Mountain Home maverick. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1906-1911, 1907-01-17


=stroyed, among others, the beautiful
historic city of Pompeii, it at the
same time preserved in the ruins of
that city the first and only evidence
that we have of the early use of
metallic pens. In excavating the
ruins of the city, specimens of
metallic pens were found, which are
now preserved in the British Mu-
scum and the museum of Naples.
These specimens were made of
bronze. Most of the early metal
lie pens we're made of this ma
terial, although some were made of
silver.
The use of metallic pens was very
rare, and before the introduction of
steel pens, the implements most
commonly used for writing were
stllos, brushes, reeds, and quilts,
all OF which are even up to this
time used in some countries.
The quill pen, which was the
direct predecessor of the steel pen,
was so difficult to make. and its
life was so short, that efforts we're
continually made to produce some
thing that would last longer and
supercede it. In the effort to do
this various metals were used,
the first steel pens were copies of
the quill pen, being both pen and
penholder combined, or what is
known today as the barrel pen.
They were slit similar to the quill
pen.
This style of pen was used for a
number of years, but was very ex-
pensive, because as soon as the pen
was worn out, it was necessary to
throw away practically both the
holder and the pen, SO that the nib
part was made separate, and the
barrel part became the tip of the
penholder of today. This was a
great economy, and soon the pen
took its present form, and the PEN
holder was made to hold it. One
of the objections to the early steel
pens was their stiffness. This
was overcome by the introduction
of the side Sits; by varying the
size, shape, and position of these
side Sits, pen can be given any
resilliency desired.
The steel pen industry did not
make any rapid advances until the
adoption of the foot, drop, and
screw presses about the year 1925;
then they we're manufactured in
fair quantities, but their introduce
ton was by no means rapid, for
even as late as 1860 to 1865 the
Ouartermaster's department fur
nished the United States army with
the quill pens. The first steel pens
sold anywhere from Is to so cents
each, so that one pen cost as much
as will now buy from one-third to
one-half a gross of the better
grades. In other words they cost
from fifty to seventy-five times as
much as they do now. The con-
sumption has increased very rapid
~, ard at the present time the
world probably produces from ten
70 twelve million gross annually, of
which the United States produces
two million five hundred thousand
gross, and consumes over three
million gross.
Although the pen may be
mightier than the sword, its daily
use. by millions of people has made
them insensible to its Importance;
and those who have given it a
thought, believe that the sheet steel
goes in one end of a machine and
the completed pen falls from the
other end. This is far from be-
ing the case, as there are from
twenty to twenty-eight landings,
the number depending on the style
of the pen.
The following description of the
operations is of the manufacture
as carried out at the works of the
c. Howard Hunt Pen Company,
manufacturers of round-pointed
pens, Camden, New Jersy, and de-
scribes the most advanced methods
and latest improvements.
The steel is imported from Eng
land, and consists of selected
sheets, 10 inches wide, about S
feet long, and 0.023 of an inch
thick; it is of the very highest
grade, American manufacturers not
having attempted TO make this class
of steel.
The first operation is to cut the
sheets into strips 10 inches long
and wide enough to cut two pens
with their points interlapping.