THE MANUFACTURE OF STEEL PENS.

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 548, 16 July 1851, Page 3

THE MANUFACTURE OF STEEL PENS.

MtTAi pens are very ancient. "As long," says Beckman in his History oj Inventions, " as people wrote upon tables covert-d with wi\-, they were obliged to use a stylo or bodkin made of bone, metal, or other haul substance, but when tliey began to write with coloured liquids, they employed a leed, and afterwauls quills or feathers." But tho metal pen, to be uspd with ink, to write upon paper, is a comparatively modem invention. Gold and silver pens hive been known for upwards of hilf a century ; find Mr. Bohn, the publisher, in a note to the article on reeds and quills, or " Wilting pens," in Betlunan's History of I mentions, states that lie has in hib possession " an extremely well mado metallic pen (hi ass) at least fifty \ears old, and with it a style foi writing by means of smoked paper, both in a moioeco pocket-book, which lbrmeily belonged to Horace Walpolc, and was sold at the Straw bciry Hill sale. The rao'-l eminent manufacturer of steel pens in Birmingham fust tiied his hand at his art upwards of thnty yeais ago, when steel ppns were quite unknown, and manufactuied a pen of bilver, to (it into apencilc.ise. lie had at that time no idea of superseding tho quill in schools, olhces, and for general use, but simply to produce an article, for tho waistcoat pocket. lie afterwards made expeiiMi-nts with iron and steel, aad produced a pen very creditable to his skill and ingenuity at that time, but nut for a mom.-nt to be compared with the beautiful peus which he now fabricates by millions. While these original steel pens vreie very hard, stilt, and bad they weie also very dear. About the year 18' JO or 1821 the fir»t pross of'" three-slit" stoel pens was sold w holesale at the rate of £7 4m. the gvo*s. In tha year 1830 they had fallen off to Bs., and m 183*2 to 0«. tho gross. A jipan pen, that eight years ago sold at 329. a oross, is now sold at is. 2d., and is far more flexible and serviceable. For many ycais steel pens had to struggle not only against the conservatism of the loveis ot the quill, but against their own badness. They sphnteied, rusted, toie the paper, and had so ! many imperfections that they mado way veiy slowly. Clerks in oilices set their faces against them—-ichool-I masters would have none of them, and authors gave them up. Even within the last five oi six years they v\eie;?,o' dear tlut people, though otherwise satisfied with the linpiovements which held been qraduilly made, objected to then use because they could not bo nnmdod ; and various attempts were made by many patties to obviate the objection by mveuting u method of leuovating them. 'lh y havo now become so elastic, so ex celfent, and so exceedingly cheap, that people no more think of mending a steel pen than they would think of mending a pin. One faotoiy alono u» Birmingham produces them at the late of no le-.s than 10 000 groT , or 5/00,000 in a week —very nearly a million, or 9^0,000 per woiking- day, or 289,.520,000 pei annum. A second establishment, which emplois as many people, doubtless, produces as greit a quantity, *o tint it may be safely e^tunitcd, at the veiy lowest calculition, that Birmingham produces 1000 millions per annum of the >c articles. The cheapest pens are aolil a>> low as 2d. per gross whole-ale ; aud the price r. «..'-<, with the elasticity and finish of tho pen, up to 3s. <3d. and 5?. per gio-b. There ara noimnuf.ictones of steel pona in London, or iv any other part of the United Kingdom, although tlie names of the London dealers winch are impies*e& upon them might lead to the contrary belief. JBnniuigham produces ihein M, and one establishment m thi3 town has the distinctive maiks of no leso than 500 dealeid in all paits of the country, as well as on the contineiits ol ] uiopo and Amoiica, for whom he manufacture's, accouini;' to Older. They aio exported to all pails of the woiM; tor althougli the Americans, tke

