The Story of the Invention of Steel Pens Part 3

In the pre-steel-pen era there were many attempts made to supersede quills. In "Peveril of the Peak," Mistress Chiffinch speaks of her _diamond pen._ There was a pen the nibs of which were of ruby, set in gold, made by Doughty. Dr. Wollaston made gold pens tipped with, rhodium.

During the time the early makers of steel pens were perfecting the article, several experimenters were offering to the public writing instruments made from various materials. Bramah patented _"quill nibs,"_ made by splitting quills and cutting the semi-cylinders into sections, which were shaped into pens, and adapted to be placed in a holder. Hawkins and Mordan, in 1823, made use of horn and tortoise- sh.e.l.l, which was cut into "nibs," softened in water, and small pieces of ruby and other precious stones were then embedded in by pressure.

In this way they insured durability and great elasticity. In order to give stability to the nib thin pieces of gold or other metal were affixed to the tortoise-sh.e.l.l.

Looking back at the early operations of the trade, and considering that steel pens were made by hand at the beginning of the present century, we can scarcely understand why the idea of cheapening the production by the application of labor-saving contrivances did not occur to those inventive geniuses, the proprietors of Soho. Boulton had expended some time in perfecting the manufacture of steel b.u.t.tons.

That local Admirable Crichton, Humphrey Jefferies, does not appear to have ever directed his attention to the manufacture of this article, which has now become a prime necessity of civilization. Yet we hear of his success in the improvement of b.u.t.tons, and b.u.t.ton-makers must have used the screw press and tools for cutting out the blank and shaping it into form; and the process of slitting had been antic.i.p.ated, for printers had a bra.s.s rule-cutting machine in use, the cutters of which bore a strong resemblance to those now used for slitting steel pens. Like most of the pioneers in the path of invention, the majority of the early makers of pens were men whose business pursuits gave them no special facilities for entering upon the manufacture of steel pens. The progress of the trade from 1829 (with the exception of the period when Perry and Gillott first commenced advertising) had been gradual, but satisfactory. In one of Gillott's early advertis.e.m.e.nts, he stated that he made 490,361 gross in 1842, and 730,031 in 1843. This was an advance by leaps and bounds which has not since been maintained. Although Mason commenced making pens for Perry in the year 1828, yet it was not till 1861 that his name became known in England as a steel-pen maker. Many merchants in Birmingham and Wolverhampton, who purchased steel rings from him, had no idea that he was a maker of pens; yet on the Continent of Europe pens bearing his name were eagerly sought after. Subsequent to 1861 he was a.s.sociated with Perry, until, in 1876, the trade-marks, patents, etc., were purchased by a limited liability company, who now, under the name of "Perry & Co.," have become the largest manufacturers of pens in the world.

At the present time (1889) there are thirteen firms engaged in the trade in Birmingham, and they make up about twenty-four tons of steel per week into pens and penholder tips. Making due allowance for the material used in the latter article, this consumption would probably represent a weekly average production of 200,000 grosses of pens. The Birmingham penmakers employ about 3,500 women and girls, and 650 men and boys; and besides these the number of women and girls working at making paper boxes, in which the pens are packed, would probably exceed 300. In addition to this there are several mills where steel is rolled for those firms who have not sufficient power on their own premises, but there is a difficulty in stating the number of hands employed. The wages of the females range from four shillings to fifteen shillings; those of the boys from five shillings to ten shillings.

The unskilled workmen earn from twelve shillings to twenty-four shillings; and skilled men, or toolmakers, command wages varying from twenty-five shillings to three pounds. Most of the females work upon the piece-work system, but the men are paid weekly wages.

In 1835, upon the authority of a writer in the _Mechanics' Magazine,_ two tons two hundred weight of steel were used weekly in the manufacture of pens. Mr. Sam: Timmins made an approximate estimate that six and a half tons of steel were used per week for steel pens in 1849, and again, in 1886, he gives the amount of steel as having increased to ten tons. It is at all times difficult to form an accurate estimate of the quant.i.ty of material used, but we believe we are within the mark in putting down the present consumption of steel at twenty-two tons weekly. From this it would appear that the trade has doubled its production during the last twenty years. Besides these Birmingham houses there are some four or five manufactories on the Continent, and two in the United States, but their productions have not increased in the same ratio as that of their English rivals.

