Chapter 2

"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.