PEN MANUFACTURE. Among the small articles of daily use, few are more important than pens, and few exhibit more remarkably the application of the factory system to the production of cheap implements.
Under FEATHERS, the reader will find an account of the mode of preparing goose-quills for pens. Of the common method of making pens by hand it is not necessary to speak ; we shall therefore only say a few words upon the manufacture of quill Nibs. The barrel of the quill in the first place has both ends cut off, and is divided down the centre; the halves are then laid on their convex side and the edges shaved smooth ; after this they are divided into three or four lengths each, and the end of each length is made into a pen by a small machine, which at one time makes the slit and cuts the shoulders ; they are then finished by being nibbed by hand. Pens are shaped differently according to the kind of writing for which they are intended.
Owing to the constant necessity for mend ing quill pens, the loss of time consequent thereon, and the inequality of the writing, an immense amount of labour and ingenuity has been employed to produce some more durable substitute. The only substitute which has attained to anything like general use is the steel pen; but long before their general intro duction, metallic pens of other kinds were tried; sometimes silver, when intended for presents; sometimes brass, when intended to accompany cheap brass inkstands that used to be made some years ago. One of the first attempts to combine the elasticity of quill pens with increased durability consisted in arming the points with metallic nibs; but the improvement was not adequate to the in creased cost. Another class of improvements, or suggested improvements, was the intro Iduction of pens whose nibs should be formed of precious stones. One kind consisted of a tortoiseshell tube or barrel, with small frag ments of diamond or ruby imbedded in the nib. Another kind contained a nib of ruby set in fine gold, and such pens have been said to last six years without injury. Some have also
been formed of rhodium nibs set in gold. Pens of gold, of silver, and of gold alloyed with silver, are occasionally made.
But, as we have said, steel is the only material which has successfully competed with the quill. The present generation has wit nessed a descent from sixpence a piece to six pence a gross. Steel pens are now manu factured to an amount in quantity and at a cost so small as hardly to be credible. Different makers have different modes of operation, but the following will give a general idea of the method employed. In the first place fiat' pieces of steel are cut out of the shape re quired, by a stamping-press ; they are then placed under another press, which pierces the holes and cuts the slits ; and they are struck into their convex shape by a third press. They are then polished and tempered. The polish ing is managed in rather a curious manner ; a quantity of pens are shut up in an iron cylinder, leaving a considerable space un occupied ; this cylinder is attached at each end to a crank, the axes of which are con nected by a wheel and set in motion by a handle or by machinery. Thus by being rubbed against each other the pens come out well polished, and with all the burrs or sharp angles left by the cutting-presses rubbed smooth. Birmingham is the great seat of the steel pen manufacture ; some of the manu facturers have fine manufacturing establish ments, and make several hundred millions of pens annually. Mr. Albert Smith in his "Month at Constantinople," gives us a curious instance of the spread of English manu factures all over the world. At Constantinople he saw a Turk, seated on the wall of a cemetery, and exhibiting a tray of Birmingham steel pens for sale.
Fountain pens are so made as to hold a reservoir of ink. Music-pens are forined so as to make large dots as well as strokes. The geometrie-pen is an ingenious mathematical instrument for drawing curves.