During the last twenty years a great improvement has taken place in the style of boxes and labels in which the pens are packed. Formerly (with the exception of the goods issued by Gillott and Sommerville) most of the pens were sold in boxes of the plainest description; now the covers or labels are printed in a number of colors from elaborate designs, by first-cla.s.s artists, and in some cases the boxes are ornamented with well-executed portraits of royal, political, literary, or artistic celebrities. There are many peculiarities connected with the public taste as manifested in the demand for pens. The Germans use a greater variety of patterns than any other nation. The English taste is more restricted, and is generally confined to articles of the plainer shapes. Autocratic Russia and democratic America make use of the fewest patterns. By a regulation of the Imperial Government, pens in boxes, bearing portraits of the Russian royal family are prevented from entering the country, and in America public taste does not favor a demand for portrait boxes. By a law which came into operation the 1st of January, 1886, no pens can be imported into Russia bearing the name of a Russian firm. The probable purpose of this law was to encourage the establishment of a Russian manufactory. At present there are no pen works in Russia. An attempt was made in Moscow, in 1876-8, to manufacture steel pens, but the experiment proved a failure. The Germans and French are the largest buyers of first-cla.s.s pens, but the Italians are content with articles of the commonest character. The chief demand for three-pointed pens comes from Spain.

At present the demand for steel pens is chiefly confined to European nations and their descendants. The great Asiatic nations still write with pens made from reeds, or camel-hair pencils. A few of the natives of India and j.a.pan, and some of the subjects of the Sultan and Khe'dive are beginning to make use of steel pens adapted to the peculiarities of their writing. From this it would appear that the possibilities of the progress of the trade in the future are very favorable; but in the meantime its productions are scattered over the globe, and even in some of the darkest corners of the earth pioneers of civilization are to be found transcribing the results of their experience with the aid of that great factor of nineteenth-century progress--an English Steel Pen.

THE MANUFACTURING PROCESSES OF STEEL PENS.

The steel from which the greater part of the metallic pens are manufactured comes from Sheffield. Notwithstanding the many names given by the venders of steel pens to the material from which they are manufactured there are but two sorts--good and bad--and therefore Peruvian, Damascus, Amalgam, and Silver Steel are but fancy names. As a matter of fact, where a number of prefixes are used to describe the quality of an article it is generally found to have no claim to any of them.

The raw material is received from Sheffield in sheets six feet in length, one foot five inches in width, and 23 or 26 Birmingham wire-gauge in thickness. The first operation is the cutting of these sheets into strips of convenient width. They are then packed in an oblong iron box, placed with the open top downward in another box of the same material, and the interstices are filled up with a composition to exclude the air. The boxes are placed in a m.u.f.fle, where they remain until they have gradually attained a dull red heat, and the m.u.f.fle is allowed to gradually cool, or else the boxes are placed in a cooling chamber. When the boxes have been reduced to a temperature which will admit of their being handled, the contents (technically called a charge) are emptied out. Now, it will be found that the strips of steel are covered with bits of small scale, sticking to them like a loose skin, and if this were not removed before the next process--rolling--the steel, instead of being perfectly smooth, would be marked with a number of indentations, rendering it very unsightly. In order to get rid of this excrescence, the strips are immersed in a bath of diluted sulphuric acid, which loosens the scale, and are then placed in wood barrels to which broken pebbles and water are added. The barrels are kept revolving until the whole of the scaly substance has been removed and the strips have a.s.sumed a silver-gray appearance. The steel is now ready for manipulation in the rolling mill, where it is pa.s.sed between successive pairs of rolls until it has been reduced to the required gauge, and this operation has to be performed with such nicety that a variation of one thousand part of an inch in the thickness of the strip would make such an alteration in the flexibility of the pens made from it as to cause considerable dissatisfaction to the purchasers of the article.

