The Story of the Invention of Steel Pens | Page 8

workmen in Sheffield, and is not even
mentioned in the Directory, it has for several years past been
recognized and respected by the visitors at the annual exhibitions of our
School of Art, in connection with the many rare and valuable pictures
lent by him on those occasions. The printed fac-simile of the autograph
appeared in the 'advertising columns' of almost every newspaper in the
world, and perhaps, as an expert might have said, was characteristic. In
the admirable account of his life above referred to stress is laid upon
one prominent and praiseworthy feature of his character, viz., his

readiness to acknowledge the obscurity of his origin and the steps of his
industrial success. In those details no mention is made of his Sheffield
master and predecessor in the ingenious art of steel pen making. And as
the notice alluded to is without dates, it is difficult to furnish
information on the material point of priority, though the fact of
supremacy in the trade is clear enough. In one of the columns of
Lardner's Cyclopedia, published in 1833, the names of Perry, Heeley,
and Skinner are mentioned as steel pen makers. With the latter, who if
he did not make wealth, certainly earned a wide reputation for the low
price and excellent temper of his 'steel nibs,' Mr. Gillett was a workman,
in Nursery Street, Sheffield, having gone with his master from the
scissors grinding stone to the making of polished steel ornaments for
ladies' work, then fashionable. How much, in what way, or whether at
all, he was indebted to his experience in Mr. Skinner's establishment
may be questionable, but that he learnt and first saw practised in
Sheffield the art that ultimately enriched him in Birmingham, he would
probably be the last to deny. It is well remembered by a worthy dealer
in almost every useful article, from a mouse-trap to a railroad wagon,
that Gillott, soon after his establishment in Birmingham, came into our
townsman's shop, and seeing on the counter a model steam engine of
half-horse power, at once purchased and carried it off to give motion to
some part of his pen machinery. Brass pens were made in Sheffield
before the close of the last century. They mostly accompanied an
'inkpot,' called from its users an 'exciseman.' The writer of this
paragraph himself made hundreds of dozens of them, which, however,
be never used, nor steel ones either, as long as he could get a 'goose
quill,' good, bad or indifferent. The matter of slitting the nib was kept
secret by Skinner, and the double slit of Gillott more than doubled the
value of his old master's invention; but a 'four-slit' pen, _i.e., with five
points,_ if possible to make, would be useless. The earliest
experimenter in form and material was Perry, flexibility being the great
desideratum; but it is curious to see how world-wide a currency
Gillott's name and trade have given to the simplest shape; and still more
curious to note how the makers of writing ink and paper have
conformed these articles to the requirements of the uses of the steel pen.
It is always gratifying, and not unprofitable, to contrast the small and
feeble beginnings of any manufacturing enterprise with a large and

well-merited success."
This communication appears to have caused a Mr. William Levesley to
call upon the writer of the preceding epistle, and the following which
appeared in the Sheffield Daily Telegraph, January 30, 1872, was
written:
"I have to thank you for the insertion of my queries as to the early
connection of Sheffield with steel pen making. In consequence of the
appearance of my letter in the Telegraph, a cutlery manufacturer of the
name of William Levesley, called upon me, and informed me that he
was not only an early associate with the late Mr. Gillott, of
Birmingham, but the first person who made a steel pen out of London.
Stress has been laid upon Gillott's ability 'to forge and grind a
knifeblade.' It is not likely he ever used the hammer on hot steel, but he
was when young, and working with father, accounted an excellent
penknife grinder; Skinner being a scissors grinder, and Levesley a
workboard hand for the same master. A man of the name of Mitchell
having married Gillott's mother, went to Birmingham, and began the
cutlery business, the latter removing thither to grind for his father-
in-law. His brother had also gone thither, and commenced making an
article that had some run, and may be said to have united the ingenious
handicrafts of Birmingham, viz., the insertion of a penknife blade at the
end of a silver pencil case. Meanwhile, about the year 1825, Levesley
saw a steel pen, made by Perry, of London, in Ridge's shop window, in
High Street. He bought