The Story of the Invention of Steel Pens | Page 7

have failed to trace him, and his
identity is lost among the "sowers" who failed to reap the harvest of
their inventions.
Mr. George Wallis, speaking of steel pens, remarks:
"I wrote with one when a boy (1822 to 1826), having found several in a
stock of old steel waste in the warehouse of a relative, a retired
ornamental steel worker, at Wolverhampton. These pens were made (so
I was told) for the London market, late in the last or early in the present
century. Certainly they were made fifteen or, perhaps, twenty years,
when I found them, as the manufactory in which they had been

produced had been closed the former number of years. They consisted
of a holder of steel, with flutings and facets. One was solid and tapered
to lighten it; the other had a barrel with an internal screw. The pen had
two screws; one was used to screw the pen into the barrel for use, and
the other to secure it when turned inwards as a protection when not in
use, or to carry in the pocket."
The following letter from Mr. Alderman Manton to Mr. Sam: Timmins
makes us acquainted with another manufacturer of steel pens:
"THE METAL PENS OF 1823.--In a badly-constructed and unsanitary
manufactory (Mr. James Collins's), at the back of 119 Suffolk Street,
(Birm.), I witnessed the process of making silver and steel pens. As
both metals were manufactured in the same manner, one description
will serve. It will be remembered by a few that at that time there was a
patent silver pencil case somewhat extensively manufactured, which in
addition to the pencil, had a penknife, pen and toothpick provided. The
penknife was supplied by two brothers--_Joseph and William
Gillott_--who at that time rented a small shop in a corner of the yard
belonging to the rolling mill of George and P.F. Muntz, Water Street,
and from whose engine they obtained the small amount of steam power
needed. The process of making the pens was as follows: Two narrow
strips were cut from a sheet of silver or steel; they were then, by the
help of the hammer and a lead cake, or piece of hard wood, curved.
Afterwards the two strips were placed opposite to each other on a
well-polished steel wire, and drawn through a draw-plate, the wire and
plate being supplied by Wm. Billings, a celebrated tool manufacturer,
occupying premises near the top of Snow Hill (Birm.). By the aid of a
press, a small hole was made at a distance of half an inch or
five-eighths from the end, the slit was then made by a fine saw made of
watch springs. A bent pair of shears was used for cutting the end of
strip into the shape of a pen; and a half-round file or smooth was used
for finishing the pen. The pen was then sawn off the strip by the same
saw which was used for slitting the pen. The only hardening process
was the friction of the draw-plate and steel wire. I not only witnessed
the process, but was a manipulator. The cost of making at that time, by
a journeyman, was 2d. each; by an apprentice, about one-third of that

amount. Within less than thirty years of that time, in a manufactory
adjoining my own, pens were made and sold (wholesale) at 2d. per
gross, and a box containing them into the bargain." (Signed) Henry
Manton, September 15, 1886.
Mr. T. Vary writes that James Perry began making steel pens in
Manchester, and quotes the Saturday Magazine to show that metallic
pens were given by him as rewards of merit in schools as far back as
1819.
Mr. James Cocker, writing in the Sheffield Daily Telegraph, in 1869,
says: "That he rolled steel wire for James Perry for penmaking in
1829."
The death of Mr. Gillott seems to have revived the discussion of the
origin of steel pens, and a correspondent in the Sheffield _Daily
Telegraph,_ in the issue of January 11, 1872, in the following letter,
puts forth a claim on behalf of a Sheffield man:
"The well-written and well-merited memoir of the late Mr. Gillott, the
Birmingham steel pen maker, which has just appeared in the
newspapers, affords a curious and instructive illustration of the success
which not seldom attends the combined action of ingenuity, industry,
shrewdness, and integrity among our labouring classes. Born in the
humblest rank of our local workmen, a steady scholar in our Boys'
Lancasterian School, and apprenticed to a scissors grinder, the deceased
worked his way upwards into a position of influence and opulence as a
manufacturer, which entitled him to take social rank with the merchant
princes of the land. And if his name has long since ceased to be familiar
among his once contemporary