The steel on leaving the mill is conveyed to the gauging room, and it will be found to have increased to three times its original length, and now appears with a bright surface. Hitherto the operations have been conducted by men and boys; but now, in the course of manufacture, the pens will enter on a series of processes in which the quick and delicate fingers of women and girls play an important part. The strips of steel are now given out to the cutters. The _Toolmaker,_ who, as a rule, both makes and sets the tools, has placed in what is known as a bolster a die, having a hole perforated through it of the exact shape of the blank to be cut; and attached to the bottom of the screwed bolt of the press is a punch, also bearing the exact shape of the blank. The girl with her left hand introduces one of the strips of steel at the back of the press, and, pulling the handle toward her with the right hand, the screw descends, driving the punch into the bed, and in so doing has perforated the strip of steel with a scissors-like cut, making a blank which falls through the opening in the die into a drawer below. Now, with her left hand she pulls the strip toward her until it is stopped by a little projection called a guide; and again the right hand moves the handle, the screw descends, and another blank is cut. The operation is continued until the whole of one side of the strip is perforated; it is then reversed and the other side treated in a similar way. If you were to hold up the strip thus manipulated--now called sc.r.a.p--you would find that in some particular part the perforations approach so nearly to each other as to form a slight bar, which breaks easily between the thumb and finger. This is rendered necessary from the fact that steel sc.r.a.p is worth only one-fifth of the value of the raw material, and, as under the most favorable conditions, the sc.r.a.p averages one-third the original weight given out for cutting, it behooves the manufacturer to reduce the sc.r.a.p as much as practicable. If these blanks are examined, a small V-shaped indentation, looking like a defect, will be found upon the upper edge of that part inserted in the holder. This small mark plays an important part in the succeeding processes. To a casual observer there does not appear much difference between the two sides of the blank; but, however well the tools are made, that side of the blank which is uppermost in cutting out will be rougher than the under side. This mark enables the operator to distinguish at a glance the smooth side, and by always keeping the rough side upward the burr is polished off in a later process. The blanks are now ready to be pa.s.sed to the next process--_marking._ This operation is performed by a female, with the aid of a stamp. The precise mark required is cut upon a piece of steel, and, being placed in the hammer of the stamp, the girl puts her right foot into a stirrup attached to a rope, which is pa.s.sed round a pulley, and, pressing downward, causes the hammer to ascend. Taking a handful of blanks with her left hand, by a dexterous motion she makes a little train of them between the thumb and finger in parallel order, presenting the first in the most ready position to be pa.s.sed to the other hand. The right hand is brought toward the left, and, taking a blank, places it with the point toward the worker in a guide upon the bed of the stamp, then by suddenly letting the hammer descend a blow is struck upon the blank, which gives an impression of the name cut upon the punch. The quick fingers of the operator pa.s.s backward and forward with such rapidity that a skillful girl will mark from two hundred to two hundred and fifty gross per day. If the mark required is unusually large, the marking process is deferred until after the pen has been pierced, in order that the blank may be annealed (or softened), which takes the impression more readily than the hard steel.

Now, in order to make a metallic pen suitable for writing it is necessary to consider some means of producing elasticity, and also to devise some method by which the smooth steel shall cause the ink to attach itself to the pen. This is brought about by the next process-- _piercing._ In this operation the tools are of a very delicate character, and as the center pierce (the aperture in which the slit terminates) is frequently of an ornamental design the tools, being small, have to be made with great precision. The piercing punch and bed having been fixed in a screw press, and an ingenious arrangement of guides fastened thereto, the girl selects a blank from a tray on her left hand, and, placing it in its proper position by the aid of the guides, pushes the fly of the press from her, the screw descends, driving the punch into the bed, and the operation of piercing is completed.

The blanks are still moderately hard, and before they can be made to take the shape of a pen it is necessary that they should be softened, which is effected by the process called _annealing._ The blanks having been freed from the dust and garbase that has become attached to them are carefully placed in round iron pots, which are again inclosed in larger ones and covered over with charcoal dust to prevent the entrance of gases, and put into the m.u.f.fle, heated to a dull red, and then allowed to cool.

