Los Angeles herald., 1909-11-28
HOW PENS ARE MADE
A Lot of Trouble Involved In Pro-
ducing So Simple an Object

II EMS are made of good steel which
Is rich in carbon. 1t Is imported
= in the form of sheets 10 inches
wide and feet long These are cut
into strips wide enough to cut two pens
whose points interlap.
In a lecture describing the process,
an expert named Hawkes. says that
the steel is annealed to a light cherry
red for several hours, then gradually
cooled, when it is soft enough to bend
easily.
The scale is removed by picking the
steel in bath of diluted acid. 1t then
goes through the rolling mill, the num-
ber of times depending upon the thin
ness desired. The next step Is to the
cutting room, where pen blanks are cut
by machines.
on one side of each blank Is a small
dent, called the bit, which is used as a
guide in passing the blanks through
succeeding operations
The pens are pierced by machinery.
some requiring but one piercing, others
two or three, the latter being more ex-
pensive. From the piercing machines
the pens go to the muffle room, where
the blanks are annealed.
Fifty or sixty gross of them are
placed in each iron pot and heated and
cooled just as was the strip steel. the
name is then stamped on the blanks
and the pen Is ready to be formed.
Some pens have to be crushed, by
which process a little wing of steel is
bent under them.
If the pen is still soft it is necessary
to take 1t to the muffle room and again
heat 1t to a light cherry red and chill
Ii suddenly. This process, says the
New Yorh Sun, renders the pens quite
brittle, so much so indeed that they
can be readily erumbled between the
! fingers. Later on this hardness IS
drawn out by heating the steel grad
ually. AS the temperature rises 1t be-
comes more and more rough, until at
about 575 degrees 1t has the resillency
of a spring.
BY this time the pen has become
coated with an oxide. which is removed
by securing or by shaking process, by
which the roughness Is gradually
rubbed off.
The next operation is grinding, some
pens being ground twice. others three
times, in some cases by hand and In
others by automatic machinery.
The pen next passes to the Sitting
room. This operation is a very deli
cate one, as the pen is now hard and
brittle and the slit must be cut eleaniy
through the hard steel without dam
aging ii in any way.
After Sitting the pens go to the
rounding room, where they are made
perfectly round and smooth so that
no matter at what angle the pen Is
held the paper will be in tangent
to its surface and there will be no
possibility of sticking or scratching.
Every pen is now examined by an ex-
pert, so that the faulty pens which
have accumulated may be thrown out.
This is the third examination.
The pens now go back to the room
in which the oxide was removed to be
polished by the shaking process. II
they are to be colored they are placed
in tempering cylinder and heated to
the desired color.
The first heat brings them to light
straw color dark yellow, brown,
purple and then a blue shade being OBJ
tanned by increasing the heat. If the
pen is to be left white. 1t is, of course,
not reheated.
In order to preserve the pen and
prevent 1t from rusting. coat of
lacquer is put on by means of ma
chimes. II the pen is to be plated with
copper, bronze, silver or gold, 1t goes
to the plating room before the lacquer
ing operation Is begun. Plated pens