Wichita eagle., 1888-08-30
HOW PENS ARE MADE.
THE CLUMSY AFFAIR MANuFACT-
UsEO BY AN ENGLlSHMAN.

Young Gi1lott's Eye for Bnsiness-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 tc bone case for pocket use- Il
was too expensive, however, to come into
general use and was a clumsy instrument al
best Various attempts wers made 70 in
prove upon Wise's invention, and among
others working TO this end was BirTning-
ham Jew named Meyer. Meyer had
pretty daughter Just going through the in
terestins process Of falling in love with
young cutter by the name OF elliott. In
her paroxysrns 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 ss well es
| to the girl, and the result was that after Sc
curing the latter. be anticipated his father
i1-law, and started a factory for the making
Of the very kind Of pens the old man had
| spent years in devisinS. The world knows
what elliott has doDe-by the way, in Eng
land the first syllable OF his rane receives
| the accent. Birmingham Il today the steel
| pen trade center of the world, though there
! are three prosperous manufactures IN this
country. Birmingham could readily FIJI an
order for four or five hundred thousand gross
at weeks notice.
How are the pens E1adei Take sheet Of
Sheffield steel six feet long, two and half
feet wide and one-siIteeRth Of an inch thick,
and cut it into strips each large enough 10
make two pens. Anneal these strips by plac-
! ing them into pots with clayed lids and leav-
| ng them over night in the ''Iuuf1er." 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
I English shillings per week at this, their first
work in a factory. Thence they go to ths
J piercing shop, where q hand press makes
the sits in tho 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 ''mufler" Next comes
! ths5 camping room, where the firm name and
! trade mark are received. Thus far they
/
the transformation scene. In the raising
/ shop they are given the semi-circular form
} that makes them pens. After a brief incar-
ceration in the ''mufierH they are given en-
oil bath, shaken in 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,
Z hat oil DiSelv rHa Ixri,c
( colander arrangement in use for decades in
England for removing the oil from stce! 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 TIE TEMPERING SHOPS.
In the tempering shop a hundred gross ara
put in a single drum and turned slowly over
a charcoal fire, man with long handled
ladle watching the changing color, scoopinS
them up at the proper instant and spreading
them on a cooling pan. In the securing shop
they again encounter sawdust in q 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 tie polishing shop-two days-the time
being spent in the most intimate intercourse
with the rubbish known az pot" and in re-
volving drums. They emerge polished and
with the sharp corners worn of the points
Then another trip is made to the tenperinS
room, where they are given a blue, light,
dark straw, or any other desirable color. Into
a thin varuish of alcohol and shellac they ara
plunged, and spread on a. perforated ard
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 IS to this part Of
the process, as Z bad pen, like bad egg, VIII
spoil the reputation OF the entire box The
final processes are counting in gross lots arc
boxing, when the product is ready for the
trade; and after going through all these
manipulatiops the completed pens are sold
to dealers for about third of cent apiece.
Soon after the pen Of steel had become
popular ingenuity went 20 work to discover
something better, and pecs Of elastic mate
rial, with durable and therefore extremely
hard points, were coutrived Glass, horn,
tortoise shell, and other substances were
tried, and the numerous experiments culrair-
ated in the gold pen with double diamond
points, first made in Englsnd by Isaac Haw-
klns, an American residing abroad. Sub
sequently the same man found that iridium
was about as good as the diamond, and it is
now used almost exclusively. 1t 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 rnallet and stick The price was then
from IS to SO pen. After John Rendeu
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 a good gold pen can
be purchased today for from 81 to s.. Tie best
are manufactured in this country, and SIX
portation is quite large.-Chicago Times