The blanks are now soft and pliable, readily taking the various shapes into which pens are made by the next process, called _raising._ This operation is performed by the aid of a punch and die fitted into a screw-press. The punch is fitted into a contrivance called a false nose, fixed in the bottom of the screw of the press; and the die or bed is placed in a cylindrical piece of steel (called a bolster) with a groove cut for the reception of the die, the bolster being fastened to the bottom of the press by a screw underneath. The punch and die being fixed so as to exactly fit each other, the toolmaker places a small piece of tissue paper between them, takes an impression, examines it, and proceeds to rectify any inequality in the pressure, so as to insure perfection in the shape. This being accomplished, the toolmaker fixes four pieces of steel (called guides) to the bolster in such positions that the operator is enabled to slide the blank into the bed, where it is held by the guides till the punch descends, forces the blank into the bed, and gives the pen its shape. The article is now narrower than it was in its blank form, and the girl pushes it through the tools with a small stick held in the hand with which she works the press handle, while with the other hand she places another blank in its position in the bed.

The pen is now shaped or raised, but it is still soft, and consequently another process is necessitated--_hardening._ This is effected by placing the pens in thin layers in round pans with lids.

They are placed in the m.u.f.fle for a period varying from twenty to thirty minutes, during which time they have acquired a bright red heat. The workman then withdraws them and empties the contents into a large bucket immersed in a tank of oil. The bucket is perforated at the bottom, and being elevated, the oil drains off. The pens are next placed in a perforated cylinder, which, being set in motion, revolves and drains off the remainder of the oil. The pens are still greasy, and as brittle as gla.s.s; and in order to free them from the grease they are again placed in perforated buckets and immersed in a tank of boiling soda water. After they are freed from the grease the pens are put into an iron cylinder, which is kept revolving over a charcoal fire until they are softened or tempered down to the special degree required. In this process the workman is guided by the color, which indicates the varying temperature of the metal of which the articles are made. Brittleness has given place to pliability, but the pens are black in color and scratch at the point, and to remedy this defect they are subjected to the next process--_scouring._ In order to do this the pens are dipped in a bath of diluted sulphuric acid--called pickle--which frees the articles from any extraneous substances they may have acquired in the hardening and tempering processes. This requires to be done with great care, or the acid would injure the steel. The pens are then placed in iron barrels with a quant.i.ty of water and small pebbly-looking material. This latter material is composed of annealing pots broken and ground fine enough to pa.s.s readily through a fine riddle. The barrel being set in motion, the pens are scoured for periods varying from five to eight hours, and are placed again in barrels with dry pot for about the same period, after which they are put into other barrels together with a quant.i.ty of dry sawdust. On being taken out of these barrels the body of the pen has acquired a bright silver color, and the point has been rounded.

The article has now the shape and appearance of a finished pen, and yet it possesses none of its characteristics, and, if tried, will be found to have no more action than a lead pencil, as it is deficient in that important part of a writing instrument--the slit. Before being slit the pen is ground between the centre pierce and the point. This process is performed by girls, with the aid of what is called a "bob"

or "glazer." The "bob" is a circular piece of alder wood about ten and a half inches in diameter and half an inch in width. Round this a piece of leather is stretched and dressed with emery. A spindle is driven through the centre, and the two ends placed in sockets. The "bob" is set in motion by means of a leather band, and the girl holding a pen firmly, with a light touch grinds off a portion of the surface.

This operation being completed, the last and most important mechanical operation has to be performed--_slitting._ The tools with which this process is effected are two oblong pieces of steel about an inch and a half long, three-eighths of an inch thick, and an inch and a quarter wide. These are called the cutters, and upon the preparation and setting of these the successful issue of the process depends. The edges of these cutters are equal in delicacy to the cutting edge of a razor, but the shape is more suggestive of a portion cut from the thickest part of a large pair of shears. The cutter being fixed in the press, a pair of guides are screwed on either side, and a small tool called a table, or rest, being attached to the contrivance called a bolster, which holds the bottom cutter, the operator takes a pen, places it on the table, pushes the point up toward the guide, pulls the handle, the upper cutter descends, meets the lower one, and the process of slitting is completed.

