired a bright silver color, and the point has been rounded.
The article has now the shape and appearance of a finished pen, and
yet it possesses none of its characteristics, and, if tried, will be
found to have no more action than a lead pencil, as it is deficient in
that important part of a writing instrument--the slit. Before being
slit the pen is ground between the centre pierce and the point. This
process is performed by girls, with the aid of what is called a "bob"
or "glazer." The "bob" is a circular piece of alder wood about ten
and a half inches in diameter and half an inch in width. Round this a
piece of leather is stretched and dressed with emery. A spindle is
driven through the centre, and the two ends placed in sockets. The
"bob" is set in motion by means of a leather band, and the girl
holding a pen firmly, with a light touch grinds off a portion of the
surface.
This operation being completed, the last and most important mechanical
operation has to be performed--_slitting._ The tools with which this
process is effected are two oblong pieces of steel about an inch and a
half long, three-eighths of an inch thick, and an inch and a quarter
wide. These are called the cutters, and upon the preparation and
setting of these the successful issue of the process depends. The
edges of these cutters are equal in delicacy to the cutting edge of a
razor, but the shape is more suggestive of a portion cut from the
thickest part of a large pair of shears. The cutter being fixed in
the press, a pair of guides are screwed on either side, and a small
tool called a table, or rest, being attached to the contrivance called
a bolster, which holds the bottom cutter, the operator takes a pen,
places it on the table, pushes the point up toward the guide, pulls
the handle, the upper cutter descends, meets the lower one, and the
process of slitting is completed.
Now, although this operation completes the mechanical processes of pen
making, the article is by no means finished. If you examine the pen
now you will find that the outer edge of each point is smooth, while
the inside edges which have just been made by the slit are sharp and
scratch. To remove this defect the operation of "barreling" has to be
again resorted to. The pens are again placed in the iron barrels with
pounded pot, kept revolving from five to six hours, and finally
polished in sawdust.
The pens are now of a bright silver-steel color and perfectly smooth,
but as they are required in various tints, they are colored and
afterward varnished to prevent rust. To accomplish the first of these
results the articles are placed in a copper or iron cylinder and kept
revolving over a coke fire until the requisite tint is obtained, the
color depending upon the temperature of the cylinder. If the pens are
intended to be lacquered they are placed in a solution of shellac
dissolved in methylated spirits. The spirit is drained off, and the
pens are placed in wire cylinders and kept revolving until the action
of the air dries the lacquer. They are then scattered upon iron
trays, inserted in an oven, and the heat diffuses the lacquer equally
over the surface of the pens, so that when they have cooled down they
have a glossy appearance, which gives to them an air of finish and
prevents rust.
The pen is now finished as far as manufacturing processes are
concerned, yet before it can be offered to the public it has to
undergo a rigid examination called _"looking over."_ This is
performed by trained girls, and when the defective ones have been
sorted out the good pens are sent to the finished warehouse to be put
up into boxes. These boxes are of various descriptions, adapted to
suit the markets for which they are intended. In many instances the
labels which form the covers of the boxes are elaborately printed from
first-class designs, and some of them have highly-finished steel
engravings of royal personages and celebrities in the scientific,
literary, musical, and political world. The quantities contained in
these boxes vary with the countries for which they are intended; for
the manufacturers study the wants of their customers, and do not offer
articles counted in dozens to people who reckon by tens.
We have now traced the manufacture of this little article from its
beginning as a plain piece of steel through all its stages until it
has developed into that indispensable requisite of daily life--a pen.
HISTORY OF THE PERRYIAN
PEN WORKS.
The firm of Messrs. Perry & Co., London, was founded in the year 1824
by Mr. James Perry, who carried on business originally in Manchester,
then in London. Mr. James Perry died in the year 1843. Mr. Stephen
Perry, who conducted the business afterward in partnership with Mr.
Hayes and others, died in the year 1873, and was succeeded by his
sons, Messrs. Joseph John and Lewis Henry Perry. The firm of Perry &
Co. was known all over Europe as the house which first introduced to
the commercial world steel pens of a superior quality, and in many
countries steel pens are now known under the general denomination of
_"Perry pens."_ The first pens were manufactured by Perry & Co. in
London, principally from flattened or ribbon steel wire, and in the
year 1828 Mr. Josiah, afterward Sir Josiah, Mason, _then a
manufacturer of steel split rings,_ produced steel pens so much
superior to the pens made up to that period that Messrs. Perry & Co.
