Project Gutenberg's The Story of the Invention of Steel Pens, by Henry Bore
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: The Story of the Invention of Steel Pens
With a Description of the Manufacturing Process by Which
They Are Produced
Author: Henry Bore
Posting Date: November 5, 2011 [EBook #9954]
Release Date: February, 2006
First Posted: November 4, 2003
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STORY OF INVENTION OF STEEL PENS ***
Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer.
THE STORY
OF THE INVENTION
OF STEEL PENS
WITH A DESCRIPTION OF
THE MANUFACTURING PROCESS BY
WHICH THEY ARE PRODUCED
BY HENRY BORE
LONDON
1890
In these days of Public Schools and extended facilities for popular
education it would be difficult to find many people unaccustomed to
the use of steel pens, but although the manufacture of this article by
presses and tools must have been introduced during the first quarter
of the present century, the inquirer after knowledge would scarcely
find a dozen persons who could give any definite information as to
when, where, and by whom this invention was made. Less than two
decades ago there were three men living who could have answered this
question, but two of them passed away without making any sign, and the
third--Sir Josiah Mason--has left on record that his friend and
patron--Mr. Samuel Harrison--about the year 1780, made a steel pen
for Dr. Priestley.
This interesting fact does not contribute anything toward solving the
question, Who was the first manufacturer of steel pens by mechanical
appliances? In the absence of any definite information, the balance
of testimony tends to prove that steel pens were first made by tools,
worked by a screw press, about the beginning of the third decade of
the present century, and the names associated with their manufacture
were John Mitchell, Joseph Gillott, and Josiah Mason, each, in his own
way, doing something toward perfecting the manufacture by mechanical
means.
The earliest references to pens are probably those in the Bible, and
are to be found in Judges v. 14, 1st Kings xxi. 8, Job xix. 24, Psalm
xlv. 1., Isaiah viii. 1, Jeremiah viii. 8 and xvii. 1. But these
chiefly refer to the iron stylus, though the first in Jeremiah--taken
in reference to the mention of a penknife, xxxvi. 23--would seem to
imply that a reed was in use at that period.
There is a reference to "pen and ink" in the 3d Epistle of John xiii.
5, which was written about A.D. 85, and as pens made in brass and
silver were used in the Greek and Roman Empires at that time, it is
probable that a metallic pen or reed was alluded to.
Pens and reeds made in the precious metals and bronze appear to have
been in use at the commencement of the present era. The following are
a few notable instances:
"The Queen of Hungary, in the year 1540, had a silver pen bestowed
upon her, which had this inscription upon it: _'Publii Ovidii
Calamus,'_ found under the ruins of some monument in that country, as
Mr. Sands, in the Life of Ovid (prefixed to his Metamorphosis)
relates. --_"Humane Industry; or, a History of Mechanical Arts," by
Thos. Powell, D.D.: London, 1661, page 61._"
This was probably a silver reed, and, from the locality in which it
was found, was once the property of the poet Ovid. Publius Ovidius
Naso was born in the year 43 B.C., and died 18 A.D. He was exiled at
the age of 30 to Tomi, a town south of the delta of the Danube. This
at present is in modern Bulgaria, but at the period mentioned was in
the ancient kingdom of Hungary.
From "Notes and Queries," in Birmingham _Weekly Post_, we take the
following:
"EARLY METALLIC PENS.---Metallic pens are generally supposed to have
been unknown before the early part of the last century, when gold and
silver pens are occasionally referred to as novel luxuries. I have,
however, recently found a description and an engraving of one found in
excavating Pompeii, and which is now preserved in the Museum at
Naples. It is described in the quarto volume 'Les Monuments du Musee
National de Naples, graves sur cuivre par les meillures artistes
Italienes. Texte par Domenico Monaco, Conservateur du meme Musee,
Naples, 1882,' and is in the Catalogue:
"' Plate I26 (v) Plume en bronze, taillee parfaitement a la facon de
nos plumes 0.13 cent.
"' Plate I26 (y) Plume en roseau [reed] trouvee pres d'un papyrus a
Herculaneum.'
"The former (v) is engraved to look like an ordinary reed pen, as now
used universally in the East; and the other (y) has a spear shape, or
almond shape (like many modern metallic pens), but with a sort of
fillet or ring on the stem, which indicates that the 'y' example is
not a reed, but a metallic stylus, or pen, while the 'v' example is
shown clearly as a 'reed.' The two are, however, certainly older than
A.D. 79, when Pompeii and Herculaneum were buried by the eruption of
Vesuvius."
According to Father Montfaucon, the patriarchs of Constantinople,
under the Greek Empire, were accustomed to sign their allocutions with
tubular pens of silver, similar in shape to the reed pens which are
still used by Oriental nations.
The following are translated from the French "Notes and Queries "--
L'Intermediare:_
"A METALLIC PEN IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY.--M. Reni de Bellwal, in a
very learned volume which he has published recently, on the first
campaign of Edward III. in France, says (p. 95) with respect to the
fictitious pieces (documents) fabricated by Robert d'Artois, that a
clerk of Jeanne wrote the deeds, and made use of a bronze pen to
enable him the better to disguise his writing. This plainly refers to
a pen, and not to a stylus. Is there any record of the use of
metallic pens at any period anterior to the fourteenth century? It is
very satisfactory, however, to establish (as the French used to say)
_'les preuves de 1300.'"--L'Intermediare.
In the _Vieux-Neuf_ of M. Ed. Fournier (vol. ii., p. 22, note) there
is mentioned--according to the documents used in the prosecution of
Robert d'Artois, which are in the Archives--'the bronze pen' with
which the forgers in the pay of the count wrote the false papers which
he required. M. Fournier also quotes from 'Montfaucon' 'the silver
reeds' with which the Constantinople patriarchs used to write their
letters."--CUTHBERT, _L'Intermediare,_ 1st June, 1864.
"METALLIC PENS (XV., 68).-Writing was done in the Middle Ages
sometimes with a metal _stylus,_ or perhaps with a metal pen; with the
former on wax, and with the pen on parchment or vellum. 'At Trinity
College, Cambridge, is a manuscript illustration of Eadwine, a monk of
Canterbury, and at the end the writer is represented with a metal pen
in his hand.' (See Bibliomania in the Middle Ages, p. 103). I have
in my possession a metal pen of Dutch manufacture, dating certainly
from the year 1717, mounted on the same pencilholder, with a piece of
solid plumbago, in a memorandum book of the same year."--SAM: TIMMINS.
"Mr. Le Chauvine Gal, Prior of the collegiate of St. Peter and St.
Bars at Aosta, had in his collection of Roman antiquities a bronze
pen, slit, found in a tomb, among a number of lamps and lachrymatory
vases. M. Aubert has given a drawing and description of it in a work
on Aosta. It was subsequently stolen from him by a collector."---
CHAMBERY, Un Savoyard, _L'Intermediare,_ 25th May, 1868.
"METALLIC PENS,--In a precious volume (an account of the books of the
Decretalia) preserved in the library of Saint Antoine, of Padua, the
following notice is to be found at the bottom of the last page: 'This
work is fashioned and by diligence finished for the service of God,
not with ink of quill nor with brazen reed, but with a certain
invention of printing or reproducing by John Fust, citizen of Mayence,
and Peter Schoeiffer, of Gernsheim, Dec. 17th, 1465, A.D.' Here,
then, we have a document proving the existence of metallic pens in the
Middle Ages. But has any such pen come down to us? If so, could a
detailed description of it be obtained? On the other hand, I am
curious to know if it is possible that platinum was used in the
eighteenth century in the manufacture of pens, or whether it is
necessary to attribute a peculiar meaning to the 'platinum pen' in the
following passage of the system of shorthand by Bertin (edit. of the
year iv., p. 93) (1793). 'Those of steel and platinum are most
convenient; these latter have the advantage of all others, in that
they hold the ink a long time, and run over the paper easily, and are
not liable to corrosion by any simple acid.' I am ignorant of what
the same author means when he mentions the endless pen, which would
certainly be the best. "'--J. CAMUS, _L'Intermediare._
"Metallic pens were used before the fifteenth century; they were in
use at the court of Augustus." See _L'Intermed._ (I. 69, 94, 141; II.
319.) Consult also _Le Vieux-Neuf_ Ed. Fournier.--A.D.
The following extracts show there have been several claimants, on the
Continent, who profess to have invented metallic pens, made from
steel, in the early part of the eighteenth century; but the reader had
better suspend his judgment until he has read the notes that follow
them:
"A manuscript, entitled 'Historical Chronicle of Aix-la-Chapelle,
second book, 1748,' places on record the claims of Johann Janssen, a
magistrate of that place, as the inventor of steel pens. 'Just at the
meeting of the congress [after the Austrian war] I may without boasting,
claim the honour of having invented a new pen. It is, perhaps,
not an accident that God should have inspired me at the present time
with the idea of making steel pens, for all the envoys here assembled
have bought the first that have been made; therewith, as may be hoped,
to sign a treaty of peace, which, with God's blessing, shall be as
permanent as the hard steel with which it is written. Of these pens,
as I have invented them, no man hath before seen or heard. If kept
clean and free from rust and ink, they will continue fit for use for
many years. Indeed, a man may write twenty reams of paper with one,
and the last line would be written as well as the first. They are now
sent into every corner of the world as a rare thing--to Spain, France,
England and Holland. Others will no doubt make imitations of my pens,
but I am the man who first invented and made them. I have sold a
great number of them at home and abroad at 1s. each, and I dispose of
them as quickly as I can make them."'
In an article on Writing Instruments, which appeared in the Berlin
_Paper Zeitung,_ on the 19th of May, 1887, the author says:
"A school teacher of Koningberg, named Burger, in the year 1808, made
pens from metal, but he got poor by his trials. After this time, and
probably imitating the pens of Burger, the English began to take in
hand the manufacture of pens; _especially Perry,_ he having perfected
the pens, as he did not restrict himself to the simple straight slit,
but he made cuts in the sides of different kinds."