Now, although this operation completes the mechanical processes of pen making, the article is by no means finished. If you examine the pen now you will find that the outer edge of each point is smooth, while the inside edges which have just been made by the slit are sharp and scratch. To remove this defect the operation of "barreling" has to be again resorted to. The pens are again placed in the iron barrels with pounded pot, kept revolving from five to six hours, and finally polished in sawdust.

The pens are now of a bright silver-steel color and perfectly smooth, but as they are required in various tints, they are colored and afterward varnished to prevent rust. To accomplish the first of these results the articles are placed in a copper or iron cylinder and kept revolving over a c.o.ke fire until the requisite tint is obtained, the color depending upon the temperature of the cylinder. If the pens are intended to be lacquered they are placed in a solution of sh.e.l.lac dissolved in methylated spirits. The spirit is drained off, and the pens are placed in wire cylinders and kept revolving until the action of the air dries the lacquer. They are then scattered upon iron trays, inserted in an oven, and the heat diffuses the lacquer equally over the surface of the pens, so that when they have cooled down they have a glossy appearance, which gives to them an air of finish and prevents rust.

The pen is now finished as far as manufacturing processes are concerned, yet before it can be offered to the public it has to undergo a rigid examination called _"looking over."_ This is performed by trained girls, and when the defective ones have been sorted out the good pens are sent to the finished warehouse to be put up into boxes. These boxes are of various descriptions, adapted to suit the markets for which they are intended. In many instances the labels which form the covers of the boxes are elaborately printed from first-cla.s.s designs, and some of them have highly-finished steel engravings of royal personages and celebrities in the scientific, literary, musical, and political world. The quant.i.ties contained in these boxes vary with the countries for which they are intended; for the manufacturers study the wants of their customers, and do not offer articles counted in dozens to people who reckon by tens.

We have now traced the manufacture of this little article from its beginning as a plain piece of steel through all its stages until it has developed into that indispensable requisite of daily life--a pen.

HISTORY OF THE PERRYIAN PEN WORKS.

The firm of Messrs. Perry & Co., London, was founded in the year 1824 by Mr. James Perry, who carried on business originally in Manchester, then in London. Mr. James Perry died in the year 1843. Mr. Stephen Perry, who conducted the business afterward in partnership with Mr.

Hayes and others, died in the year 1873, and was succeeded by his sons, Messrs. Joseph John and Lewis Henry Perry. The firm of Perry & Co. was known all over Europe as the house which first introduced to the commercial world steel pens of a superior quality, and in many countries steel pens are now known under the general denomination of _"Perry pens."_ The first pens were manufactured by Perry & Co. in London, princ.i.p.ally from flattened or ribbon steel wire, and in the year 1828 Mr. Josiah, afterward Sir Josiah, Mason, _then a manufacturer of steel split rings,_ produced steel pens so much superior to the pens made up to that period that Messrs. Perry & Co.

entered into contracts with him for the sole supply of all the pens they might require; this connection continued up to the time of the formation of this company. In the meantime, Messrs. Perry & Co. had also introduced the sale of elastic bands and pencil cases; the production of the latter was confided to Mr. W.E. Wiley, who, in the year 1850, began the manufacture first of gold pens, afterward of pencil cases. Messrs. Perry & Co. also contracted with Mr. Wiley for the purchase of all the pencil cases they might dispose of, and thus Mr. Wiley's works a.s.sumed gigantic proportions. Mr. Alfred Sommerville, who had been connected with the steel-pen trade since its infancy, established the firm of A. Sommerville & Co. in the year 1851. Although he, in the year 1857, began manufacturing steel pens in connection with a partner, he likewise contracted with Mr. Josiah Mason for a superior cla.s.s of steel pens, princ.i.p.ally intended for the Continental markets, and many of which were either his own invention or suggested by him. Mr. Sommerville desiring to retire from business, Sir Josiah Mason purchased his trade in the year 1870, but continued to carry it on under the old style of A. Sommerville & Co.

