Mountain Home bulletin. (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1888-1889, 1889-01-19
HOW PENS ARE MADE.
TIE Process Explained In Way That
livery Body Can Understand.

The Process Explained In Way That
livery Body Can Understand.
The first steel pen was made by an
Englishman named Wise. 1t was cyl
indrical and adjusted to bone case for
pocket use. but 1t was too expensive as
well as clumsy to come into general use.
A Birmingham man, named Meyer, who
had been experimenting to improve on
Wises invention, had in his employ
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
father-in-law. and started factory for
making tho very kind OF pens the old
man had spent years in devising.
How are the pens madeP sheet OF
the finest steel six feet long, two and a
half feet wide and one-siXteenth OF an
inch thick. is cut into strips each long
enough to make two pens. These strips
are annealcd by placing them In pots
with claycd lids and leaving them over
night in the ''muf1ler," 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 go to the pierre
ing 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 a
second warm night in pots in the oven.
Next comes the stamping room, where
the firm name and trade mark are re-
ceived.
Thus far they have been merely flat
blanks. Now comes the transforma
, ton scene. In the raising shop they
are given the semi-circular forms tha
, makes them pens. After Il brief in
cnrceration in the oven, they are givel
an oil bath. shaken in a revolvin!
, colander till the drippings are removed
, and saved, and then wiped dry in drum
with a sawdust towel. In the temper
!, ing shop a hundred gross are put in
single drum and turned slowly over
charcoal fire, man with along-handle
ladle watching the changing color
scooping them up at the proper instan
. and spreading them on a cooling pan
In the securing shops they again en-
counter sawdust in a drum; in tn
Sitting shop hand-press makes tn
Sits in the points; in the grinding sho
:, they are treated to either straight q
= cross grinding, the latter being consider
ed preferable. The back Of the pc
shows readily to which process it hi
!. been subjected.
The longest stay is in the polishin
shop-two days-the time being spel
- In the most intimate intercourse wit
:, the rubbish known as pot" and in r
y - volving drums. They emerge polishe
:. and with the sharp corners worn c
"A the points. Then another trip is mat
:. to the tempering room. where they a
- given blue, light. dark straw, or al
other desirable color. Into thin va
! nish of alcohol and shellac they a
n plunged, and spread on "a perforat'
:, and heated iron plate to dry, and then
to the looking-over room, where gil
inspect each pen, rejecting al defecti
ones. They are very particular to I'll
part OF the process, as a bad pen, like
=. bad egg, will spoil the reputation of t
- entire box. The final processes a
counting in gross lots and boxing, VIII
DC the product is ready for the trade; n
Nv | of%a, oil fbaca man i'm,
W tioas the completed pens go sold
re dealers for about third Of a &C
We apiece.
40 Soon after steel pens became popul,
ly inventors went to work to discoN
py something better. Glass, horn, t.
o. toise-shell and other substances we
oy tried, and the numerous experimel
no eliminated in the gold pen with dou
I'm diamond points, first made in Engla
Cd by Isaac Hawkins. an American res
as ing abroad. Subsequent the same IN
OF found that iridium was about as &c
'us as the diamond. and it is now used
at most exclusively. 1t is found in c.
nection with gold-bearing quartz in
OF mines of California and Russia Ur
IN 1874 gold pens were split with sciss'
lth and rounded up with mallet and sti
'ut The price was then from five dollars
re, ten dollars pen. After John Rend
IT. invented machinery that would do
'm greater portion of the work, the pr
IN declined rapidly, and although much
10, the work is still done by hand, &c
OF gold pen can be purchased to-day
IA fro,n one dollar to two dollars 4
in' best gold pens are made in this CO.
ne. try, and the expectation is quite lar
lde Golden Days.
sed