entered into contracts with him for the sole supply of all the pens
they might require; this connection continued up to the time of the
formation of this company. In the meantime, Messrs. Perry & Co. had
also introduced the sale of elastic bands and pencil cases; the
production of the latter was confided to Mr. W.E. Wiley, who, in the
year 1850, began the manufacture first of gold pens, afterward of
pencil cases. Messrs. Perry & Co. also contracted with Mr. Wiley for
the purchase of all the pencil cases they might dispose of, and thus
Mr. Wiley's works assumed gigantic proportions. Mr. Alfred
Sommerville, who had been connected with the steel-pen trade since its
infancy, established the firm of A. Sommerville & Co. in the year
1851. Although he, in the year 1857, began manufacturing steel pens in
connection with a partner, he likewise contracted with Mr. Josiah
Mason for a superior class of steel pens, principally intended for the
Continental markets, and many of which were either his own invention
or suggested by him. Mr. Sommerville desiring to retire from
business, Sir Josiah Mason purchased his trade in the year 1870, but
continued to carry it on under the old style of A. Sommerville & Co.
These four businesses being so intimately connected and dependent upon
each other, some gentlemen of eminence in the manufacturing town of
Birmingham decided, in conjunction with some of the leading
proprietors, to establish a limited company, for the purpose of
uniting and amalgamating inseparably the various establishments, and
thus the company of _"Perry & Co., Limited,"_ was formed.
On the spot forming the principal entrance to the works, Mr. Samuel
Harrison, in the year 1778, founded a manufactory in which he carried
on his invention of steel split rings; but Mr. Harrison, who was an
ingenious mechanic, also manufactured mathematical instruments, some
of which were used by Dr. Priestley in his researches, and on one
occasion he made a steel pen for Dr. Priestley, probably the first
steel pen ever produced. Mr. Josiah Mason succeeded to the business
of Mr. Harrison in 1823, and in 1828 began the manufacture of steel
pens. For several years he gave his whole attention to improvements
in the manufacture of steel pens, and Mr. Perry took out several most
important patents for the improvement of steel pens, many of which
have not been surpassed in ingenuity or in utility, and the principal
among them, the so-called "double patent," is universally applied by
the pen trade to a great number of pens to this very day. In 1842 Mr.
Mason's attention was absorbed by the process of electroplating and
gilding, at that time invented and carried on by Mr. Elkington, in
partnership with whom he founded the great firm of Elkington, Mason &
Co. For some years the production of pens flagged, but in 1852 a
nephew of Sir Josiah Mason, Mr. Isaac Smith (deceased in 1868), gave a
new stimulus to the manufacture of pens, and from that time the
production gradually increased until it assumed its present
proportions. The manufactory now covers nearly two acres; it occupies
a whole square and fronts four streets. In the building fronting
Lancaster Street (five stories high) the offices, warehouses and
storerooms of finished goods are distributed. The underground floor
forms a huge machine shop, in which all the presses, rolls, and
general iron and machine work employed throughout the manufactory are
produced by skillful mechanics. Behind the front building there are
several courtyards and quadrangles, in the largest of which are placed
in a row five double-flue boilers, each 20 feet long by 7 feet
diameter, working at a pressure of more than 55 lb. to the square
inch, supplying the steam power both for propelling the steam engines
and for heating the manufactory. In the rolling mill, measuing 64 by
38 feet, three double-cylinder engines, working up to 293 indicated
horsepower, give motion to 18 pairs of rolls, rolling four to six
tons of steel per week. The largest workshops are the slitting and
grinding rooms, 64 by 38 feet, the latter 24 feet high. In the
slitting room 90 girls apply the last mechanical process to the
manufacture of steel pens, in slitting them by presses of ingenious
construction. In the grinding room more than 160 girls are busily
employed cross and straight grinding steel pens on wood cylinders
covered with emery. The room in which the finished pens are placed in
boxes measures 54 by 30 feet, and in it alone are employed 50 girls
boxing and labeling steel pens, or fitting penholder tips on handles
of various materials, principally of cedar. In that part of the
building having a frontage on Corporation Street there is a dining
room 86 feet 6 inches long by 68 feet wide, fitted up with tables to
accommodate 600 people. Here the employees are served with a warm
dinner at prices varying from 2d. to 6d. At one end of the room there
is a stage, where dramatic entertainments and concerts are given in
the winter season by the workpeople. At the other end there is a
library, in a glazed partition, containing about 2,000 volumes of
standard works. These books are issued to the hands employed by the
firm free. One of the important features of this manufactory is the
employment of muffles heated by gas produced from Siemens's gas
generators. These muffles allow the heat to be regulated to a nicety,
and enable the company to carry on the process of annealing and
hardening to very great perfection.