In a pamphlet upon the manufacture of steel pens, published in Paris,
in 1884, the writer says:
"The invention of the metallic pen is due to a French mechanic--
Arnoux--who lived in the eighteenth century, who made as far back as
1750 a number of metallic pens as a curiosity. This invention did not
have any immediate result in France but spread to England, and became
in Birmingham, about 1830, a very prosperous industry. A very curious
fact about this trade is that, in England, it does not exist out of
Birmingham, where there are about ten manufactories. In France it has
become localized in Boulogne."
There is also the "nameless Sheffield Artisan," who so frequently
figures in newspaper paragraphs as the inventor of steel pens; and
William Gadsby, a mathematical instrument maker, who for his own use
constructed a clumsy article from the mainspring of a watch; but it is
not till the beginning of the eighteenth century that we get anything
authentic respecting the making of metallic pens. "Este," writing in
"Local Notes and Queries" _(Birmingham Weekly Post)_ mentions a
remarkable little volume supplied to the members of the States General
of Holland, in the possession of Mr. W. Bragge, of Sheffield, dated
1717. It contained a silver pencil case, in two parts, one holding a
piece of plumbago, mounted like a crayon, and the other a _metallic
pen._ We have seen this unique book (now the property of Mr. Sam:
Timmins). The pen is of the barrel shape, apparently silver, and it
must be regarded as the earliest authentic metallic pen. Of the date
there can be no doubt, as the pen is made to pass through loops in the
cover of the volume to keep it closed, after the manner of pocket
books, and the book bears the date, printed on the title page, 1717.
Pope, about the same time, received from Lady Frances Shirley a
present of a standish, containing a STEEL and a gold pen. In
acknowledging the receipt of this present, the poet wrote an ode, in
which the following lines occur:
"Take at this hand celestial arms;
Secure the radiant weapons wield;
This _golden_ lance shall guard desert,
And, if a vice dares keep the field,
This _steel_ shall stab it to the heart.
Awed, on my bended knees I fell,
Received the weapons of the sky,
And dipped them in the sable well--
The fount of fame or infamy.
What well? What weapon? Flavia cries,
A standish, _steel and golden pen!_
It came from _Bertrand's,_* not the skies,
I gave it you to write again."
*_Bertrand_ kept a fancy shop in Bath. He died in 1755. His wife is
mentioned by Horace Walpole, in his letter to George Montague, May
18th, 1749, which letter is printed in his Correspondence.
In No. 503 of the _Spectator,_ bearing the date of October 7, 1712,
Steele, mentioning the conspicuous manner in which a certain lady
conducted herself in church, says:
"For she fixed her eyes upon the preacher, and as he said anything she
approved, with one of Charles Mather's fine tablets, she set down the
sentence, at once showing her fine hand, the _gold pen,_ her readiness
in writing, and her judgments in choosing what to write."
Edmund Waller, about the middle of the seventeenth century,
acknowledged the receipt of a _silver pen_ from a lady, in the
following verses:
"Madam! intending to have try'd,
The silver favour which you gave,
In ink the shining point I dy'd,
And drench'd it in the sable wave
When, grieved to be so foully stained,
On you it thus to me complained.
So I, the wronged pen to please,
Made it my humble thanks express
Unto your Ladyship, in these,
And now 'tis forced to confess
That your great self did ne'er indite
Nor that to me more noble write."
Mr. G. A. Lomas, writing to the _Scientific American,_ November 23,
1878, says:
"I write to inquire if you can give me information concerning the
manufacture of metal pens in this country. I may be vain in the
supposition, but I am persuaded that my people--the Shakers--were the
originators of metal pens. I write this to you with a silver pen, one
slit, that was made in the vear 1819, at this village, by the Shakers.
Two or three years previously to the use of silver pens, our people
used brass plates for their manufacture, but soon found silver
preferable. Some people sold these pens in the year 1819, at this
village, for twenty-five cents, and disposed of all that could be
made."
The writer further says the metal was made from silver coins.
This communication called forth the following from another
correspondent:
"The letter in the _Scientific American,_ November 23, 1878, with
regard to the early manufacture of steel pens, reminds me of the
following note which appeared in the _Boston Mechanic,_ for August, 1835.
'The inventor of steel pens,' says the _Journal of Commerce,_ was an
American and a well-known resident of our city (New York), Mr. Peregrine
Williamson. In the year 1800, Mr.W., then a working jeweler, at
Baltimore, while attending an evening school, finding some difficulty
in making a quill pen to suit him, made one of steel. It would not
write well, however, for want of flexibility. After a while he made
an additional slit on each side of the main one, and the pens were so
much improved that Mr. W. was called to make them in such numbers as
to eventually occupy his whole time, and that of a journeyman. At
first the business was very profitable and enabled Mr. W. to realize
for the labor of himself and journeyman a clear profit of six hundred
dollars per month. The English soon borrowed the invention, and some
who first engaged in the business realized immense fortunes."'
We do not know how much reliance may be placed upon this statement,
but, if the last assertion "that those who first engaged in the
business realized immense fortunes" may be taken as a test, the whole
must be received with a grain of salt. The letter appeared in the
_Boston Mechanic,_ in 1835, and at that date there were penmakers who
had made a modest competence, but in no case were they possessed of
immense fortunes.
In London _Notes and Queries,_ the following appears respecting early
steel pens:
"THE FIRST STEEL PEN.--(5th S., iii., 395.) Ten years before Dr.
Priestley was born steel pens were in use. There are references to
them in the Diary of John Byrom, who required them when writing
short-hand. In a letter to his sister Phoebe, dated August, 1723, he
mentions them as follows: 'Alas! alas! I cannot meet with a steel pen,
no manner of where I believe I have asked at 375 places, but that
which I have is at your service, as the owner himself always is."'
(Remains, Vol. i., 39.)
Mr. Ralph N. James, writing to _Notes and Queries,_ gives the
following extract from the very amusing "journey to Paris," by Dr.
Martin Lister, 1698:
"There was one thing very curious, and that was a _Writing lnstrument_
of thick and strong silver wire, bound up like a hollow button or
screw, with both ends pointing one way, and at a distance, so that a
man might easily put his forefinger betwixt the two points, and the
point divided in two, just like _our steel pens."_--_London Notes and
Queries,_ vol. iii., page 346.
This note caused another writer, Mr. C.A. Ward, to send the following:
"STEEL PENS.--The extract given from Dr. M. Lister's, by Mr. Ralph N.
James, is very interesting. The doctor there speaks of _'our steel
pens,'_ as if they were not at all uncommon. When the poet
Churchill's effects were sold up, after his death, Nov. 10, 1764, they
fetched extravagant prices; 'a common steel pen' brought L.5."
--_London Notes and Queries,_ vol iii., page 474.
The following extract from _London Notes and Queries_ gives very
plausible reasons against placing confidence in the preceding and
other notices of ancient steel pens:
"STEEL PENS. (5th S., vol. iii., pp. 346, 474.) May I ask whether, in
giving the interesting references to the use of _steel pens_ before
the time of Priestley (one reference even going so far back as the
seventeenth century) your correspondents have carefully considered
what is meant by the terms. For my own part (of course I maybe quite
wrong) I should naturally have anticipated _steel pens_ in these
references to mean not the modern steel nib for ordinary penmanship,
but the ancient steel pen for drawing lines or ruling circles, such as
is contained in every box of mathematical instruments. This would
explain (to some extent) the great price fetched for a good one of
Churchill's; a mere old steel nib would scarcely enter into a sale at
all. It would explain, too, why a special process of hardening should
be applied to a quill, in order to make it do duty for the steel
instrument. One would scarcely think of hardening a quill in order to
enable it to compete with a steel nib in some of the least desirable
qualities, though one often wishes one could accomplish the reverse
process, and soften or supple a steel 'stick frog,' so as to give it
the elasticity of the grey goose quill. "--V. H. I. L. L. C. IV. (iv.,
37, 5th S., _London Notes and Queries._)
Mr. R. Prosser, author of "Birmingham Inventors and Inventions," in
writing to the compiler of this work, says:
"It has often occurred to me that some of the very early references to
metallic pens may perhaps mean the draughtsman's 'ruling pen,' and not
an instrument made after the fashion of a quill pen with a slit in it.
That it is possible to write with such an instrument this paragraph
will show, but I must admit that it is not equal to one of Perry's
J's."
From an entry in "Pepys' Diary," October 24, 1660, _drawing pens_
appear to have been in use in London, at the time of the Restoration:
"To Mr. Lilly's, where, not finding Mr. Spong, I went to Mr.
Greatorex, where I met him, and where I bought a _drawing pen._"
In London _Notes and Queries_ (4th S., xi., 440), the Rev. E.
Smedley, editor of the _Encyclopoedia Metropolitana,_ writing to his
friend, Mr. H. Hawkins, April 10, 1833, says:
"The process of nibbing and shaving is one which I always abominated,
and for years past I have taken refuge under the _Perryian_ pens. The
one with which I now write has been in use daily, and all day long,
for more than a fortnight, and I consider that it still owes me quite
as much worth as it has already furnished. Every packet contains nine
pens, and on an average two out of that number fail to suit my hand,
but the remaining seven are faithful servants, and their price is 2s."
In _London Notes and Queries_ (4th S., xii., 57) a writer says:
"I bought my first steel pen from Bramah, Piccadilly, in 1825. The
price was 1s. 6d. It was very thick and hard, with very little
elasticity. In 1829 I read advertised in the _Times,_ steel pens,
with holder, 3s. per dozen, at Kendal's, in Holborn. They were hand
made, and much easier to write with than Bramah's. Soon after the
price fell, and steel pens became common."
In _London Notes and Queries (4th S., x., 309), October 19, 1872, Mr.
William Bates, speaking of a visit he paid to an old lady, at Studley
(Worcestershire) about 1825, says that he saw an exquisitely-finished
inkstand of pure gold, the gift of one of the Earls of Plymouth to her
father, 100 years before. The inkstand was provided with a jointed
gold penholder, terminating in a barrel (one slit) pen, resembling the
metallic pen of the present day, except that he found that it would
not write.
In "Local Notes and Queries," published in the _Birmingham Journal and
Weekly Post,_ there have appeared a number of contributions relating
to the early manufacture of steel pens. We reproduce them here. A
correspondent writing on June 22, 1869, says: "Daniel Fellows, of
Sedgley, made steel pens about 1800."
