Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1888-10-12
HOW PENS ARE MADE.
THE CLUMSY AFFAIR MANUFACT-
URED BY AN ENGLiSHMAN.

Young Gillott's Eye for Business-Detai1s
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 a bone case for pocket use 1t
was too expensive, however, to come into
general use, and was clumsy instrument at
best. Various attempts were made to I'M
prove upon Wise's invention, and among
others working to this end was Birmlng-
ham Jew n.med Meyer. Meyer had
pretty daughter just going through the in
teresting process of falling in love with
young cutter by the name Of elliott. In
her paroxysms 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 eye to business as well as
to the girl, and the result was that after Sc
curing the latter, be 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
order for four or five hundred thousand gross
at weeks notice.
How are the pens made? Take a sheet of
Sheffield steel six feet long, two and half
feet wide and onesixteenth of an inch thick,
and cut it into strips each large enough to
make two pens. Anneal these strips by plac-
ing them into pots with clayed lids and leav-
ing them over night in the "muff1er,' 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
sawdust to remove the grease they go to the
hardening shop and spend q second warm
night in pots in the ssmuffler." Next comes
the stamping room, where the firm name and
trade mark are received. Thus far they
have been merely flat blanks. Now comes
the transformation scene. In the raising
shop they are given the semi-circular form
that makes them pens. After brief ilcar-
ceration in the s'muffier'' they are given an
oil bath, shaken in a revolving colander till
the drippings are removed and saved, and
then wiped dry in drums with q 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
yir1Cr 0j1 tool
has been recently patented in this country as
an original invention, and is doing duty at
most of the Chicago distilleries' separating
shops.
IN THE TEMPERING SHOPS
In the tempering shop hundred gross are
put in a single drum and turned slowly over
charcoal fire, man with long handled
lade watching the changing color. scooping
them up at the proper instant and spreading
them on a cooling pan. In the securing shop
they again encounter sawdust in a drum; in
the Sitting shop hand press makes the Sits
In the points; in the grinding shop they are
treated to either straight or cross grinding,
the latter being considered preferable. The
back of the pen shows readily to which pro-
cess it has been subjected. The longest stay
is in the polishing shop-two days-the time
being spent in the most intimate intercourse
with the rubbish known as ''pot," and in re-
volving drums. They emerge polished and
with the sharp corners worn off the points.
Then another trip is made to the tempering
room, where they are given blue light,
dark straw, or any other desirable color Into
thin varnish of alcohol and shellac they are
plunged, and spread on a perforated and
heated iron plate to dry, and thence to the
looking over room, where girls hastily in
spect each pen, rejecting all defective ones.
They are very particular as to this part of
the process as bad pen, like a bad egg, will
spoil the reputation of the entire box. The
final processes are counting in gross lots and
boxing, when the product is ready for the
trade; and after going through all these
manipulations the completed pens are sold
to dealers for about third of cent apiece.
Soon after the pen of steel had become
popular ingenuity went to work to discover
something better, and pens of elastic mate
rial, with durable and therefore extremely
hard points, were contrived. Glass, horn,
tortoise shell, and other substances were
tried, and the numerous experiments culmin-
ated in the gold pen with double diamond
points, first made in England by Isaac Haw-
kins, an American residing abroad. Sub
sequently the same man found that iridium
was about as good as tho diamond, and it is
now used almost exclusively. It is found in
connection with gold bearing quartz in the
mines Of California and Russia Until 1874
gold pens were split with scissors and rounded
up with mallet and stick. Theprice was then
from S. to $40 a pen After John Rendell
invented machinery that would do the
greater portion of the work the price de-
clined rapidly, and although much of the
work is still done by hand good gold pen can
bepurchased today for from 81 to 50. The best
are manufactured in this country, and ex-
portation is quite large.-Chicago Times.