The morning call., 1893-05-19
HOW PENS ARE MADE.
Part of the Method Observed in
England Kept Secret.
London Chatter box.

A celebrated poet tells us that nothing is
new. The assertion seems true of metal
lie pens. Itappears as certain as anything
of the sort can well be that they were
known as FAR back as the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries, and that they were
made in large numbers in Birmingham
more than 100 years ago. 1t was. however,
1928 or 1924 before steel pens began to
be made by a cheap process and to take
the place of the old-!ashioned quil. If
that process had not been Invented what
focks of geese we should REQUIRE now
For it is said that $1,000, 600 pens are made
in Birmingham every week and that fif-
teen tons of steel are used in their max
ing. To watch how pens are turned out is
very interesting.
First of all sheets of steel have to be
rolled, and as pens are weighed and not
couuted-a gross being considered to weigh
so much-It is clear that those sheets must
be OF an even thinness. For this reason
every part of the steel is treasured with
very great care and faulty pieces are re-
leeed. The steel which is all right is cut
into strips as broad as two pens, put to-
gether, are long. These strips are given
to women and girls called cutters" who
sit before PRESSES. The steel is placed
over a little hole, and at the SWING of a
handle down comes punch, passing clean
pushing the pen blauk through. The
pieces of steel thus made are taken to an
other room and there the hole at the nib is
cut out with second press. just like the
first.
The third process, called "annealing," is
for the purpose of making the steel soft, so
that II will not crack or break. Ii is very
simple. The pens are put into a furnace
until they become duh red, and are then
taken out and allowed to cool gradually.
Women afterward take these pens, and
with wonderful Quiekness put them under
heavy steel stamp worked by foot. This
is the stage when the pen receives the
name of the maker and all other particu-
lars which may appear on ii. Next the
gems are bent by yet another press to the
shape in which they reach the user, and
after that they are again put in furnace
ana heated TO a dull red. On being taken
out they are thrown into oil, and this sud
den cooling has the effect of making them
so brittle that they may be snapped in two
as easily as q piece of glass. AS this pro-
cess makes the pens very greasy and
dirty. the next thing done is to boil them
In soda and water. after which they are
white and clean. They are then placed in
an iron cylinder, which goes round
and round over number OF gas Jets.
In this the pens are kept until
they turn dark blue from the
effects of the heat, and then they are
u,
but they can be bent without breaking
They are, in fact. what is called ten
pered." Another cleaning follows. The
pens are mixed with wet cinders, CT some
thing which looks like that, and churned
by machinery in an iron barrel until they
become white. When they have been
treated in the same way with a fine dry
substance they are as bright as silver. Yet
another trihlng process comes next, and
then we reach what used to be the great
secret Of pen-making. 1t was done in
locked and darkened rooms. The work
people were bound by oath not to tell. No
visitor. not even royalty Itself, was allowed
10 see it. And what is this carefully Md
den secret? Merely Sitting the pen from
the hole (made at the second stage of its
journey through the works. to the point.
Simply speaking, the tool which does
this consists OF a pair of scissors nicely
fixed in a press. Each pen is held between
TWO square blades of steel. These coming
together cut The zen exactly in the middle
OF the point Now the pens are finished
ready Tor use. But some undergo two or
three further processes to make them look
bright and smart, or to color them between
brown and blue, or to make them plated
with eopper4aR!gl lll Is ei 1iala3
pen passed through so many hands aud
took so much care aud skill to make? Yet
pens are made with such Quickness that
they can be sold at very low prices. In
Birmingham some kinds have been bought
at as little as 10 pence gross. That
means that about fifty have been sold for
halfpenny. Only about fifty years ago
steel pens not so good as these cost l shil-
ling each. The change has been brought
about By improved machinery and by the
number of pens Which can now be made
figures prove that more steel is used up
for making pens than for swords and guns
all over the world