Another writer, on the same date, says, "The first makers of steel
pens were John Edwards, Hill Street, and Francis Heeley, Mount Street,
Birmingham."
Respecting, the former of these, in _Wrightson's Birmingham Directory,
1823, the following advertisement appears: "John Edwards, manufacturer
of improved gold, silver, and _elastic sleel pens,_ mounted in all
kinds of cases, and desk handles, No. 40 Hill Street. N.B.--The pens
are warranted to write exceedingly fine and free."
This advertisement contained engravings of a barrel and "nibbed" or
"slip" pen.
J. Sargent, writing from Tettenhall, June 28, 1869, says:
"A journeyman blacksmith, named Fellows, of Sedgley, was the first
originator of steel pens. I resided at Sedgley in 1822, when Sheldon,
Fellows's apprentice, made some of these pens. He made two for me. I
wrote very well with them. Sheldon himself told me that Mr. Gillott
commenced making the pen from seeing some of his (Sheldon's) make."
Some one writing under the _nom de plume_ of "Un Qui Sait," says:
"I distinctly recollect, about the year 1806, being at Fellows's home
in Sedgley, and there seeing Thomas Sheldon, his apprentice, making
steel pens. He knew of an entry in his books of pens bought from
Fellows in 1807. He paid Sheldon L.100 in 1822. He believed Fellows
made pens in 1793. Beilby and Knott (Birmingham stationers) sold
these pens in considerable quantities from 1818 to 1828. Sheldon
continued the trade until it was destroyed through inability to
compete with the machine-made pens of Mitchell and Gillott."
Another writer, "T. S.," says:
"In 1815, an uncle of mine used to purchase these pens from Sheldon,
of Sedgley. The price was eighteen shillings per dozen, ten per cent.
for cash. They were barrel shape. B. Smith and Co. had in their
pattern book of engravings of steel toys a drawing of one of these
pens, which were sold at thirty shillings per dozen; also one in a
bone handle, the top of which screwed off, for carrying in the pocket,
at thirty-six shillings per dozen."
Another correspondent, writing on July 24, 1869, mentions (on
authority of the late Mr. Alderman Yates) that an old man named
Spittle made steel pens before any of the present makers.
In note 319 this man Spittle is mentioned by another writer, who says:
"A man named Spittle, one of the earliest makers of steel pens, lived
in Chequers' Walk, Bath Row, Birmingham. He made steel pens for sale,
and charged one shilling each for them. They were made with a tube to
fit on a quill. I bought one from him forty-five years ago (1824)."
"E.W.," writing in 1869, says:
"In 1821 there was a B. Smith, steel toy maker, St. Paul's [Mary's]
Square, Birmingham. He had a book of engravings of steel toys, among
which were steel pens, made to screw on and off. This pattern book
might have been one hundred years old. I sold his pens in 1823."
The Editor of "Notes and Queries" says "Smith's pattern book was
probably fifty years old," and further remarks that steel pens must
have been a regular article of manufacture before they appeared in a
steel toy maker's pattern book.
"C.J.," in note 372, says:
"The pattern book of John Barnes, Eagle Works, Wolverhampton, contains
engravings of early steel pens."
Mr. Robert Griffin says:
"In 1824 I wrote very much with a steel pen made under the direction
of James Perry--a pen that lasted about eight or nine weeks, writing
eight hours a day."
In note 344, "Anon" says he remembered his father (who had premises in
Water Street, Birmingham), in the summer of 1823, bringing a tall,
quiet, respectable man to the manufactory. He had a piece of iron, or
steel, which he required to be cut up into strips of about two inches
wide. The man said he was going to get the strips rolled to make into
steel pens. He gave the writer of the note sixpence and a barrel pen
for his trouble. In answer to inquiries the writer put to his father,
the latter stated he did not know the man's name nor where he lived,
but "that he met with him in a smoke room, where he (the father)
sometimes spent his evenings." The writer further remarks: "Where the
man had got his ideas from which induced him to try his hand at making
steel pens I do not know, but I have an impression that there were
several experimenters in existence at that time; and very soon
afterward Mr. William (Joseph) Gillott, with whom my father was on
terms of intimacy, came into notice as a maker of steel pens." This
is a very important statement, as it fixes a date respecting pens
being made from sheet steel.
One of the oldest toolmakers in the trade has informed us that, about
the year 1823 or 1824, he was frequently taken by his father to visit
an uncle named Clulee, who rented power at the Water Street mill. On
these occasions his father and uncle would talk about the visits of
Gillott to the latter, and the hopeful manner in which he spoke of the
experiments he was then making. Gillott rented power at the Water
Street mill, and was engaged in grinding and finishing penknife
blades, which were inserted in one end of a silver pencil case, which
his relative--Mitchell--was then making.
Now, who was this "tall, quiet, respectable man?" It could not have
been Gillott, as he was not tall and the father of "Anon" knew him;
and Mitchell was also a short man. We have failed to trace him, and
his identity is lost among the "sowers" who failed to reap the harvest
of their inventions.
Mr. George Wallis, speaking of steel pens, remarks:
"I wrote with one when a boy (1822 to 1826), having found several in a
stock of old steel waste in the warehouse of a relative, a retired
ornamental steel worker, at Wolverhampton. These pens were made (so I
was told) for the London market, late in the last or early in the
present century. Certainly they were made fifteen or, perhaps, twenty
years, when I found them, as the manufactory in which they had been
produced had been closed the former number of years. They consisted
of a holder of steel, with flutings and facets. One was solid and
tapered to lighten it; the other had a barrel with an internal screw.
The pen had two screws; one was used to screw the pen into the barrel
for use, and the other to secure it when turned inwards as a protection
when not in use, or to carry in the pocket."
The following letter from Mr. Alderman Manton to Mr. Sam: Timmins
makes us acquainted with another manufacturer of steel pens:
"THE METAL PENS OF 1823.--In a badly-constructed and unsanitary
manufactory (Mr. James Collins's), at the back of 119 Suffolk Street,
(Birm.), I witnessed the process of making silver and _steel_ pens.
As both metals were manufactured in the same manner, one description
will serve. It will be remembered by a few that at that time there
was a patent silver pencil case somewhat extensively manufactured,
which in addition to the pencil, had a penknife, _pen_ and toothpick
provided. The penknife was supplied by two brothers--_Joseph and
William Gillott_--who at that time rented a small shop in a corner of
the yard belonging to the rolling mill of George and P.F. Muntz, Water
Street, and from whose engine they obtained the small amount of steam
power needed. The process of making the pens was as follows: Two
narrow strips were cut from a sheet of silver or steel; they were then,
by the help of the hammer and a lead cake, or piece of hard wood,
curved. Afterwards the two strips were placed opposite to each other
on a well-polished steel wire, and drawn through a draw-plate, the
wire and plate being supplied by Wm. Billings, a celebrated tool
manufacturer, occupying premises near the top of Snow Hill (Birm.).
By the aid of a press, a small hole was made at a distance of half an
inch or five-eighths from the end, the slit was then made by a fine
saw made of watch springs. A bent pair of shears was used for cutting
the end of strip into the shape of a pen; and a half-round file or
smooth was used for finishing the pen. The pen was then sawn off the
strip by the same saw which was used for slitting the pen. The only
hardening process was the friction of the draw-plate and steel wire.
I not only witnessed the process, but was a manipulator. The cost of
making at that time, by a journeyman, was 2d. each; by an apprentice,
about one-third of that amount. Within less than thirty years of that
time, in a manufactory adjoining my own, pens were made and sold
(wholesale) at 2d. per gross, and a box containing them into the
bargain." _(Signed)_ Henry Manton, September 15, 1886.
Mr. T. Vary writes that James Perry began making steel pens in
Manchester, and quotes the _Saturday Magazine_ to show that metallic
pens were given by him as rewards of merit in schools as far back as
1819.
Mr. James Cocker, writing in the _Sheffield Daily Telegraph,_ in 1869,
says: "That he rolled steel wire for James Perry for penmaking in
1829."
The death of Mr. Gillott seems to have revived the discussion of the
origin of steel pens, and a correspondent in the Sheffield _Daily
Telegraph,_ in the issue of January 11, 1872, in the following letter,
puts forth a claim on behalf of a Sheffield man:
"The well-written and well-merited memoir of the late Mr. Gillott, the
Birmingham steel pen maker, which has just appeared in the newspapers,
affords a curious and instructive illustration of the success which
not seldom attends the combined action of ingenuity, industry,
shrewdness, and integrity among our labouring classes. Born in the
humblest rank of our local workmen, a steady scholar in our Boys'
Lancasterian School, and apprenticed to a scissors grinder, the deceased
worked his way upwards into a position of influence and opulence as a
manufacturer, which entitled him to take social rank with the merchant
princes of the land. And if his name has long since ceased to be
familiar among his once contemporary workmen in Sheffield, and is not
even mentioned in the Directory, it has for several years past been
recognized and respected by the visitors at the annual exhibitions of
our School of Art, in connection with the many rare and valuable pictures
lent by him on those occasions. The printed _fac-simile_ of the
autograph appeared in the 'advertising columns' of almost every newspaper
in the world, and perhaps, as an expert might have said, was
characteristic. In the admirable account of his life above referred
to stress is laid upon one prominent and praiseworthy feature of his
character, viz., his readiness to acknowledge the obscurity of his
origin and the steps of his industrial success. In those details no
mention is made of his Sheffield master and predecessor in the
ingenious art of steel pen making. And as the notice alluded to is
without dates, it is difficult to furnish information on the material
point of priority, though the fact of supremacy in the trade is clear
enough. In one of the columns of Lardner's Cyclopedia, published in
1833, the names of Perry, Heeley, and Skinner are mentioned as steel
pen makers. With the latter, who if he did not make wealth, certainly
earned a wide reputation for the low price and excellent temper of his
'steel nibs,' Mr. Gillett was a workman, in Nursery Street, Sheffield,
having gone with his master from the scissors grinding stone to the
making of polished steel ornaments for ladies' work, then fashionable.
