page_title: Joseph Gillott's (pens)
section_title: Beginning and development
hierarchical_section_title: Joseph Gillott's (pens) / History / Beginning and development
caption_attribution_description: English: Photography of English pen maker Joseph Gillott.
context_page_description: Joseph Gillott's was an English manufacturing company based in Birmingham founded by Joseph Gillott in 1827 that produced high-quality dip pens. In 1961, Joseph Gillott's was taken over by British Pens Ltd., becoming a brand of it. Pen lines with the Gillott's name were manufactured in the British Pens factory of West Midlands, and currently commercialised by William Mitchell Ltd, one of the brands of the corporation.
context_section_description: Joseph Gillott was a working cutler in his home town Sheffield, but in 1821 he moved to Birmingham, where he found employment in the steel toy trade, the technical name for the manufacture of steel buckles, chains and light ornamental steel-work generally.
  About 1830 he turned his attention to the manufacture of steel pens by machinery, and in 1831 patented a process for placing elongated points on the nibs of pens. Subsequently Gillott adapted the stamping press to the requirements of the manufacture, as cutting out the blanks, forming the slits, bending the metal, and impressing the maker's name on the pens. He also devised improved modes of preparing the metal for the action of the press, tempering, cleansing, and polishing, and, in short, many little details of manufacture necessary to give them the required flexibility to enable them to compete with the quill pen.
  One great difficulty to be overcome was their extreme hardness and stiffness; this was effected by making slits at the side in addition to the central one, which had previously been solely used. A further improvement, that of cross grinding the points, was subsequently adopted. The first gross of pens with three slits was sold for seven pounds. In 1830 the price was $2.00; in 1832, $1.50; in 1861, 12 cents, and a common variety for 4 cents a gross.
  The simplicity, accuracy, and readiness of the machinery employed enabled Gillott to produce steel pens in large quantities, and as he sold them at high prices he rapidly made a fortune. He ultimately employed 450 persons, who produced upwards of five tons per week, and the price was reduced from one shilling each to 4 pence a gross. His son, also Joseph, continued the family business of manufacturing steel pen nibs and continued to live in the Birmingham area, close to the large factory on Graham Street in the Jewellery Quarter, known as the Victoria Works.
caption: Joseph Gillott, founder
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