Ok, one long one before the holiday weekend (at least it is in the US). Have a great weekend. If things go well, we may be hitting a large flea market on Sunday. But I'm not counting those chickens until they hatch. Something tells me my plans are being thwarted as I set at work.
Can anyone explain what a "Magnum Bonum" pen was? I suspect it was one of those tubular nibs?
The Manufacturer and Builder Volume 0001 Issue 12 (December 1869) page 362
“Pens and Pen-Making”
Who was the inventor of the steel pen? We fear that his name, like that of the individual who ate the first oyster, is destined to remain unknown to the millions who, otherwise, would be eager to render their acknowledgments to their great benefactor. What should we do without steel pens? Why, it might as well be asked, What should we do without the printing-press? Like the railroad and the electric telegraph, steel pens have become one of the necessities of tile age. In these days when four-wheeled coaches were deemed the ne plus ultra of locomotion, and when a journey from the metropolis to the midlands was a task involving several days preparation, folks were content to use quills, which they cut and mended at their leisure. But after a time men grew weary of continually mending pens, and so, after many attempts and failures, the steel pen came into use - not the article with which we are now familiar, but one mounted in a bone case, and known as “Wise’s pen.” Thus was at the beginning of the present century; but there is reason for believing that this invention was of earlier origin, steel pens having been imported, about 1780, from Tunis and Tripoli into Holland.
It was not, however, until a comparatively recent period that steel pens came into general use, and to Mr. Joseph Gillott, the celebrated manufacturer of Birmingham, belongs, in a great measure, the honor of having rendered the steel pen cheap, good, and popular. His establishment in Graham street, Birmingham, may fairly claim to be ranked among the Workshops of the World; for its productions are famous over the whole face of the globe, while to the commercial man, whether at home or abroad, a Gillott is almost indispensable. A wonderful place is this pen manufactory. It is an immense brick building, described by a bewildered special correspondent as being an edifice which looks something like a large asylum, a little like a manufactory, and more like an hospital than either, with which graphic description the reader must be content ; for our business is not within the outside, but the inside of the place.
Very interesting is it to follow the steel from the moment of its being cut into long strips until it issues forth in the shape of a “magnum bonum,” or the well- known swan quill. The steel, which is made from the best Swedish iron, is cut into long thin strips of the requisite width by a machine made for that purpose, and which in appearance resembles a straw-cutter. The steel strips are then subjected to a series of processes, by means of which they lose their hardness and brittleness, and are freed from the oxide with which they were covered. They are then rolled until they become of the proper thickness. During this operation they are occasionally dipped in oil, the rollers being kept cool by means of a small stream of cold water constantly falling on them. The long, thin strips of white, glittering steel are next taken to one of the long workshops which form the upper part of time factory, and which are remarkable for their light, warm, and well ventilated character. These rooms lead one into another, and are filled with crowds of clean and busy workers, principally women and girls, the number employed being between five hundred and six hundred - thus solving one of the most important questions connected with the healthy and remunerative employment of women. Entering one of these rooms, we find it filled with a number of presses, at each of which a female is seated bushy employed in the cutting out of blanks, am operation which will be easily understood by a reference to the annexed diagram, Fig. 1, which shows a portion of tile steel ribbon after the blanks have been cut out of it. The steel is placed under the press, and by a rapid yet methodical movement the blank is accurately cut. We subjoin illustrations of three different forms of blanks, the largest being intended for a barrel pen, such as the "magnum bonum." The swiftness of the punching operation is almost marvelous, especially when we consider the seeming perplexity of the process. The steel has first to be carefully adjusted on the die, then the punch has to be brought down, and as each blank is cut out, care has to be taken to avoid waste. The number of blanks generally cut in one day by a female is three hundred gross, and as each gross contains some one hundred and forty-four, the gross total thus cut would be forty-three thousand two hundred. The operation strongly resembles the old school-boy trick of moving the hand rapidly backward and forward under a regularly descending penknife. For one description of pen the steam press is used, but for al the others presses worked by hand labor alone are employed.
The pens are next carried from the blank-cutters to the side-slitters; after which they are pierced, the two operations sometimes taking place together. A kind of annealing process is then gone through, for the purpose of preparing the blank for being stamped. The stamping-press is exquisitely contrived, and the girl who works it places the flat blank side slit on the die, her foot works a treadle, and the next moment out comes the pen impressed with the required inscription. After this, the blank is snappered, or rendered of a half-cylindrical shape, and , in the case of the “magnum bonums,” to have the broader part of the blank made completely round. Up to this point, the pens are in a soft state, and, for the practical purposes, useless. They have the form of the finished article, but nothing more. To render them of the requisite hardness and elasticity, they are taken to a room in the basement of the building, where the furnaces are kept glowing in a manner which makes the atmosphere unbearable to those not used to it. Here the pens are placed in iron boxes, each capable of holding several gross. The obsess are lifted by means of a pair of tongs into the furnace, where they remain for about a half an hour, after which they are taken out, and the contents dexterously emptied into a tank of oil. After remaining for some time in the oil, they are strained by the inner tin n which they are placed, and which is pierced with holes, being withdrawn from the outer one. They are then placed in a kind of revolving sieve, and the oil which clings to them drained off by centrifugal force. So far, good. Now our pens have to be cleansed. This is accomplished by putting them in a number of barrels, which are made by means of steam power to revolve on a common axis. These barrels are filled with sawdust, which is found to be well suited for the process. The cleaning process is followed by that of scouring. A second series of barrels is filled with pounded casting-pot and water, together with a little quicklime to prevent rusting, and the pens, being placed in this mixture are whirled rapidly round for the purpose of removing the scale left by the action of the fire. This done, they are removed to the grinding-room, where the ear is saluted with a noise resembling the hissing of a forest of snakes. Each pen is held in a pair of peculiarly constructed pincers for a few seconds against a wheel of birch-wood, cut across the grain, and carefully loaded to prevent jarring. Each wheel is covered with leather coated with glue and emery, presenting a perfectly smooth surface. The pens are ground, firstly, longitudinally; secondly, cross-wise, so as to insure the requisite amount of elasticity being obtained. The workers, principally females, display great expertness in this delicate and seemingly difficult process.
The pens have now to be colored, much of their popularity depending on the beauty of appearance possessed by them. They are put into a kind of coffee-roaster, consisting of a simple cylindrical barrel, raised above a clear fire, and worked by means of a long handle. There they are subjected to a regulated degree of heat, until they acquire the blue or brown tinge required, when they are removed and allowed to cool upon an iron plate. Five minutes suffices to give the pens a bronze color, and ten minutes the well-known rich purple color. The degree of harness possessed by them is denoted by the lightness of the tint, and its diminution by the blueness which supervenes. After being colored, the pens are placed in a solution of shellac in spirits of wine, and exposed to the open air, so that the spirit may evaporate, and leave the shellac in the form of a delicate white incrustation on the pens. This incrustation, on being subjected to a proper degree of heat, melts, flows over the pens, and presents, when cool, a beautiful enameled surface.
The pens are subsequently separated, and conveyed to a room where the final process – that of slitting – is performed, after which they are taken to the ware-house, where they are sorted, arranged, and placed in the fancy boxes in which they are usually sold. A box of common pens, which in 1830 cost two dollars, can now be obtained for a few cents; at the same time the quality is much superior. Mr. Gillott employs a large number of hands, who find plenty to do in converting tons of steel into countless numbers of pens. Well may it be said that the day of little things is not to be despised. Pens, like pins, are insignificant looking objects, but they play an important part in our economy, laying the basis of great fortunes, and affording employment to thousands of men, women, and children.
