Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-09-25
HOW PENS ARE MADE.
THE CLUMSY AFFAIR MANUFACT
UREO BY AN ENGLiSHMAN.
Young Giilott'S Eye for Business-Details
of the Pen Making Industry of the
Present Time-The Tempering Shop.
Throwing Out the Bad Ones.

The first steel pen was made by an English
man named Wise 1t was cylindrical and
adjusted to bone case for pocket use. 1t
was too expensive. however, to come into
general use, and WAS a clumsy instrument at
best. Various attempts were made to i'm
prove upon Wise's invention, and among
others working to this end was a Birming
ham Jew n.med Meyer Never had a
pretty daughter just going through the in
teresting process of falling in love with
young cutter by the name of elliott. In
her paroxysns of emotional insanity she
would tell her lover all she could learn dur
ing her rational hours of her fathers prog
ress. Young elliott encouraged this conf
dence, having an eve to business as well as
to the girl, and the result was that after Sc
curing the latter, he anticipated his father
in-law, and started factory for the making
of the very kind Of pens the old man had
spent years in devising The world knows
what elliott has done-by the way, in Eng
land the first syllable of his name receives
the accent. Birmingham IS today the steel
pen trade center Of the world, though there
are three prosperous manufactures in this
country. Birmingham could readily fill an
ltl lptli lINt tiiDusSsui EIiiSS
at weeks notice.
| How are the pens madel Take sheet of
| Sheffield steel six feet long, two and half
| feet wide and One-siXteenth of an inch thick,
and cut it into strips each large enough to
/ make two pens. Auneal these strips by plac-
| ing them into pots with cayed lids and leav
| ing them over night in the 'mutiier,n or
oven, which is kept at an intense heat. When
they are cooled scour them with acid to re-
move the scales and brighten them. Roll
them TO the gauge desired and take them
to the cutting shop to be Transformed
into blanks by hand presses worked
by women, who make from ten TO twelve
English shillings per week at this, their first
work in factory Thence they go TO the
| piercing shop, where a hand press makes
the Sits in the sides. After being cleaned in
saw1ust to remove the grease they go to the
hardening shop and spend second warm
night in pots in the ''muffier" Next comes
the stamping room, where the firm name and
trade mark are received Thus far they
have been merely fat blanks. Now comes
the transformation scene. In the raising
shop they are given the semi-ercular form
that makes them pens. After a brief incar-
ceration in the ''muffler'' they are given an
oil bath, shaken in revolving colander till
the drippings are removed and saved, and
then wiped dry in drums with u sawdust
towel 1t may be mentioned incidentally,
and as an indication of American ENTERPRISE
that almost precisely the same revolving
colander arrangement in use for decades in
England for removing the oil from steel pens
has been recently patented in this country as
| q ORIGINAL inxrautiot1 and 10 Inipnr II,tu n,
most of the Chicago distilleries' separating
shops
| IN THE TEMPERING SHOPS.
I'm the tempering shop a hundred gross are
put in single drum and turned slowly ovel
charcoal fire, man with long handled
ladle watching the changing color. seoopine
them up at the proper instant and spreading
them on a cooling pan. In the securing shoI
they again encounter sawdust in drum; il
the Sitting shop a hand press makes the slit
in the points; in the grinding shop they ar,
treated to either straight or cross grinding
the latter being considered preferable. Tn,
back of the pen shows readily to which pro
cess it has been subjected The longest sta,
is in the polishing shop-two days-the tim,
being spent in the most intimate intercours
with the rubbish known as pot" and in re
volving drums. They emerge polished ant
with the sharp corners worn off the points
Then another trip is made to the temperin,
room, where they are given blue, light
dark straw, or any other desirable color. Int
thin varnish of alcohol and shellac they ar
plunged, and spread on a perforated an'
heated iron plate to dry, and thence to tn
looking over room, where girls hastily in
spect each pen, rejecting all defective ones
They are very particular as to this part o
J the process, as bad pen, like bad egg, vii
spoil the reputation OF the entire box TIL
final processes are counting in gross lots an
boxing, when the product is ready for tn
trade; and after going through all thes
manipulations the completed pens are sol
to dealers for about third of cent apiece.
Soon after the pen of steel had becom
popular ingenuity went to work to discove
something better, and pens of elastic mate
rial, with durable and therefore extremel
hard points, were contrived. Glass, horr
: tortoise shell, and other substances wer
tried, and the numerous experiments culmir
ated in the gold pen with double damon
points, first made in England by Isaac Hav
kins. an American residing abroad Sui
sequently the same man found that iridiur
, was about as goodas the diamond, and it
| now used almost exclusively. It is found i
connection with gold bearing quartz in tn
, mines of California and Russia Until 1SI
gold pens were split with scissors and rounde
5 up with rnallet and stick. Theprice was the
r from IS to Sl0a pen After John Rende
4 invented machinery that would do IL
greater portion Of the work the price d
3 clined rapidly, and although much of tt
, work is still done by hand good gold pen ca
a be purchased today for from 81 to So The be-
are manufactured in this country, and e,
S portation is quite Chicago Times
3 Mobile is to have an orphan asylum f
. colored children.