Geiruans, the Belgians, anil the Fiench have endeavoured to compete wjth the people of Birmingham, they have not yet succeeded in producing so excellent or so cheap an article, and in spite of an ad valorem duty of 24 per cent, on their impoitation into America, and ot a duty af about l^d. per gross by weight in France, the French and Amencan dealers send their orders to Birmingham, and have their names and marks stamped upon them. Our continental neighbours, it may be observed en passant, makes steel pens subservient to political purposes, not simply in their uses, as other people might do, but in their pattern. The ultra Republican dealers order pens to be decorated with the head of the .Goddess of Liberty, with the Phrygian cap, or with the words "Republic Francis." The Bonapartists order pens with the head of Louis Napoleon ; while the Legitimists strive to render the countenance of the Compt de Chanibord familiar to the public by the same means. The Italian Republicans also endeavour jto keep up the anti-Papal enthusiagm and the spirit of Corbonans-m by the like device. The first steel pens were made in garrets — the manufacturer and his family being the only work-people. But now they are produced in factories of palatial appearance and extent. That of Mr. Gillott accommodates from 500 to 600 people. The first operations are performed by steam power. The sheets of steel, after they are received from Sheffield, are reduced to the requisite tenuity by successive transits through the rolling-mill, operations which aie tended by men and boys. When reduced in this manner to the thinness of a steel pen, and to the length of about two feet and the breadth of two inches and a half, or three inches, the sheets of steel are ready for the next processes, which are entirely performed by women and girls. Describing the rooms according to the order of processes, and not occordmg to the arrangement of the building, the first to be entered is that in which the *' blanks" are punched out. Ranged in double rows along a large and roomy workshop, with windows at both sides, and scrupulously white and clean m floor, roof, and walls, are seated from 50 to 100 girls and women from the age of fourteen to that of forty and upwards. Unlike too many of the women employed in the manufactories of Birmingham, they are extremely neat in person and attire, The only sounds to be heaid are the working of the hand press, and the clicking of the small pieces of metal as they fall from the block into ibe receptacle prepared for them. This process is performed with great rapidity — one girl of average industry and dexterity being able to punch oi cut out about JOO gross per day. Each division of the worksbip is superintended by a tool-maker, whose business it is to keep the punches and presses in good working condition, to superintend the woik generally, and to keep order among the work-people. The next operation is to place the blank in a concave die, on which a slight touch from a convex punch produces the requisits shape — that of tbe semi-tube. The last operation is that of slitting, which is also performed by girls and women. Previous to this, however, the pen undergoes a variety of processes in a different part of the factory, and under the hands of a different class of work-people. When complete all but the slit, the pen is soft and pliable, and may be bent aud twisted in the hand like a piece of thin lead. Being collected in " grosses," or " great grosses" — the former containing 144, and the great gross twelve times that number — the pens are thrown into httleiion square boxes by men, who perform all the work in this department, and they are placed in a furnace, where they remain till box and pens are of a white heat. They are then taken out and thrown hissing hot into pails or tanks of oil — a process which cures them of their softness by making them brittle. When taken out of tbe oil, they may be broken by tbe fingers with as much ease as if they were so many wafers. As a great deal of oil adheres to them, they are put into a sieve to dram. There they remain until no more oil will run fiom them; but notwithstanding all the draining which they have received, the oil is not effectually removed. To cleanse them thoroughly, they were formerly thrown into pits or heaps of sawdust and stirred about ; but as by this process the sawdust became clotted into oil cake and was rendered unserviceable, the ingenuity of Mr. Gillott was taxed to discover some means by which a saving both of oil and of sawdust could be effected. He was not long before the thought struck him that, if the pens were made to revolve rapidly in a perforated cylinder, the last drop of oil might be forced out of them; in fact that the oil might be twirled from the pens like moisture from a mop. The experiment was tried, and succeeded admirably. The pens, after being allowed to drain in the sieve until no moie oil would run off them, were placed, apparently dry, but greasy looking-, in the cylinder, and twirled round with great rapidity, until the oil ran off in a copious stream. The mingled eawdust and oil formerly constituted a nuisance, and it was necessary to change the sawdust, and burn it three or four times a day. It now lasts lor a wepk. By this means — a remarkable instance in the economy of manu- j factures— i\lr Gillot has diminished his oil account by from £200 to £300 per annum. This operation completed, tbe pens are once more placed in revolving cylinders, where their friction against each other, produces the necessary polish. Each pen is thus made to clean and polish its neighbour. The nextprocess is to roast or anneal these brittle articles, and give them the flexibility of the quill, and to produce upon them at the same time the colour which may be desired, whether bronze or blue. The flexibility and colour aie both produced by heat, and it becomes a delicate matter so as to arrange and regulate it as to attain the exact results desired. From this department they are once more consigned to the female pait of the establishment, •h here, by the operatien of the cutting tool, each pen receives the required slit. One girl, with a quick and practised linger, can slit by this means as many as 200 gross, or 28,800 pens in a day. They are now ready for counting and packing, in boxes or grosses, for tbe wholesale market. This last stage of the business is wholly performed by young girls. 'Jhe work people are all paid according to the amount of work performed. The younger girls cain from ss. to 6s. per week, and some of the more expert and attentive women earn as much as 12s. to 14s. a-woek. The avernge wages are 10s. or 11s. There is no subemploying. Every person is directly hired and paid by the manufacturer. The tool-makers receive high wages often as much as £3 or £4 a-week. The wages of the men in the steam and fire departments are from 20s. to 255.,0r 30b., and those of the boys who assist them from Is. to 7s. — Morning Chronicle.