How much, in what way, or whether at all, he was indebted to his
experience in Mr. Skinner's establishment may be questionable, but
that he learnt and first saw practised in Sheffield the art that
ultimately enriched him in Birmingham, he would probably be the last
to deny. It is well remembered by a worthy dealer in almost every
useful article, from a mouse-trap to a railroad wagon, that Gillott,
soon after his establishment in Birmingham, came into our townsman's
shop, and seeing on the counter a model steam engine of half-horse
power, at once purchased and carried it off to give motion to some
part of his pen machinery. Brass pens were made in Sheffield before
the close of the last century. They mostly accompanied an 'inkpot,'
called from its users an 'exciseman.' The writer of this paragraph
himself made hundreds of dozens of them, which, however, be never
used, nor steel ones either, as long as he could get a 'goose quill,'
good, bad or indifferent. The matter of slitting the nib was kept
secret by Skinner, and the double slit of Gillott more than doubled
the value of his old master's invention; but a 'four-slit' pen, _i.e.,
with five points,_ if possible to make, would be useless. The
earliest experimenter in form and material was Perry, flexibility
being the great desideratum; but it is curious to see how world-wide a
currency Gillott's name and trade have given to the simplest shape;
and still more curious to note how the makers of writing ink and paper
have conformed these articles to the requirements of the uses of the
steel pen. It is always gratifying, and not unprofitable, to contrast
the small and feeble beginnings of any manufacturing enterprise with a
large and well-merited success."
This communication appears to have caused a Mr. William Levesley to
call upon the writer of the preceding epistle, and the following which
appeared in the _Sheffield Daily Telegraph,_ January 30, 1872, was
written:
"I have to thank you for the insertion of my queries as to the early
connection of Sheffield with steel pen making. In consequence of the
appearance of my letter in the _Telegraph,_ a cutlery manufacturer of
the name of William Levesley, called upon me, and informed me that he
was not only an early associate with the late Mr. Gillott, of
Birmingham, but the first person who made a steel pen out of London.
Stress has been laid upon Gillott's ability 'to forge and grind a
knifeblade.' It is not likely he ever used the hammer on hot steel,
but he was when young, and working with father, accounted an excellent
penknife grinder; Skinner being a scissors grinder, and Levesley a
workboard hand for the same master. A man of the name of Mitchell
having married Gillott's mother, went to Birmingham, and began the
cutlery business, the latter removing thither to grind for his father-
in-law. His brother had also gone thither, and commenced making an
article that had some run, and may be said to have united the
ingenious handicrafts of Birmingham, viz., the insertion of a penknife
blade at the end of a silver pencil case. Meanwhile, about the year
1825, Levesley saw a steel pen, made by Perry, of London, in Ridge's
shop window, in High Street. He bought it for one shilling, and
immediately set about making tools to imitate and improve upon it. He
spent, he said, L.30 in not unsuccessful, though unremunerative,
experiments. The flypress was at least as well known in Sheffield as
in Birmingham, and its power was at once brought into requisition to
work the tools for shaping, bending, and slitting the pens which were
made out of sheet steel, Perry's being made out of thick wire, rolled
flat, by Cocker, in Nursery Street. In 1829, Levesley was making pens
for sale, and that year is said to be the earliest date of actual
sales in Skinner's ledger. In 1831 he was doing a considerable
business in Sheffield, and making experiments upon the article, as
appears from specimens before me bearing his name. Stress has been
laid upon the improvement of the double slit, introduced by Gillott,
but if Levesley's statement is to be taken literally, he was the
inventor of a specialty upon which, even more than on excellence of
material, the merit of a steel pen is found to depend, viz., the
grinding of a small hollow at the back of the nib, and about the
eighth of an inch from the point. My informant described not only the
beneficial action of this thinning of the metal, as well in yielding
the gradual flow of the ink as in flexibility of writing, but the
pleasure with which he took a specimen to Birmingham to show Gillott,
and the surprise of the latter at so great and so beneficial an
effect, provided by so small a cause. He at once adopted an
improvement of which every pen made by him bears evidence; and when
his friend visited him he told him he had fifty women employed in
grinding pen points. It is pleasant to add that Gillott never visited
Sheffield without calling to see his old friend Levesley, while the
latter spoke of his early and later life with respect and
commendation, especially in his domestic relations. It is pleasing to
review a life of such humble beginnings, culminating in opulence and
usefulness like that of the late Joseph Gillott, of Birmingham; nor is
it less to name in connection therewith, as an early experimenter in
steel pen making, our worthy townsman, William Levesley, to whose
ingenious improvement every writer is so much indebted, and of whose
verbal communication to me the foregoing is an imperfect sketch."
Now, in this statement, there are some dales given, but others are
omitted, and that is a very unfortunate circumstance. Levesley told
the writer of the article in the _Sheffield Daily Telegraph_ that he
made use of the fly press for working tools for shaping, bending, and
slitting pens. If the writer had only given the date of this it would
have been a valuable contribution toward a history of the invention.
The claim of Levesley to having invented the process of grinding pens
and teaching Gillott seems, to say the least, curious, because the
latter was a Sheffield grinder, and the idea would certainly be quite
as likely to occur to Gillott as Levesley. Besides, why did Levesley
communicate the idea to Gillott in preference to Skinner, with whom he
had business relations? The statement that Gillott had fifty girls
employed when Levesley* called upon him on his next visit to
Birmingham looks like a mistake. Fifty girls would grind on an
average seven thousand gross of pens in a week, and as this
correspondence appears to refer to the early part of Gillott's career,
it is scarcely possible that such a number of pens were produced
weekly at that period. Besides, as a matter of fact, boys were, in
the first instance, employed to grind pens.
* Mr. Sam: Timmins says, "that Levesley told him that Gillott started
in Birmingham as a jobbing cutler; that Mitchell had the secret of pen
making; that Mitchell sent for Gillott to come to Birmingham, and that
he (J.G.) first lived at the top of Water Street; that Gillott began
to make pens in Bread Street; that Perry made pens from flattened
steel wire, the breadth of the pen (the steel was 3s. 6d. per lb., and
drawn at Old Ford); that he had seen cross grinding (at Gillott's) in
Newhall Street, and fifty women at work; and that pens had double
slits and cut holes. Levesley certainly knew all the Gillott family,
personally, in Sheffield, and he (S. T.) had a long interview with him
shortly before his death, when he mentioned all the facts given here."
Herr Ignaz Nagel, in his "Report on Writing, Drawing, and Painters'
Requisites," at the Vienna Exhibition, 1873, says:
"From careful inquiries that we made in Birmingham, we learned that a
knife cutler, of Sheffield, was the first man who had the idea of
making pens of steel, and that a tinman of the name of Skipper
[Skinner], of Sheffield, afterwards manufactured the pens in great
quantities. His son developed the idea still further. This,
according to our informant, was fifty years ago. A steel pen artisan,
working in Birmingham, remembers perfectly well reading the
announcement in a window of the High Street, in Sheffield, 1816:
'Steel pens are repaired here at sixpence apiece.' There was a man
named Spittle, in Birmingham, who used to make steel pens by hand. He
was succeeded by the brothers John and William Mitchell, who were
manufacturers of steel pens, wholesale and by machinery, about forty-
five years ago. Perry came afterwards, and took out a patent for the
first steel pens, and after him Gillott, who had learnt the business
with the Mitchells."
A writer in _Herbert's Encyclopoedia_ published in 1837, says
"The first decided attempt to introduce metallic pens to general use
was made by Mr. Wise, whose perpetual pens will doubtless be
remembered by many of our readers. The name of Wise was rendered
conspicuous in most of our stationers' shops some twenty-five or thirty
years since, as the original inventor and general manufacturer of the
steel pens."
We stated at the beginning of this article that of three men--
Mitchell, Gillott, and Mason--who might have done something toward
fixing the date of the invention of manufacturing pens by the
adaptation of tools worked by the screw press, only one--Mason--made a
statement:
"The first making of steel pens that I know of was about the year
1780, by my late friend Mr. Harrison, for Dr. Priestley. He took
sheet steel, made a tube of it, and the part joined formed the slit of
the pen. He then filed away the barrel and formed the pen. I found
some of the identical pens amongst other articles and used them for a
long time.
"The second mode of making pens was by punching a rough blank out of
thin sheet steel. This blank formed the well-known barrel pen. It
was brought into the barrel shape by rounding, but before rounding it
had to be filed into a better form about the nib, and when rounded in
the soft state, a sharp chisel was used to mark the inside of the pen
which became the slit, after hardening. Before tempering, this mark
was 'tabbered' with a small hammer, and it would crack where the
inside mark was made. Then it was tempered and underwent grinding,
and shaping the nib until a point suitable for fine or broad, as
required.
"I made barrel pens in 1828, and 'slip' pens for Perry in 1829, and
the first lot of 100 at _one time_ was sent November 20, 1830.
Frequently, lots of 20 or 30 gross were sent between 1829 and 1830, and
in 1831 I sent pens to Perry amounting to L.1421, 1s. 3d.
"Perry certainly never made a pen as they are now made, viz., the
_slit cut _with press tools; all he made were _cracked_ slit.
"I made steel barrel pens some time before I made 'slip' pens for
Perry.
"It is doubtful when metal pens were made. The first I know of were
made by Mr. Harrison, for Dr. Priestley. Perry was certainly not the
first maker of steel pens, but I have no doubt that he was the first
steel _slip pen_ maker, and no doubt the first to use a _goose quill_
for a pen holder, hence the slip pen.
"The first stick pen holders I made for Perry in 1832, and for Gillott
in 1835, and sold sticks to Gillott in 1840--L.293 18s. 7d."
Mason claimed to have made barrel pens for Perry, of London, in 1828,
and "slip or nibbed" pens in 1829; but he does not appear to have made
any claim to priority of invention over Mitchell and Gillott.
Now, although Mitchell made no claim himself, on the death of Mr.
Gillott the following letter appeared in the _Daily Post:_
"The remarks which have appeared in a local paper upon the death of
Mr. J. Gillott, that the steel pen owes its existence to him, and that
the adaptation of machinery to the manufacture of metallic pens was
his invention, lead the public to wrong conclusions. It is due to the
memory of my late father--John Mitchell--that I should state that he
not only made steel pens, but used machinery in their production, for
some time before Mr. Gillott commenced in that branch of business."