These four businesses being so intimately connected and dependent upon each other, some gentlemen of eminence in the manufacturing town of Birmingham decided, in conjunction with some of the leading proprietors, to establish a limited company, for the purpose of uniting and amalgamating inseparably the various establishments, and thus the company of _"Perry & Co., Limited,"_ was formed.

On the spot forming the princ.i.p.al entrance to the works, Mr. Samuel Harrison, in the year 1778, founded a manufactory in which he carried on his invention of steel split rings; but Mr. Harrison, who was an ingenious mechanic, also manufactured mathematical instruments, some of which were used by Dr. Priestley in his researches, and on one occasion he made a steel pen for Dr. Priestley, probably the first steel pen ever produced. Mr. Josiah Mason succeeded to the business of Mr. Harrison in 1823, and in 1828 began the manufacture of steel pens. For several years he gave his whole attention to improvements in the manufacture of steel pens, and Mr. Perry took out several most important patents for the improvement of steel pens, many of which have not been surpa.s.sed in ingenuity or in utility, and the princ.i.p.al among them, the so-called "double patent," is universally applied by the pen trade to a great number of pens to this very day. In 1842 Mr.

Mason's attention was absorbed by the process of electroplating and gilding, at that time invented and carried on by Mr. Elkington, in partnership with whom he founded the great firm of Elkington, Mason & Co. For some years the production of pens flagged, but in 1852 a nephew of Sir Josiah Mason, Mr. Isaac Smith (deceased in 1868), gave a new stimulus to the manufacture of pens, and from that time the production gradually increased until it a.s.sumed its present proportions. The manufactory now covers nearly two acres; it occupies a whole square and fronts four streets. In the building fronting Lancaster Street (five stories high) the offices, warehouses and storerooms of finished goods are distributed. The underground floor forms a huge machine shop, in which all the presses, rolls, and general iron and machine work employed throughout the manufactory are produced by skillful mechanics. Behind the front building there are several courtyards and quadrangles, in the largest of which are placed in a row five double-flue boilers, each 20 feet long by 7 feet diameter, working at a pressure of more than 55 lb. to the square inch, supplying the steam power both for propelling the steam engines and for heating the manufactory. In the rolling mill, measuing 64 by 38 feet, three double-cylinder engines, working up to 293 indicated horsepower, give motion to 18 pairs of rolls, rolling four to six tons of steel per week. The largest workshops are the slitting and grinding rooms, 64 by 38 feet, the latter 24 feet high. In the slitting room 90 girls apply the last mechanical process to the manufacture of steel pens, in slitting them by presses of ingenious construction. In the grinding room more than 160 girls are busily employed cross and straight grinding steel pens on wood cylinders covered with emery. The room in which the finished pens are placed in boxes measures 54 by 30 feet, and in it alone are employed 50 girls boxing and labeling steel pens, or fitting penholder tips on handles of various materials, princ.i.p.ally of cedar. In that part of the building having a frontage on Corporation Street there is a dining room 86 feet 6 inches long by 68 feet wide, fitted up with tables to accommodate 600 people. Here the employees are served with a warm dinner at prices varying from 2d. to 6d. At one end of the room there is a stage, where dramatic entertainments and concerts are given in the winter season by the workpeople. At the other end there is a library, in a glazed part.i.tion, containing about 2,000 volumes of standard works. These books are issued to the hands employed by the firm free. One of the important features of this manufactory is the employment of m.u.f.fles heated by gas produced from Siemens's gas generators. These m.u.f.fles allow the heat to be regulated to a nicety, and enable the company to carry on the process of annealing and hardening to very great perfection.

The manufacture of steel pens employs in all about 900 workpeople, the weekly production is 45,000 gross, which quant.i.ty will shortly be increased to 50,000 gross, per week. Six smaller steam engines are employed independently of those already mentioned in various parts of the works. The manufacture of penholder sticks is carried on in two separate buildings. Penholder sticks were produced by Mr. Mason as far back as 1835, but their manufacture had lapsed; it was only resumed eight years ago, since which time, by new and ingenious machinery, princ.i.p.ally the inventions of Mr. W. E. Wiley, the managing director, it has a.s.sumed proportions of great magnitude.

