The first decided attempt to introduce metallic pens to general use, was made by Mr. Wise, whose " perpetual pens " will doubtless be remembered by many of our readers. The name of Wise was rendered conspicuous in moat of our stationers' shops, some twenty-five or thirty years since, as the original inventor and genuine manufacturer of the steel pens; they consisted of a barrel-pen of steel, mounted in a bone case, for convenience for carrying in the pocket. Notwith standing his productions possessed but in a very remote degree the requisite pro perties of a writing instrument, and were -extremely dear, he managed to make a scanty livelihood out of the business, by dint of unwearied exertions in promoting their sale. Mr. Donkin subsequently made some excellent steel pens, but the price was high, and the demand inconsiderable. This description of pen has recently been very much improved, especially by Mr. Joseph Gillott, of Birmingham, who is the largest manufacturer of steel pens in the world, converting annually upwards of forty tons of fine steel into writing pens. The improvement has been accom plished by employing metal of a better quality in- a thinner and more elastic state—by making the alit shorter, and by more carefully attending to the finish and temper of the pens. These improvements in quality have also been attended with so great a reduction in price, that a gross of the improved steel nibs may now be purchased for very little more than was formerly charged for one of Wise's pens. The common three-slit pen, that is, the pen with a slit on each side of the central slit, is with many persons still a favourite, and some of these pens seem to embody moat of the advantages of which metallic pens are susceptible. Their present excellence and extreme cheapness seems to promise the almost entire disuse of quills, although, up to the present time, there has been no falling off in the demand for this article.
Mr. James Perry, of London, has contributed, we believe, more than any other individual to the introduction of the modern improved steel pens ; he has brought out several steel pens of a very ingenious and original description, and devoted more than ordinary attention to the forming them to suit a variety of hands and tastes, which he regularly classed, advertised, and humorously puffed in rhyme, by which means he acquired a celebrity to which no previous pen maker had attained. Mr. Perry first overcame the extreme rigidity of the ordinary steel-pen, by the introduction of apertures between the shoulders and the point, thereby making them elastic below instead of above the shoulder : this was the subject of his patent of 1830. " The double patent Perryian pen," the merits of which have been so much placarded throughout the kingdom, received its odd cognomen from the circumstance of a second patent taken out by Mr. Perry, in 1832; the pens described in the specification of which are represented as combining the superlative qualities of both inventions. Fig. 1 is a sketch of Mr. Perry's " double patent pen," which distinctly shows the position of the aperture and the lateral slits, by which a great degree of elasticity is obtained. Fig. 2 is Mr. Perry's ingenious " regulating-spring pen, consisting of one of his patent Pens, with the addition of a sliding spring, which increases or diminishes the flexibility of the pen, according as it is placed further from, or nearer to the point. In another
instance Mr. Perry employs the elasticity of Indian-rubber, by twisting a thread of this material round the nibs of the pen, the yielding of which permits the opening of the points, in proportion to the pressure applied. The care which Mr. Perry takes in the correct manufacture of his pens, has mainly contributed to the general preference given to them; for, however excellent may be the principle of the structure, if the workmanship of the nibs be not nicely performed, the pens will not write well. It is from defects of this kind, we believe, that many apparently excel lent metallic pens, that have been successively brought out, have met with a comparatively small sale.
As the extremities of the nibs of metallic pens of the ordinary form become worn, they progressively increase in breadth, until they become useless, unless their original form should be restored by skilful filing, or grinding, upon an oil stone : these being operations which no economist of time will perform, at the present low prices of the article, Mr. Gillett, of Birmingham, took out a patent in 1831 for an improvement in metal pens, designed to remedy the defect mentioned. This he proposed to effect by making the nibs of his pens parallel sided, that is, an equal breadth to the points for about an eighth of an inch long, the remaining portion or upper part of the nibs being cut either inclined in the usual manner, or terminating with a shoulder next to the parallel nibs. " The whole length of such nibs," says Mr. Gillett, " may of course be worn away, without increasing the breadth of the strokes in writing." This con struction, it however appears to us, will not only fail in obtaining the advan tages sought, but will entail disadvantages to (which the tapered form is comparatively free; namely, a greater tendency to take a set in opening 'during the downward strokes of the pen, and a deficiency of reacting force in the up-strokes to bring the nibs together; the narrowness of the points also prevents the ink from flowing down in sufficient quantity to give a constant and unfailing supply. Mr. Gillett, although a pen manufacturer, is evidently no great pen user, for all persons who are in the habit of using steel pens know that in a short time the abrading action of the paper, produces a basil edge on the under side of the nib, converting it into a very efficient chisel, which, catching the paper in the up strokes, renders the pen unfit for further use. With respect to their weartng away uniformly, this can never be the case, unless the pen be held vertically, that is at right angles to the plane of the paper, in wluch manner ordinary writing cannot be executed. This will at once show the fallacy of Mr. Gillott's proposition; and it would appear as if Mr. Gillett was himself conscious of the error ; for we have never met with any of Inc pens made in accordance with his patent, that is, with parallel points, but as Fig. 3, which is one of Mr. Gillott's pens, as now manufactured; otherwise this is a pretty good pen, and ranks with the best of the three-slit class.