--HENRY MITCHELL, January 12, 1872.
In October, 1876, Mr. Henry Mitchell writes to _Aris's Gazette,_ and
says:
"You review, in your impression of the 23d inst., a work entitled
'British Manufacturing Industries--the Birmingham Trades,' in which
the history of steel pens forms a prominent chapter. I beg to point
out that my late father's name--John Mitchell--is certainly mentioned
in a list of the manufacturers of the article, and, to my great
surprise, simply so. In a part of the work the author states that
'The early history of steel pens is involved in obscurity.' My object
in writing to you is to remove that obscurity, as I am satisfied you
will be equally desirous of giving honor to whom honor is due. I
claim that honor for my late father--John Mitchell--who was the first
to introduce the making of steel pens by means of tools, which were
purely his own invention, and I will leave it to an enlightened public
to judge if it is not one of the greatest benefits conferred on any
civilized community. Whatever others may have done does not remove
the fact that the inventor I have named was my father; and it is only
due to him that posterity should know who originated the means whereby
millions of human beings of the present time, and generations yet unborn
are, and will be, enabled to communicate their thoughts to each
other with a facility they otherwise would not have had. For, unless
the steel pen had been manufactured by tools and machinery, that useful
article would virtually be at a prohibitory price. The date of
the invention I believe to be 1822 or thereabouts."
This is very emphatic; but how far may it be taken as an unprejudiced
statement of facts? Well, it has never been contradicted; and Gillott
never made a claim on his own behalf, as having made pens before
Mitchell. Mason gave the year 1828 as the date when he commenced
making pens, so that the evidence is in favor of Mitchell.
We have heard this statement of Henry Mitchell confirmed by a man who
worked for Mitchell, as a boy, and who remembered pens being made for
Sheldon by Mitchell. It is probable at this early period the pens
were made for a few dealers, and the general public was unacquainted
with the names of the manufacturers. This circumstance has no doubt
contributed to involve in obscurity the early operations of Mitchell
and Gillott. In a notice in _Lardner's Cyclopoedia_ (written by Mr.
John Holland, of Sheffield), published in 1833, the names of three
penmakers only are given--Perry, Heeley, and Skinner. From this it
might be supposed that there were no other penmakers at this date; but
Gillott had taken out a patent in 1831, and the names of both Mitchell
and Gillott appeared as penmakers in _Wrightson's Birmingham
Directory_ for 1830. It cannot be supposed that Mr. Holland wilfully
omitted to mention the names of Mitchell and Gillott, for this writer
was an impartial and painstaking collector of facts, but it is
probable the notice was written some time before it was published;
and, like many little masters, Mitchell and Gillot were only known as
penmakers to the wholesale dealers in Birmingham, upon whom they
depended for orders, consequently Mr. Holland would be ignorant of
their existence.
In speaking of the demand for steel pens, the writer in Lardner's
says: "The rage originated chiefly, if not altogether, in the
successful speculations of Mr. James Perry, of London, whose pens,
however short their merits may fall of the praise of the inventor, are
certainly superior to most others composed of a like material. Perry
began to make steel pens, in Manchester, in 1819, and in London in
1824." The press and tools with which these pens were made are still
in the possession of Perry and Co., at their warehouse in the Holburn
Viaduct. This fact tends to confirm the statement that Mr. James
Perry was one of the earliest experimenters in the manufacture of the
article. Levesley says he bought one of Perry's pens, which he saw in
a shop window in Sheffield, in 1825, and he took it to his workshop
and improved upon it. This is somewhat similar to the account given by
Mason of his first experiment in pen making. Mason saw a pen of
Perry's in the window of a bookseller named Peart, in Bull Street,
Birmingham, in 1828, which he purchased and took home. Finding he
could produce a better article, which could be sold at a cheaper rate,
he made some and sent them to Mr. James Perry, in, London, and that
gentleman shortly after waited upon Josiah Mason, at his place of
business in Lancaster Street, and the interview resulted in Mason
beginning to make pens for Perry. It will be remembered that the
writer in the _Sheffield Daily Telegraph_ stated that the earliest
experimenter in form and material was Perry.
Leaving the honor of having originated the application of labor-saving
machinery for the manufacture of steel pens to Mitchell, it would
appear that the merit of having popularized the article is due to
Perry. In 1830, Mr. James Perry issued a circular containing a series
of engravings of metallic pens, showing the improvements he had
patented in their manufacture. In this circular it is stated: "Till
about six months ago the public had heard little of metallic pens. At
present, it would seem that comparatively few of any other kind are in
the hands of any class of the community. This sudden transition may
clearly be traced to the announcement of the Patent Perryian Pens in
various periodicals, about six months ago, and to the general demand
which ensued for that pen in every part of the empire,"
Although this might be regarded as an _ex-parte_ statement, it is
confirmed by independent testimony that Perry popularized the article.
The _Saturday Magazine,_ 1838, says:
"About twelve years ago (1825), the celebrated Perryian pens first
appeared. Mr. Perry may be regarded in the light of a great improver;
many of his pens are ingenious and original in construction. He
arranges his pens into _genera_ and _species._ Mr. Perry first overcame
the rigidity complained of in steel pens by introducing apertures
between the shoulder and point of the pen, thus transferring the
elasticity of the pen to a position below instead of above the
shoulder. This was the subject of his patent in 1830."
Mr. Sam: Timmins, in 1866, writes:
"No skill in manufacture, however, could conquer the prejudice against
any metallic pen, and to Mr. James Perry the world is much indebted
for persevering advocacy of the steel pen, and for one of the most
important improvements in its form. Mr. Perry, with his characteristic
energy, almost forced the steel pen into use, and was supplied
with pens of a first-class quality by Mr. Josiah Mason, of
this town."
Furthermore, it is certain that about this time, steel pens began
rapidly to supersede the use of quills,* and the trade was recognized
as a rising industry. It is true that it still retained the secretive
character with which its operations were conducted in its earlier
days, which indeed in some respects distinguish it at the present
time. Its activity or dullness seldom troubles the writers of the
"Trade Reports" in the local press, although they sometimes inform
their readers about good orders having been placed for mousetraps,
stove screws, snuffer trays, candle extinguishers, and sad irons.
*In a humorous article, "The Web-footed Interests," which appeared in
Tait's Edinburgh Magazine, vol. iii., page 280 (1833), there is a
petition to the House of Commons, from Ganders, Geese & Goslings,
setting forth the evils likely to ensue from the use of metallic pens.
It prognosticates depression in agriculture and manufactures
consequent upon a diminution in the amount of grain consumed, and a
falling off in the demand for penknives; and draws an alarming picture
of the possible failure of the supply of iron ware, and the total
extinction of literature, likely to ensue through a stoppage in the
supply of steel pens,--the web-footed interest being supposed to have
ceased to exist. The petition concludes with a prayer that the
manufacture of metallic pens be prohibited.
To the writers of the present generation, who can purchase fairly-good
pens at one shilling or one shilling and sixpence per gross, it seems
hard to realize that people once gave one shilling each for
substitutes for quills. It is true that quills could then be bought
for a halfpenny and penny each, but how difficult it was to acquire
the art of successfully manipulating the same into a pen the following
anecdote from "Edwards' Life of Rowland Hill" will testify:
"Mrs. Sinkinson, of Jamaica Row, Birmingham, tells me she went to a
school in Hurst Street, and that she remembered that old Mr. Hill came
one day a week to teach arithmetic, and Rowland [Sir Rowland Hill] on
another to teach writing. In those days there were no steel pens, and
Rowland couldn't mend a pen, so that whenever he came he was
accompanied by his brother, Matthew Davenport, whose office it was to
mend the pens used by the pupils the preceding week."
Sir Josiah Mason used to relate a similar circumstance in his own
life, when at Kidderminster, that he accompanied his brother Richard,
who was a Sunday-school teacher, to mend the pens.
Comparing the crude specimens of early steel pens with the finished
productions of the present day, we may be inclined to think that some
praise was due to the people who persevered in the use of them; but
that the purchasers of these early productions did appreciate them we
have the testimony of Mr. Robert Griffin, who says that he wrote for
eight weeks, eight hours a day, with a pen made by Perry, in 1824.
Now, the old _"scribes,"_ as the law stationers' writers were called,
were generally allowed one quill a day, and as the work of the day
usually wore out the longest quill, a considerable amount of time must
have been occupied in the renovation of the article.* This would be a
serious inconvenience to those who could manufacture a quill into a
pen, but as this was by no means an universal accomplishment, we can
form an idea how even these clumsy substitutes found purchasers at
such high prices.
*The writer recollects the tedious waiting for the patient usher, who
from desk to desk with his penknife, mending pens, and paying very
little attention to anything else; also the wonder felt and expressed
at the first sight of steel nibs, and how they dug into the paper.
Tom Hood, in his "Whims and Oddities," gives some idea of the
pre-steel-pen era:
"In times begone, when each man cut his quill,
With little Perryian skill;
What horrid, awkward, bungling tools of trade
Appeared the writing instruments, home made!
What pens were sliced, hewed, hacked, and haggled out,
Slit or unslit, with many a various snout,
Aquiline, Roman, crooked, square, and snubby,
Humpy and stubby;
Some capable of ladye-billets neat,
Some only fit for ledger-keeping clerk,
And some to grub down, Peter Stubbs, his mark,
Or smudge through some illegible receipt,
Others in florid caligraphic plans,
Equal to ships, and wiggy heads, and swans!
To try in any common inkstands then,
With all their miscellaneous stocks,
To find a decent pen,
Was like a dip into a lucky-box;
You drew, and got one very curly,
And split like endive in some hurly-burly;
The next unslit, a square at end, a spade;
The third, incipient pop-gun, not yet made;
The fourth a broom; the fifth of no avail,
Turned upwards, like a rabbit's tail;
And last, not least, by way of a relief,
A stump that Master Richard, James, or John
Had tried his candle cookery upon,
Making 'roast beef!'"
