PENS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 883, 29 January 1930, Page 6

PENS

WIIAT an empty world it would be if pens liad never come into existence, and how many great men would have passed into obscurity leaving behind them no written word. The pen originated from a small, sharp-pointed instrument called a “stylus,” with which the Romans used to write on tablets of wax. Then came pens cut from reeds, pointed to the shape of a nib and slit in the manner of the quill pen. Quill-pens came into use when paper was discovered. For these large feathers were selected, principally those of the goose, and plucked while the bird was still alive. For years men wrote with quill-pens, knowing no other fashion. The first metal pens were made in Birmingham in 1780, but they were considered oddities and the quill was still in general use. In 1815 a dozen metal pens cost eighteen shillings, for in those days they were all made by hand. With advancing progress machinery for making steel pens came into use and the goose-quill fell into obscurity. The most famous centre of the steel-pen trade is Birmingham, where steel comes from Sheffield in sheets six feet long and about a foot and a-half wide. The daily output is over five million pens, for which as much as three tons of steel is utilised. If a Roman suddenly awoke from a Rip Van Winkle sleep, what a change he would see! REDFEATHER.