WHERE FORTUNES ARE PICKED UP ON FLOORS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 241, 31 December 1927, Page 10

WHERE FORTUNES ARE PICKED UP ON FLOORS

FOUNTAIN PEN FACTORIES

In a fountain-pen factory you will see Jong: sticks of vulcanite, flattened sheets of burnished gold, tiny specks of osmiridium or other “pointing” alloys being transformed in an incredibly short space of time into the finished article.

The works are divided into two main parts—the vulcanite shop and the gold shop. In the latter the nibs are cut out of flat sheets of gold with a steel die and passed over to the tipping experts. Tipping, or “pointing,” as it is known to the trade, is the welding on of tiny pellets of osmiridium or other “pointing” alloys to the tops of the nibs to prevent them from wearing away.

Osmiridium is the hardest metal in the world, and the heaviest. It is absolutely acid-proof. South Africa and Tasmania are the largest producers of this rare white mineral, which has been found unbeatable for pointing nibs, but owing to the high cost it is only used for the most expensive of pens.

For the cheaper varieties alloys have to be used, but even these contain a small percentage of osmiridium or iridium (one of its component metals) to give the necessary hardness.

After the points have been welded, the nibs pass through various processes, being stamped with the maker’s name, tempered, curved to the right shape, and polished. Finally, the nibs are slit on a whirling copper disc. This disc is exceedingly soft, but such is the revolving speed that it cuts through the osmiridium. It needs a very highly specialised expert to handle this machine, for a, slip of a thousandth of an inch would ruin the nib.

In the vulcanite shop long sticks of hardened rubber are hollowed out with delicate lathes and converted into the barrels of the pens. After the nibs have been fitted on, the finished article is filled with ink and fastened with clamps to an “ink-slinger.” This is a revolving machine which whirls the pen round at such a terrific speed that it dashes the ink out in streams should there be the tiniest leak.

In the course of the year a fortune is picked from the floor of a fountainpen factory. During the polishing and nib-slitting processes tiny particles of gold and osmiridium are continually being dropped to the floor, and on to the workers’ clothes and hair. In one year alone the value of these particles amounts to many thousands of pounds.

For this reason the zinc floors of the gold shop are covered with open-work wooden mats similar to those used in bathrooms, in order to let the osmiridium and gold dust fall below. At the end of the day this is swept up and saved. All the workers in the gold shops have to wear overalls to prevent the valuable dust from adhering to their clothes.

These overalls are washed on the premises, while the water in which this has been done is saved and run through pipes to tanks designed to collect the precious sediment. The water in which the workers wash their hands is treated in a similar manner. At the end of the day the girls on the slitting and polishing machines have to comb and brush their hair for minute fragments of the metal.

Since these waste elimination methods were discovered the annual saving in the gold and osmiridium bill has been enormous. What fortunes fountain-pen dustbins must have contained in the old days!