Series of articles from the 1830s

[AndyT]

The last three, and I'm done.   

Black Lead Pencils
Penknives and Pounce
Slates, Tablets, and a Remarkable Use for a Walrus

[schin]

I think we should continue this wonderful thread with little titbits from old articles. For examples, I have been following some funny discussions on the Penman's Art Journal about cocky penman (specifically aimed at Madarasz), and is it just me or does the Penman's Gazette have a chip on its shoulder about the other journals of its time? Seems like Gaskell is always surrounded by controversy!

I am attaching a snippet of Penman's Gazette July 1886 where it devotes page 8 to blistering sarcasm about the Business Educator's convention in NY. I am thoroughly confused if it is trying to be mean or merely brutally honest?
Phew, with articles like this, who needs reality TV drama?

[Moya]

I have nothing else to contribute, but I am so in love with this thread. I can't get enough of this history!  Thank you guys for taking the time to share!

[LadySmatter]

I'm researching 18th and early 19th century writing "technology" for my blog, and all these tidbits are so interesting!

I was just looking at reports of a talk that Michael Faraday (the scientist) gave on the manufacture of steel and quill pens in 1835, and it looks like the Saturday Magazine article that AndyT first posted lifted their description of the manufacture of quills directly from the report in the Records of General Science, May 1835! The whole (short) article may be of interest, and you can read it at the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/stream/recordsgenerals02thomgoog#page/n412/mode/1up
The more I read books and magazines of this period, the more of this sort of "borrowing" I find. It's much easier to uncover in digitised texts than in printed tomes.

[AndyT]

The more I read books and magazines of this period, the more of this sort of "borrowing" I find.

Yes, familiar phrases and statistics have a habit of cropping up time and again.  Thank you for the link, the similarities are striking, to say the least, but I was particularly taken with the final sentence:

"Pens have also been made of horn and tortoise-shell, and it is no small consolation to consider that if steel should fail us we can have recourse to such abundant materials".

Was this Dr. Faraday's little joke?  In which case it's a very dry one.  It conjured up visions of industrial scale tortoise farms - much easier to catch than geese! 

[LadySmatter]

"Pens have also been made of horn and tortoise-shell, and it is no small consolation to consider that if steel should fail us we can have recourse to such abundant materials".

Was this Dr. Faraday's little joke?  In which case it's a very dry one.  It conjured up visions of industrial scale tortoise farms - much easier to catch than geese! 

Given the numbers of quills and steel pen nibs Faraday gives, about 220 million total were made in Britain annually. Those tortoise farms would have to be HUGE! Just think- tortoises as far as the eye could see. I hope Dr. Faraday was having a laugh!