These early pens were at first made from a piece of steel formed into
a tube, and filed into the shape of a pen by hand, the joint of the
two edges forming the slit. Afterward a blank was roughly punched
out, filed into shape, and the slit marked out with a chisel while the
blank was in a soft state. It was then shaped, hardened, tempered,
ground, and the slit cracked through by means of a hammer and tool at
the place where the mark had been made. The engravings of the pens by
Edwards, which appeared in _Wrightson's Directory,_ 1823, seem to
indicate that the piercing, side cutting and slitting were executed by
mechanical appliances. Possibly, Edwards was not a manufacturer
himself, but had his pens made for him by Mitchell.
In the pre-steel-pen era there were many attempts made to supersede
quills. In "Peveril of the Peak," Mistress Chiffinch speaks of her
_diamond pen._ There was a pen the nibs of which were of ruby, set in
gold, made by Doughty. Dr. Wollaston made gold pens tipped with,
rhodium.
During the time the early makers of steel pens were perfecting the
article, several experimenters were offering to the public writing
instruments made from various materials. Bramah patented _"quill
nibs,"_ made by splitting quills and cutting the semi-cylinders into
sections, which were shaped into pens, and adapted to be placed in a
holder. Hawkins and Mordan, in 1823, made use of horn and tortoise-
shell, which was cut into "nibs," softened in water, and small pieces
of ruby and other precious stones were then embedded in by pressure.
In this way they insured durability and great elasticity. In order to
give stability to the nib thin pieces of gold or other metal were
affixed to the tortoise-shell.
Looking back at the early operations of the trade, and considering
that steel pens were made by hand at the beginning of the present
century, we can scarcely understand why the idea of cheapening the
production by the application of labor-saving contrivances did not
occur to those inventive geniuses, the proprietors of Soho. Boulton
had expended some time in perfecting the manufacture of steel buttons.
That local Admirable Crichton, Humphrey Jefferies, does not appear to
have ever directed his attention to the manufacture of this article,
which has now become a prime necessity of civilization. Yet we hear
of his success in the improvement of buttons, and button-makers must
have used the screw press and tools for cutting out the blank and
shaping it into form; and the process of slitting had been
anticipated, for printers had a brass rule-cutting machine in use, the
cutters of which bore a strong resemblance to those now used for
slitting steel pens. Like most of the pioneers in the path of
invention, the majority of the early makers of pens were men whose
business pursuits gave them no special facilities for entering upon
the manufacture of steel pens. The progress of the trade from 1829
(with the exception of the period when Perry and Gillott first
commenced advertising) had been gradual, but satisfactory. In one of
Gillott's early advertisements, he stated that he made 490,361 gross
in 1842, and 730,031 in 1843. This was an advance by leaps and bounds
which has not since been maintained. Although Mason commenced making
pens for Perry in the year 1828, yet it was not till 1861 that his
name became known in England as a steel-pen maker. Many merchants in
Birmingham and Wolverhampton, who purchased steel rings from him, had
no idea that he was a maker of pens; yet on the Continent of Europe
pens bearing his name were eagerly sought after. Subsequent to 1861
he was associated with Perry, until, in 1876, the trade-marks,
patents, etc., were purchased by a limited liability company, who now,
under the name of "Perry & Co.," have become the largest manufacturers
of pens in the world.
At the present time (1889) there are thirteen firms engaged in the
trade in Birmingham, and they make up about twenty-four tons of steel
per week into pens and penholder tips. Making due allowance for the
material used in the latter article, this consumption would probably
represent a weekly average production of 200,000 grosses of pens. The
Birmingham penmakers employ about 3,500 women and girls, and 650 men
and boys; and besides these the number of women and girls working at
making paper boxes, in which the pens are packed, would probably
exceed 300. In addition to this there are several mills where steel
is rolled for those firms who have not sufficient power on their own
premises, but there is a difficulty in stating the number of hands
employed. The wages of the females range from four shillings to fifteen
shillings; those of the boys from five shillings to ten shillings.
The unskilled workmen earn from twelve shillings to twenty-four
shillings; and skilled men, or toolmakers, command wages varying from
twenty-five shillings to three pounds. Most of the females work upon
the piece-work system, but the men are paid weekly wages.
In 1835, upon the authority of a writer in the _Mechanics' Magazine,_
two tons two hundred weight of steel were used weekly in the
manufacture of pens. Mr. Sam: Timmins made an approximate estimate
that six and a half tons of steel were used per week for steel pens in
1849, and again, in 1886, he gives the amount of steel as having
increased to ten tons. It is at all times difficult to form an
accurate estimate of the quantity of material used, but we believe we
are within the mark in putting down the present consumption of steel
at twenty-two tons weekly. From this it would appear that the trade
has doubled its production during the last twenty years. Besides
these Birmingham houses there are some four or five manufactories on
the Continent, and two in the United States, but their productions
have not increased in the same ratio as that of their English rivals.
During the last twenty years a great improvement has taken place in
the style of boxes and labels in which the pens are packed. Formerly
(with the exception of the goods issued by Gillott and Sommerville)
most of the pens were sold in boxes of the plainest description; now
the covers or labels are printed in a number of colors from elaborate
designs, by first-class artists, and in some cases the boxes are
ornamented with well-executed portraits of royal, political, literary,
or artistic celebrities. There are many peculiarities connected with
the public taste as manifested in the demand for pens. The Germans
use a greater variety of patterns than any other nation. The English
taste is more restricted, and is generally confined to articles of the
plainer shapes. Autocratic Russia and democratic America make use of
the fewest patterns. By a regulation of the Imperial Government, pens
in boxes, bearing portraits of the Russian royal family are prevented
from entering the country, and in America public taste does not favor
a demand for portrait boxes. By a law which came into operation the
1st of January, 1886, no pens can be imported into Russia bearing the
name of a Russian firm. The probable purpose of this law was to
encourage the establishment of a Russian manufactory. At present
there are no pen works in Russia. An attempt was made in Moscow, in
1876-8, to manufacture steel pens, but the experiment proved a
failure. The Germans and French are the largest buyers of first-class
pens, but the Italians are content with articles of the commonest
character. The chief demand for three-pointed pens comes from Spain.
At present the demand for steel pens is chiefly confined to European
nations and their descendants. The great Asiatic nations still write
with pens made from reeds, or camel-hair pencils. A few of the
natives of India and Japan, and some of the subjects of the Sultan and
Khe'dive are beginning to make use of steel pens adapted to the
peculiarities of their writing. From this it would appear that the
possibilities of the progress of the trade in the future are very
favorable; but in the meantime its productions are scattered over the
globe, and even in some of the darkest corners of the earth pioneers
of civilization are to be found transcribing the results of their
experience with the aid of that great factor of nineteenth-century
progress--an English Steel Pen.
THE MANUFACTURING PROCESSES
OF STEEL PENS.
The steel from which the greater part of the metallic pens are
manufactured comes from Sheffield. Notwithstanding the many names
given by the venders of steel pens to the material from which they are
manufactured there are but two sorts--good and bad--and therefore
Peruvian, Damascus, Amalgam, and Silver Steel are but fancy names. As
a matter of fact, where a number of prefixes are used to describe the
quality of an article it is generally found to have no claim to any of
them.
The raw material is received from Sheffield in sheets six feet in
length, one foot five inches in width, and 23 or 26 Birmingham
wire-gauge in thickness. The first operation is the cutting of these
sheets into strips of convenient width. They are then packed in an
oblong iron box, placed with the open top downward in another box of
the same material, and the interstices are filled up with a
composition to exclude the air. The boxes are placed in a muffle,
where they remain until they have gradually attained a dull red heat,
and the muffle is allowed to gradually cool, or else the boxes are
placed in a cooling chamber. When the boxes have been reduced to a
temperature which will admit of their being handled, the contents
(technically called a charge) are emptied out. Now, it will be found
that the strips of steel are covered with bits of small scale,
sticking to them like a loose skin, and if this were not removed
before the next process--rolling--the steel, instead of being
perfectly smooth, would be marked with a number of indentations,
rendering it very unsightly. In order to get rid of this excrescence,
the strips are immersed in a bath of diluted sulphuric acid, which
loosens the scale, and are then placed in wood barrels to which broken
pebbles and water are added. The barrels are kept revolving until the
whole of the scaly substance has been removed and the strips have
assumed a silver-gray appearance. The steel is now ready for
manipulation in the rolling mill, where it is passed between
successive pairs of rolls until it has been reduced to the required
gauge, and this operation has to be performed with such nicety that a
variation of one thousand part of an inch in the thickness of the
strip would make such an alteration in the flexibility of the pens
made from it as to cause considerable dissatisfaction to the
purchasers of the article.
The steel on leaving the mill is conveyed to the gauging room, and it
will be found to have increased to three times its original length,
and now appears with a bright surface. Hitherto the operations have
been conducted by men and boys; but now, in the course of manufacture,
the pens will enter on a series of processes in which the quick and
delicate fingers of women and girls play an important part. The
strips of steel are now given out to the cutters. The _Toolmaker,_
who, as a rule, both makes and sets the tools, has placed in what is
known as a bolster a die, having a hole perforated through it of the
exact shape of the blank to be cut; and attached to the bottom of the
screwed bolt of the press is a punch, also bearing the exact shape of
the blank. The girl with her left hand introduces one of the strips
of steel at the back of the press, and, pulling the handle toward her
with the right hand, the screw descends, driving the punch into the
bed, and in so doing has perforated the strip of steel with a
scissors-like cut, making a blank which falls through the opening in
the die into a drawer below. Now, with her left hand she pulls the
strip toward her until it is stopped by a little projection called a
guide; and again the right hand moves the handle, the screw descends,
and another blank is cut. The operation is continued until the whole
of one side of the strip is perforated; it is then reversed and the
other side treated in a similar way. If you were to hold up the strip
thus manipulated--now called scrap--you would find that in some
particular part the perforations approach so nearly to each other as
to form a slight bar, which breaks easily between the thumb and
finger. This is rendered necessary from the fact that steel scrap is
worth only one-fifth of the value of the raw material, and, as under
the most favorable conditions, the scrap averages one-third the
original weight given out for cutting, it behooves the manufacturer to
reduce the scrap as much as practicable. If these blanks are
examined, a small V-shaped indentation, looking like a defect, will be
found upon the upper edge of that part inserted in the holder. This
small mark plays an important part in the succeeding processes. To a
casual observer there does not appear much difference between the two
sides of the blank; but, however well the tools are made, that side of
the blank which is uppermost in cutting out will be rougher than the
under side. This mark enables the operator to distinguish at a glance
the smooth side, and by always keeping the rough side upward the burr
is polished off in a later process. The blanks are now ready to be
passed to the next process--_marking._ This operation is performed by
a female, with the aid of a stamp. The precise mark required is cut
upon a piece of steel, and, being placed in the hammer of the stamp,
the girl puts her right foot into a stirrup attached to a rope, which
is passed round a pulley, and, pressing downward, causes the hammer to
ascend. Taking a handful of blanks with her left hand, by a dexterous
motion she makes a little train of them between the thumb and finger
in parallel order, presenting the first in the most ready position to
be passed to the other hand. The right hand is brought toward the
left, and, taking a blank, places it with the point toward the worker
in a guide upon the bed of the stamp, then by suddenly letting the
hammer descend a blow is struck upon the blank, which gives an
impression of the name cut upon the punch. The quick fingers of the
operator pass backward and forward with such rapidity that a skillful
girl will mark from two hundred to two hundred and fifty gross per
day. If the mark required is unusually large, the marking process is
deferred until after the pen has been pierced, in order that the blank
may be annealed (or softened), which takes the impression more readily
than the hard steel.
