THE FIRST OF MACHINE-MADE PENS;
Joseph Gillott, the first to employ machinery in the manufacture of steel pens, was originally a maker of buckles and other “ steel toys,” working alone in a garret in a Birmingham “ slum.’* At this time he was engaged to a young woman in his own rank of life* whose two brothers were working, in about the same style as himself, on hand made pens. Gillott thought he could better the processes employed, and worked secretly in his garret until he had made a press and other appliances, by which he could make twenty times as many pens in a day, and better pens, than was possible under the old methods. He found ready salefor them, and soon the demand outgrew his power of production. At this juncture his sweetheart agreed to his proposal that they should marry and work together, little dreaming of the ultimate issue of their enterprise. In after years Mr Gillott used to tell how, on the very morning of his marriage, he began and finished a gross of pens, and sold them for £7 4s before going to church*
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Kumara Times, Issue 997, 10 December 1879, Page 2
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188THE FIRST OF MACHINE-MADE PENS; Kumara Times, Issue 997, 10 December 1879, Page 2
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