Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1888-12-27
HOW PENS ARE MADE

HOW PENS ARE MADE.
ne Process Expl.ansA II . way inst
Every Body Caa UnasrstaAA.
Tho first steel pen was made by an
Englishman named Wise It was CYL
indrical and adjusted to bone case for
pocket use. but it was too expensive as
well as clumsy to come into general use.
A Birmingham man. named Meyer. who
had been experimenting to improve on
Wise's invention, had in his employ q
young man named elliott About the
time Meyer had nearly completed his in.
vention, his daughter married elliott,
and told him her fathers secret In
consequence elliott anticipated his
fataer-in-law. and started a factory for
making the very kind OF pens the old
man had spent years in devising.
How are the pens made? A sheet Of
the finest steel six feet long, two and q
half feet wide and one-sixteenth of an
inch thick, is cut into strips each long
enough to make two pens. These strips
are annealed by placing them in pots
with clayed lids and leaving them over
night in the '.muffler," or oven, which
is kept at an intense heat When they
are cooled they are secured with acid
to remove the scales and brighten them.
They are then rolled to the gauge de-
sired and taken to the cutting shop to
be transformed into blanks by hand
presses. Thence they 60 to the pierre
ing shop. where 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 oven.
Next comes the stamping room, where
the firm name and trade mark arc re-
ceived.
Thus far they have been merely fiat
blanks. Now comes the transforna-
ton scene. In the raising shop they
are given the semi-circular forms that
makes them pens. After q brief in
generation in the oven, they are given
an oil bath, shaken in q revolving
colander till the drippings are removed
and saved, and then wiped dry in drums
with a sawdust towel. In the temper
ing shop hundred gross are put in q
single drum and turned slowly over q
charcoal fire. man with a long-handled
ladle watching the changing color,
scooping them up at the proper instant
and spreading them on a cooling pan.
In the securing shops they again en-
counter sawdust in a drum; in the
Sitting shop hand-press makes the
Sits in tho points; in the grinding shop
they are treated to either a straight or
cross grinding, the latter being consider
ed preferable. The back of the pen
shows readily to which process 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 var
nish of alcohol and shellac they are
plunged. and spread on q perforated
and heated iron plate to dry, and thence
to the looking-over room, where girls
inspect each pen. rejecting al defective
ones. They are very particular to this
part of the process. as a 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 manipula-
tons the completed pens are sold to
dealers for about q third of cent
apiece.
Soon after steel pens became popular,
inventors went to work to discover
better. Glass, horn. tor
and other substances were
tried, and the numerous experiments
in the gold pen with double
diamond points. first made in England
by Isaac Hawkins, an American resid-
ing abroad. Subsequent the same man
found that iridium was about as good
as the diamond. and it is now used al
most exclusively. 1t is found in con-
nection 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.
The price was then from five dollars to
ten dollars pen. After John Rendell
invented machinery that would do the
greater portion of the work. tho price
declined rapidly. and although much of
the work is still done by hand, a good
gold pen can be purchased to-day for
from one dollar to two dollars. The
best gold pens are made in this coun-
try. and the expectation is quite large.
Golden Days.