Now, in order to make a metallic pen suitable for writing it is
necessary to consider some means of producing elasticity, and also to
devise some method by which the smooth steel shall cause the ink to
attach itself to the pen. This is brought about by the next process--
_piercing._ In this operation the tools are of a very delicate
character, and as the center pierce (the aperture in which the slit
terminates) is frequently of an ornamental design the tools, being
small, have to be made with great precision. The piercing punch and
bed having been fixed in a screw press, and an ingenious arrangement
of guides fastened thereto, the girl selects a blank from a tray on
her left hand, and, placing it in its proper position by the aid of
the guides, pushes the fly of the press from her, the screw descends,
driving the punch into the bed, and the operation of piercing is
completed.
The blanks are still moderately hard, and before they can be made to
take the shape of a pen it is necessary that they should be softened,
which is effected by the process called _annealing._ The blanks
having been freed from the dust and garbase that has become attached
to them are carefully placed in round iron pots, which are again
inclosed in larger ones and covered over with charcoal dust to prevent
the entrance of gases, and put into the muffle, heated to a dull red,
and then allowed to cool.
The blanks are now soft and pliable, readily taking the various shapes
into which pens are made by the next process, called _raising._ This
operation is performed by the aid of a punch and die fitted into a
screw-press. The punch is fitted into a contrivance called a false
nose, fixed in the bottom of the screw of the press; and the die or
bed is placed in a cylindrical piece of steel (called a bolster) with
a groove cut for the reception of the die, the bolster being fastened
to the bottom of the press by a screw underneath. The punch and die
being fixed so as to exactly fit each other, the toolmaker places a
small piece of tissue paper between them, takes an impression,
examines it, and proceeds to rectify any inequality in the pressure,
so as to insure perfection in the shape. This being accomplished, the
toolmaker fixes four pieces of steel (called guides) to the bolster in
such positions that the operator is enabled to slide the blank into
the bed, where it is held by the guides till the punch descends,
forces the blank into the bed, and gives the pen its shape. The
article is now narrower than it was in its blank form, and the girl
pushes it through the tools with a small stick held in the hand with
which she works the press handle, while with the other hand she places
another blank in its position in the bed.
The pen is now shaped or raised, but it is still soft, and
consequently another process is necessitated--_hardening._ This is
effected by placing the pens in thin layers in round pans with lids.
They are placed in the muffle for a period varying from twenty to
thirty minutes, during which time they have acquired a bright red
heat. The workman then withdraws them and empties the contents into a
large bucket immersed in a tank of oil. The bucket is perforated at
the bottom, and being elevated, the oil drains off. The pens are next
placed in a perforated cylinder, which, being set in motion, revolves
and drains off the remainder of the oil. The pens are still greasy,
and as brittle as glass; and in order to free them from the grease
they are again placed in perforated buckets and immersed in a tank of
boiling soda water. After they are freed from the grease the pens are
put into an iron cylinder, which is kept revolving over a charcoal
fire until they are softened or tempered down to the special degree
required. In this process the workman is guided by the color, which
indicates the varying temperature of the metal of which the articles
are made. Brittleness has given place to pliability, but the pens are
black in color and scratch at the point, and to remedy this defect
they are subjected to the next process--_scouring._ In order to do
this the pens are dipped in a bath of diluted sulphuric acid--called
pickle--which frees the articles from any extraneous substances they
may have acquired in the hardening and tempering processes. This
requires to be done with great care, or the acid would injure the
steel. The pens are then placed in iron barrels with a quantity of
water and small pebbly-looking material. This latter material is
composed of annealing pots broken and ground fine enough to pass
readily through a fine riddle. The barrel being set in motion, the
pens are scoured for periods varying from five to eight hours, and are
placed again in barrels with dry pot for about the same period, after
which they are put into other barrels together with a quantity of dry
sawdust. On being taken out of these barrels the body of the pen has
acquired a bright silver color, and the point has been rounded.
The article has now the shape and appearance of a finished pen, and
yet it possesses none of its characteristics, and, if tried, will be
found to have no more action than a lead pencil, as it is deficient in
that important part of a writing instrument--the slit. Before being
slit the pen is ground between the centre pierce and the point. This
process is performed by girls, with the aid of what is called a "bob"
or "glazer." The "bob" is a circular piece of alder wood about ten
and a half inches in diameter and half an inch in width. Round this a
piece of leather is stretched and dressed with emery. A spindle is
driven through the centre, and the two ends placed in sockets. The
"bob" is set in motion by means of a leather band, and the girl
holding a pen firmly, with a light touch grinds off a portion of the
surface.
This operation being completed, the last and most important mechanical
operation has to be performed--_slitting._ The tools with which this
process is effected are two oblong pieces of steel about an inch and a
half long, three-eighths of an inch thick, and an inch and a quarter
wide. These are called the cutters, and upon the preparation and
setting of these the successful issue of the process depends. The
edges of these cutters are equal in delicacy to the cutting edge of a
razor, but the shape is more suggestive of a portion cut from the
thickest part of a large pair of shears. The cutter being fixed in
the press, a pair of guides are screwed on either side, and a small
tool called a table, or rest, being attached to the contrivance called
a bolster, which holds the bottom cutter, the operator takes a pen,
places it on the table, pushes the point up toward the guide, pulls
the handle, the upper cutter descends, meets the lower one, and the
process of slitting is completed.
Now, although this operation completes the mechanical processes of pen
making, the article is by no means finished. If you examine the pen
now you will find that the outer edge of each point is smooth, while
the inside edges which have just been made by the slit are sharp and
scratch. To remove this defect the operation of "barreling" has to be
again resorted to. The pens are again placed in the iron barrels with
pounded pot, kept revolving from five to six hours, and finally
polished in sawdust.
The pens are now of a bright silver-steel color and perfectly smooth,
but as they are required in various tints, they are colored and
afterward varnished to prevent rust. To accomplish the first of these
results the articles are placed in a copper or iron cylinder and kept
revolving over a coke fire until the requisite tint is obtained, the
color depending upon the temperature of the cylinder. If the pens are
intended to be lacquered they are placed in a solution of shellac
dissolved in methylated spirits. The spirit is drained off, and the
pens are placed in wire cylinders and kept revolving until the action
of the air dries the lacquer. They are then scattered upon iron
trays, inserted in an oven, and the heat diffuses the lacquer equally
over the surface of the pens, so that when they have cooled down they
have a glossy appearance, which gives to them an air of finish and
prevents rust.
The pen is now finished as far as manufacturing processes are
concerned, yet before it can be offered to the public it has to
undergo a rigid examination called _"looking over."_ This is
performed by trained girls, and when the defective ones have been
sorted out the good pens are sent to the finished warehouse to be put
up into boxes. These boxes are of various descriptions, adapted to
suit the markets for which they are intended. In many instances the
labels which form the covers of the boxes are elaborately printed from
first-class designs, and some of them have highly-finished steel
engravings of royal personages and celebrities in the scientific,
literary, musical, and political world. The quantities contained in
these boxes vary with the countries for which they are intended; for
the manufacturers study the wants of their customers, and do not offer
articles counted in dozens to people who reckon by tens.
We have now traced the manufacture of this little article from its
beginning as a plain piece of steel through all its stages until it
has developed into that indispensable requisite of daily life--a pen.
HISTORY OF THE PERRYIAN
PEN WORKS.
The firm of Messrs. Perry & Co., London, was founded in the year 1824
by Mr. James Perry, who carried on business originally in Manchester,
then in London. Mr. James Perry died in the year 1843. Mr. Stephen
Perry, who conducted the business afterward in partnership with Mr.
Hayes and others, died in the year 1873, and was succeeded by his
sons, Messrs. Joseph John and Lewis Henry Perry. The firm of Perry &
Co. was known all over Europe as the house which first introduced to
the commercial world steel pens of a superior quality, and in many
countries steel pens are now known under the general denomination of
_"Perry pens."_ The first pens were manufactured by Perry & Co. in
London, principally from flattened or ribbon steel wire, and in the
year 1828 Mr. Josiah, afterward Sir Josiah, Mason, _then a
manufacturer of steel split rings,_ produced steel pens so much
superior to the pens made up to that period that Messrs. Perry & Co.
entered into contracts with him for the sole supply of all the pens
they might require; this connection continued up to the time of the
formation of this company. In the meantime, Messrs. Perry & Co. had
also introduced the sale of elastic bands and pencil cases; the
production of the latter was confided to Mr. W.E. Wiley, who, in the
year 1850, began the manufacture first of gold pens, afterward of
pencil cases. Messrs. Perry & Co. also contracted with Mr. Wiley for
the purchase of all the pencil cases they might dispose of, and thus
Mr. Wiley's works assumed gigantic proportions. Mr. Alfred
Sommerville, who had been connected with the steel-pen trade since its
infancy, established the firm of A. Sommerville & Co. in the year
1851. Although he, in the year 1857, began manufacturing steel pens in
connection with a partner, he likewise contracted with Mr. Josiah
Mason for a superior class of steel pens, principally intended for the
Continental markets, and many of which were either his own invention
or suggested by him. Mr. Sommerville desiring to retire from
business, Sir Josiah Mason purchased his trade in the year 1870, but
continued to carry it on under the old style of A. Sommerville & Co.
