San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-09-29
HOW PENS ARE MADE.
THE CLUMSY AFFAIR MANUFACT-
UREO BY AN ENGLlSHMAN.

Young GillOtt'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 Birming-
ham Jew named Meyer. Meyer had a
pretty daughter just going through the in
teresting process of falling in love with a
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 eye 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 a 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 q weeks notice.
How are the pens made3 Take a sheet Of
Sheffield steel six feet long, two and q half
feet wide and one-siXteenth 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 i'll the muller" 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 second warm
night in pots in the "muffler." 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
shopthey are given the semi-circular form
that makes them pens. After brief incar-
ceration in the 'muffler' they are given an
oil bath, shaken in revolving colander till
the dr.ppings are removed and saved, and
then wiped dry in drums with 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
an original invention, and is doing duty at
most of the Chicago distillerieS separating
shops
IN THE TEMPERING SHOPS.
In the tempering shop a hundred gross are
put in a single drum and turned slowly over
a charcoal fire, a man with long handled
ladle 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-bhe time
Icing spent in the ...Ist inGuato intercoqTse