Chapter 3

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.