These four businesses being so intimately connected and dependent upon
each other, some gentlemen of eminence in the manufacturing town of
Birmingham decided, in conjunction with some of the leading
proprietors, to establish a limited company, for the purpose of
uniting and amalgamating inseparably the various establishments, and
thus the company of _"Perry & Co., Limited,"_ was formed.
On the spot forming the principal entrance to the works, Mr. Samuel
Harrison, in the year 1778, founded a manufactory in which he carried
on his invention of steel split rings; but Mr. Harrison, who was an
ingenious mechanic, also manufactured mathematical instruments, some
of which were used by Dr. Priestley in his researches, and on one
occasion he made a steel pen for Dr. Priestley, probably the first
steel pen ever produced. Mr. Josiah Mason succeeded to the business
of Mr. Harrison in 1823, and in 1828 began the manufacture of steel
pens. For several years he gave his whole attention to improvements
in the manufacture of steel pens, and Mr. Perry took out several most
important patents for the improvement of steel pens, many of which
have not been surpassed in ingenuity or in utility, and the principal
among them, the so-called "double patent," is universally applied by
the pen trade to a great number of pens to this very day. In 1842 Mr.
Mason's attention was absorbed by the process of electroplating and
gilding, at that time invented and carried on by Mr. Elkington, in
partnership with whom he founded the great firm of Elkington, Mason &
Co. For some years the production of pens flagged, but in 1852 a
nephew of Sir Josiah Mason, Mr. Isaac Smith (deceased in 1868), gave a
new stimulus to the manufacture of pens, and from that time the
production gradually increased until it assumed its present
proportions. The manufactory now covers nearly two acres; it occupies
a whole square and fronts four streets. In the building fronting
Lancaster Street (five stories high) the offices, warehouses and
storerooms of finished goods are distributed. The underground floor
forms a huge machine shop, in which all the presses, rolls, and
general iron and machine work employed throughout the manufactory are
produced by skillful mechanics. Behind the front building there are
several courtyards and quadrangles, in the largest of which are placed
in a row five double-flue boilers, each 20 feet long by 7 feet
diameter, working at a pressure of more than 55 lb. to the square
inch, supplying the steam power both for propelling the steam engines
and for heating the manufactory. In the rolling mill, measuing 64 by
38 feet, three double-cylinder engines, working up to 293 indicated
horsepower, give motion to 18 pairs of rolls, rolling four to six
tons of steel per week. The largest workshops are the slitting and
grinding rooms, 64 by 38 feet, the latter 24 feet high. In the
slitting room 90 girls apply the last mechanical process to the
manufacture of steel pens, in slitting them by presses of ingenious
construction. In the grinding room more than 160 girls are busily
employed cross and straight grinding steel pens on wood cylinders
covered with emery. The room in which the finished pens are placed in
boxes measures 54 by 30 feet, and in it alone are employed 50 girls
boxing and labeling steel pens, or fitting penholder tips on handles
of various materials, principally of cedar. In that part of the
building having a frontage on Corporation Street there is a dining
room 86 feet 6 inches long by 68 feet wide, fitted up with tables to
accommodate 600 people. Here the employees are served with a warm
dinner at prices varying from 2d. to 6d. At one end of the room there
is a stage, where dramatic entertainments and concerts are given in
the winter season by the workpeople. At the other end there is a
library, in a glazed partition, containing about 2,000 volumes of
standard works. These books are issued to the hands employed by the
firm free. One of the important features of this manufactory is the
employment of muffles heated by gas produced from Siemens's gas
generators. These muffles allow the heat to be regulated to a nicety,
and enable the company to carry on the process of annealing and
hardening to very great perfection.
The manufacture of steel pens employs in all about 900 workpeople, the
weekly production is 45,000 gross, which quantity will shortly be
increased to 50,000 gross, per week. Six smaller steam engines are
employed independently of those already mentioned in various parts of
the works. The manufacture of penholder sticks is carried on in two
separate buildings. Penholder sticks were produced by Mr. Mason as
far back as 1835, but their manufacture had lapsed; it was only
resumed eight years ago, since which time, by new and ingenious
machinery, principally the inventions of Mr. W. E. Wiley, the managing
director, it has assumed proportions of great magnitude.
The pencil case and solitaire works carried on by Mr. Wiley, first
alone, and then in co-partnership with his son in Graham Street, have
now been transferred to Lancaster Street.
Pencil cases, first introduced by Messrs. Mordan & Lund, in London,
have undergone various changes and improvements, the principal of
which was a lead holder passing through the point of the pencil case,
which was slit for that purpose. This invention was patented by Mr.
Wiley in the year 1857, and created a complete revolution in the
pencil-case trade, as it enabled the manufacturers to use a thicker
and longer lead, which could be propelled and withdrawn at will and
would last in daily use more than six months. This patented mechanism
was introduced into cases made from hard wood, bone and ivory, but
since the year 1868 a composition called aluminium gold, so resembling
gold that it cannot be distinguished from it, and resisting the
effects of oxidation, consequently free from tarnish, made a further
revolution in the pencil-case trade, enabling the million to possess
an elegant and highly-wrought pencil case at a very moderate price.
Messrs. Perry & Co., of London, gave to this manufacture publicity in
every part of Europe, and the quantities produced and sold are
incredible.
In 1874 a new patent was added to the many inventions for which this
establishment was famous. Its purpose was to produce a solitaire stud
made in two parts, so as to enable its ready application without the
trouble of passing a button of large diameter through a small
buttonhole. A self-acting steel spring is fixed in the upper part of
the stud, and snaps as soon as inserted into the lower part, where a
slight pressure on two projections releases the springs and permits
the separation of the two parts. These solitaires are manufactured of
gold, silver, and a variety of other metals, the principal of which is
gold plate. There are now more than five hundred patterns in
existence, and this useful manufacture grows daily in extension.
Perry & Co.'s paper binders, an article now universally used for
fastening together loose papers, cloth patterns, etc., are produced in
infinite styles and sizes, principally by self-acting machinery.
The total number of workpeople employed in the company's manufactories
exceeds 1,300.
The business of Perry & Co. was carried on for more than forty years
at 37 Red Lion Square, London, but the increase of business and the
reconstruction of London required that a more central position should
be found for the development of the commercial department of the
company. Large and handsome warehouses having been constructed on the
Holborn Viaduct, the company transferred their London depot to a
building five stories high on the side fronting the Holborn Viaduct
and eight stories high at the back. In this immense warehouse are
stored not only the produce of the manufactories of this company, but
also special articles for which this firm has been famous for the last
thirty years, principally the elastic or endless bands, patented by
Mr. Daft and Mr. Stephen Perry, and originally introduced by Perry &
Co. in conjunction with McIntosh & Co., afterward in conjunction with
Warne & Co. Perry's Royal Aromatic Bands are now an indispensable
article, and may be procured in every city of the world. Every
fancy article required by stationers can be found in these vast
stores. An illustrated price current which appears monthly, and which
numbers more than 120 pages, gives fair idea of the variety of
articles of which samples and stock can be found ready for daily
delivery. The increase of business has been so rapid that the company
found it necessary to lease the adjoining premises, which is stored
with some of the two thousand articles forming the staple trade of the
London depot, and the principal of which are the following: American
Letter Files, Clips (now manufactured in Lancaster Street), Marking
and other Inks, Aromatic Bands, Audascript Pens, Bostonite Goods,
Cigar Lighters, Copying Ink and Copying Ink Powder, Copying Ink
Pencils, Copying Presses, Corrugated Imperial Bands, Essence of Ink,
Grease Extractors, India Rubber for Erasing, Ink and Pencil Erasers,
Ink Extractors, Patent and other Inkstands in every variety, Key
Rings, Letter Clips, Letter Files, Metallic Books, Paper Binders,
Pencil Point Protectors, Pencils and Pencil Cases, Penholders, Pen
Knives, Pen Racks, Gold Pens, Portfolios, Presses, Scotch Tartan Fancy
Goods, Solitaires or Sleeve Links, etc., etc., etc.
This establishment is under the exclusive management of Mr. Joseph J.
Perry, managing director.
_[The illustrations in this work are engraved from pen-and-ink
sketches executed by Walter Langley with a Perry's No. 25 pen.]_
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Story of the Invention of Steel
Pens, by Henry Bore
*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STORY OF INVENTION OF STEEL PENS ***
***** This file should be named 9954.txt or 9954.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
https://www.gutenberg.org/9/9/5/9954/
Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer.
Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.
Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,
set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project
Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you
do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is
subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
redistribution.
*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
https://gutenberg.org/license).
Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic works
1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be
used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
works. See paragraph 1.E below.
1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the
collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an
individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in
a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check
the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning
the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
States.
1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
copied or distributed:
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
1.E.9.
1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked
to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
Gutenberg-tm License.
1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or
distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
that
- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is
owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments
must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
License. You must require such a user to return or
destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
Project Gutenberg-tm works.
- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
of receipt of the work.
- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the
Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
1.F.
1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
your equipment.
1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
DAMAGE.
1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with
the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy
is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
opportunities to fix the problem.
1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any
provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists
because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
people in all walks of life.
Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
Foundation
The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at
809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
[email protected]. Email contact links and up to date contact
information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
page at https://pglaf.org
For additional contact information:
Dr. Gregory B. Newby
Chief Executive and Director
[email protected]
Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
Literary Archive Foundation
Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
status with the IRS.
The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To
SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
particular state visit https://pglaf.org
While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
approach us with offers to donate.
International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
works.
Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily
keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
https://www.gutenberg.org
This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