The manufacture of steel pens employs in all about 900 workpeople, the
weekly production is 45,000 gross, which quantity will shortly be
increased to 50,000 gross, per week. Six smaller steam engines are
employed independently of those already mentioned in various parts of
the works. The manufacture of penholder sticks is carried on in two
separate buildings. Penholder sticks were produced by Mr. Mason as
far back as 1835, but their manufacture had lapsed; it was only
resumed eight years ago, since which time, by new and ingenious
machinery, principally the inventions of Mr. W. E. Wiley, the managing
director, it has assumed proportions of great magnitude.
The pencil case and solitaire works carried on by Mr. Wiley, first
alone, and then in co-partnership with his son in Graham Street, have
now been transferred to Lancaster Street.
Pencil cases, first introduced by Messrs. Mordan & Lund, in London,
have undergone various changes and improvements, the principal of
which was a lead holder passing through the point of the pencil case,
which was slit for that purpose. This invention was patented by Mr.
Wiley in the year 1857, and created a complete revolution in the
pencil-case trade, as it enabled the manufacturers to use a thicker
and longer lead, which could be propelled and withdrawn at will and
would last in daily use more than six months. This patented mechanism
was introduced into cases made from hard wood, bone and ivory, but
since the year 1868 a composition called aluminium gold, so resembling
gold that it cannot be distinguished from it, and resisting the
effects of oxidation, consequently free from tarnish, made a further
revolution in the pencil-case trade, enabling the million to possess
an elegant and highly-wrought pencil case at a very moderate price.
Messrs. Perry & Co., of London, gave to this manufacture publicity in
every part of Europe, and the quantities produced and sold are
incredible.
In 1874 a new patent was added to the many inventions for which this
establishment was famous. Its purpose was to produce a solitaire stud
made in two parts, so as to enable its ready application without the
trouble of passing a button of large diameter through a small
buttonhole. A self-acting steel spring is fixed in the upper part of
the stud, and snaps as soon as inserted into the lower part, where a
slight pressure on two projections releases the springs and permits
the separation of the two parts. These solitaires are manufactured of
gold, silver, and a variety of other metals, the principal of which is
gold plate. There are now more than five hundred patterns in
existence, and this useful manufacture grows daily in extension.
Perry & Co.'s paper binders, an article now universally used for
fastening together loose papers, cloth patterns, etc., are produced in
infinite styles and sizes, principally by self-acting machinery.
The total number of workpeople employed in the company's manufactories
exceeds 1,300.
The business of Perry & Co. was carried on for more than forty years
at 37 Red Lion Square, London, but the increase of business and the
reconstruction of London required that a more central position should
be found for the development of the commercial department of the
company. Large and handsome warehouses having been constructed on the
Holborn Viaduct, the company transferred their London depot to a
building five stories high on the side fronting the Holborn Viaduct
and eight stories high at the back. In this immense warehouse are
stored not only the produce of the manufactories of this company, but
also special articles for which this firm has been famous for the last
thirty years, principally the elastic or endless bands, patented by
Mr. Daft and Mr. Stephen Perry, and originally introduced by Perry &
Co. in conjunction with McIntosh & Co., afterward in conjunction with
Warne & Co. Perry's Royal Aromatic Bands are now an indispensable
article, and may be procured in every city of the world. Every
fancy article required by stationers can be found in these vast
stores. An illustrated price current which appears monthly, and which
numbers more than 120 pages, gives fair idea of the variety of
articles of which samples and stock can be found ready for daily
delivery. The increase of business has been so rapid that the company
found it necessary to lease the adjoining premises, which is stored
with some of the two thousand articles forming the staple trade of the
London depot, and the principal of which are the following: American
Letter Files, Clips (now manufactured in Lancaster Street), Marking
and other Inks, Aromatic Bands, Audascript Pens, Bostonite Goods,
Cigar Lighters, Copying Ink and Copying Ink Powder, Copying Ink
Pencils, Copying Presses, Corrugated Imperial Bands, Essence of Ink,
Grease Extractors, India Rubber for Erasing, Ink and Pencil Erasers,
Ink Extractors, Patent and other Inkstands in every variety, Key
Rings, Letter Clips, Letter Files, Metallic Books, Paper Binders,
Pencil Point Protectors, Pencils and Pencil Cases, Penholders, Pen
Knives, Pen Racks, Gold Pens, Portfolios, Presses, Scotch Tartan Fancy
Goods, Solitaires or Sleeve Links, etc., etc., etc.
This establishment is under the exclusive management of Mr. Joseph J.
Perry, managing director.
_[The illustrations in this work are engraved from pen-and-ink
sketches executed by Walter Langley with a Perry's No. 25 pen.]_