MAKING GOLD PENS.
The Many Delicate Processes Employed
in Their Manufacture.
Tour Through The Factory—The Forty five
Steps from a Gold Pen's inception
to It's birth

COPYRIGHT 1889.

Almost everybody who is anybody
writes, at least occasionally, with a
gold pen nowadays. Professional men,
with much correspondence, authors
and men of business use them on account
of their flexibility and adaptability
to all forms of business, yet few

among the thousands who are thus
equipped are acquainted with the peculiar
and very interesting process of
their manufacture. The fact that
America leads the world in this branch
of industry as in almost everything- else
of a mechanical or industrial nature,
and that an American firm has been
awarded the Grand Prize of the Paris
Exposition for the manufacture of gold
pens, naturally directs attention to
the subject.

Although the houses engaged in the
manufacture of gold pens are comparatively
few in number, their output is
considerable and is a source of extensive
revenue. One American firm alone
manufactures and sells more than 100.-
000 gold pens every year, while others
do a correspondingly profitable business
Before a gold pen is ready for
use by the gilt-edged editor or the toiling
cutter of coupons, it goes through no
less than forty-five ditferent processes,
each important in itself and such actually
necessary for the perfect completion
of the finished article. Yet such
is the case and the care and ingenuity
required in each of these processes
calls for skilled labor of a high order.
Before making your pen, the first
thing is to get your gold. This is purchased
from the United States Assay
office and comes in square bars.
A bar of. say twenty-five ounces,
costs the manufacturer $300.
When the gold is first received
in its pure state it has a somewhat
reddish tinge, but after it, has
been alloyed it is sicklied over with a
pale yellow tint, and there is a slight
scum on the surface. Then comes the
annealing, and this leaves the surface
a dingy pale and makes the metal
more pliable. After the gold is alloyed,
melted down to sixteen karats and annealed
it is rolled into bars about four
feet long and six feet wide. This is
done in heavy presses, which reduce
the thickness of the metal to a little
more than that of a sheet of blotting
paper, for the larger size of pens, and
still smaller for those of smaller dimension.

From the rolling presses the gold
goes to the hands of the stamper. Dies,
arranged according to the different sizes
required, punch out the rough pen from
the yielding gold. The gold, pen in
chyrsalis, as it may be called, is a very
awkwaid looking affair resembling in
shape the ordinary tag of commerce,
with a rough wab on the top. It quickly
passes to the notcher who with the
quick time of the machine makes a
notch in the top of tho wab.

Now comes a very interesting process
known as sweating. The operator lays
a row of the notched pens and with a
pair of pincers picks lip a small quantity
of irridiurn, which he places at the
point of each pen. Then. applying a
Blow-pipe to a gas jet, the flame is directed
upon the gold and irridium, and
the latter is gently forced into the
former. The metal reaches white hot
and you can almost see the irridium
floating into it. This is to give firmness
to the point of the pen.

From the sweater the still unsightly
pen is taken to another operator who
on a copper wheel charged with emery,
grinds off the black outside and pre-
pares the different pens so that they
shall be of equal size.

And now comes a process which
shows the expanding powers of gold.
It is called breaking
down and consists of passing each
pen through a heavy press which thins
and lengthens it. After this, each pen
is passed through a machine which runs
it to the required gauge. As yet the
pen may be called embryotic but now it
is passed to an operator who hammers
at it justly and its first sign of life
is shown in the elasticity that is acquired.

Tt begins to look just a little, but not
very much like a pen now. And after
it has passed through the press that is
awaiting it- it drops into a drawer be-
neath and comes out in the outline of
its future form.

Another operator now
takes it and in a vrice the name of the
manufacturer is stamped on the back in
clear cut letters. Still our pen is flat and
even a poet of passion could not evoke
Eros with it. This however is quickly
remedied with what is euphoniously
known as the Sweding Process, which
consists of passing it through a machine
which turns it to the required roundness.
Really. Our flat wabbed friend of a pen
of a few minutes ago is begining to take
on a semblance of familirarity.

But we are far from the end yet. There is
still a sort of rough lace on the surface
and to remove this the pen is passed over
a copper and emery wheel and comes out
much improved in personal appearance.

Now comos the very delicate operations
which require skill, a quick eye and a
steady hand. You will remember
that in the sweating process, the
point of the pen and the notch that had
been cut in it had been tempered with
irridium. In front of tho operator to
whom we now come is a small circular
saw of copper with an edge almost as
fine as that of a razor. The point of the
pen is put to this and almost in a flash
the iridium is cut through.

From here the pen is passed to another operator.
The nails of his thumbs are
covered with heavy gold plates for protection,
and he presides over another
circular saw of almost infinitesimal
perfections and with an edge as thin as
a hair. Presto! In the twinkling of an
eye the little saw cuts through the
yielding gold and the slit is cut.
After having gone through all these
different processes the pen is flabby
and soft. Then follows what is known
as the setting up process by which the
nibs are stiffened and the pen begins to
be of some use. But the little saw,
fine as it was, that cut tho slit has left
some rough edges and these are now
ground away in a wheel made of Russian
iron. From this his penship is
taken to another copper and emory
wheel where he is smoothed and
strengthened by the friction.

The points are not thoroughly in shape
yet, however. They may look so
to the naked eye, but the next
operator, to whom the pen passes
known as the pointer, looks at
them only through a microscope and
finds faults which he deftly obliterates.

Now comes the stoner. he is armed
with a box of Arkansas stone about the
thickness of a man's finger and
sharpened to a point. By a careful application
of this the pen is given smoothness
and firmness, and the task requires
knowledge and experience.

More? Polishing!
The gold pen certainly ought
to have the entree to polite society, for
it is so thoroughly polished before it
gets there. This time a wheel covered
with felt is used and the rough marks
that the stoner has left are taken away.
Then there is another stoner ready to
take the pen in hand and give it the
rough surface that is found on the top
and on the inside of every well regulated
gold pen. The pen is not yet smooth
enough for the demands of commerce,
however, and it now goes to the
smoother, who gives it the final touches
and makes it about ready for use. But not
quite, though, For now comes the final
process, known as wipping- This is
the last scene of all and the pen is
dropped into, your hand, a bright, shining
spot of gold, so dazzling in its new
made glory that it is almost impossible
to conceive of its having been the black,
dull mass you saw only a short time
ago.

Yet there is still more work to be
done. Each workman, after he has
completed a certain number of pens,
turns them in to the foreman of the factory.
This functionary examines each
pen carefully, applies different tests
and the slightest flaw or imperfection
causes the pen to be sent back to the
workman by whom the defect has been
committed and, if he cannot rectify it,
the pen is broken up and melted down
and his work goes for nothing.

Different manufactures have different
methods of alloying and they are all
kept scrupulously secret, as upon them
it is claimed that the value and quality
of the pen. As everyone is aware, there
are gold pens and gold pens and they differ
greatly one from another. Of course,
a good deal of this differenc depends
upon the care bestowed upon their
manufacture, but it is also undoubtedly
true that much of this difference can be
attributed to the various methods of alloying.
It is also a noteworthy fact that our manufacturers
employ very little imported labor and that American
gold pens are made by Americans
so that the recent honor conferred by the
jury of: the Paris Exposition is entirely
rational in its acheivement

George W. Hows,
Editor of the New York Evening Express