The pencil case and solitaire works carried on by Mr. Wiley, first alone, and then in co-partnership with his son in Graham Street, have now been transferred to Lancaster Street.

Pencil cases, first introduced by Messrs. Mordan & Lund, in London, have undergone various changes and improvements, the princ.i.p.al of which was a lead holder pa.s.sing through the point of the pencil case, which was slit for that purpose. This invention was patented by Mr.

Wiley in the year 1857, and created a complete revolution in the pencil-case trade, as it enabled the manufacturers to use a thicker and longer lead, which could be propelled and withdrawn at will and would last in daily use more than six months. This patented mechanism was introduced into cases made from hard wood, bone and ivory, but since the year 1868 a composition called aluminium gold, so resembling gold that it cannot be distinguished from it, and resisting the effects of oxidation, consequently free from tarnish, made a further revolution in the pencil-case trade, enabling the million to possess an elegant and highly-wrought pencil case at a very moderate price.

Messrs. Perry & Co., of London, gave to this manufacture publicity in every part of Europe, and the quant.i.ties produced and sold are incredible.

In 1874 a new patent was added to the many inventions for which this establishment was famous. Its purpose was to produce a solitaire stud made in two parts, so as to enable its ready application without the trouble of pa.s.sing a b.u.t.ton of large diameter through a small b.u.t.tonhole. A self-acting steel spring is fixed in the upper part of the stud, and snaps as soon as inserted into the lower part, where a slight pressure on two projections releases the springs and permits the separation of the two parts. These solitaires are manufactured of gold, silver, and a variety of other metals, the princ.i.p.al of which is gold plate. There are now more than five hundred patterns in existence, and this useful manufacture grows daily in extension.

Perry & Co.'s paper binders, an article now universally used for fastening together loose papers, cloth patterns, etc., are produced in infinite styles and sizes, princ.i.p.ally by self-acting machinery.

The total number of workpeople employed in the company's manufactories exceeds 1,300.

The business of Perry & Co. was carried on for more than forty years at 37 Red Lion Square, London, but the increase of business and the reconstruction of London required that a more central position should be found for the development of the commercial department of the company. Large and handsome warehouses having been constructed on the Holborn Viaduct, the company transferred their London depot to a building five stories high on the side fronting the Holborn Viaduct and eight stories high at the back. In this immense warehouse are stored not only the produce of the manufactories of this company, but also special articles for which this firm has been famous for the last thirty years, princ.i.p.ally the elastic or endless bands, patented by Mr. Daft and Mr. Stephen Perry, and originally introduced by Perry & Co. in conjunction with McIntosh & Co., afterward in conjunction with Warne & Co. Perry's Royal Aromatic Bands are now an indispensable article, and may be procured in every city of the world. Every fancy article required by stationers can be found in these vast stores. An ill.u.s.trated price current which appears monthly, and which numbers more than 120 pages, gives fair idea of the variety of articles of which samples and stock can be found ready for daily delivery. The increase of business has been so rapid that the company found it necessary to lease the adjoining premises, which is stored with some of the two thousand articles forming the staple trade of the London depot, and the princ.i.p.al of which are the following: American Letter Files, Clips (now manufactured in Lancaster Street), Marking and other Inks, Aromatic Bands, Audascript Pens, Bostonite Goods, Cigar Lighters, Copying Ink and Copying Ink Powder, Copying Ink Pencils, Copying Presses, Corrugated Imperial Bands, Essence of Ink, Grease Extractors, India Rubber for Erasing, Ink and Pencil Erasers, Ink Extractors, Patent and other Inkstands in every variety, Key Rings, Letter Clips, Letter Files, Metallic Books, Paper Binders, Pencil Point Protectors, Pencils and Pencil Cases, Penholders, Pen Knives, Pen Racks, Gold Pens, Portfolios, Presses, Scotch Tartan Fancy Goods, Solitaires or Sleeve Links, etc., etc., etc.

This establishment is under the exclusive management of Mr. Joseph J.

Perry, managing director.

_[The ill.u.s.trations in this work are engraved from pen-and-ink sketches executed by Walter Langley with a Perry's No. 25 pen.]_