* Mr. Sam: Timmins says, “that Levesley told him that Gillott started in Birmingham as a jobbing cutler; that Mitchell had the secret of pen making; that Mitchell sent for Gillott to come to Birmingham, and that he (J.G.) first lived at the top of Water Street; that Gillott began to make pens in Bread Street; that Perry made pens from flattened steel wire, the breadth of the pen (the steel was 3s. 6d. per lb., and drawn at Old Ford); that he had seen cross grinding (at Gillott's) in Newhall Street, and fifty women at work; and that pens had double slits and cut holes. Levesley certainly knew all the Gillott family, personally, in Sheffield, and he (S. T.) had a long interview with him shortly before his death, when he mentioned all the facts given here.”
Herr Ignaz Nagel, in his “Report on Writing, Drawing, and Painters' Requisites,” at the Vienna Exhibition, 1873, says:
“From careful inquiries that we made in Birmingham, we learned that a knife cutler, of Sheffield, was the first man who had the idea of making pens of steel, and that a tinman of the name of Skipper [Skinner], of Sheffield, afterwards manufactured the pens in great quantities. His son developed the idea still further. This, according to our informant, was fifty years ago. A steel pen artisan, working in Birmingham, remembers perfectly well reading the announcement in a window of the High Street, in Sheffield, 1816: 'Steel pens are repaired here at sixpence apiece.' There was a man named Spittle, in Birmingham, who used to make steel pens by hand. He was succeeded by the brothers John and William Mitchell, who were manufacturers of steel pens, wholesale and by machinery, about forty- five years ago. Perry came afterwards, and took out a patent for the first steel pens, and after him Gillott, who had learnt the business with the Mitchells.”
A writer in Herbert's Encyclopoedia published in 1837, says
“The first decided attempt to introduce metallic pens to general use was made by Mr. Wise, whose perpetual pens will doubtless be remembered by many of our readers. The name of Wise was rendered conspicuous in most of our stationers' shops some twenty-five or thirty years since, as the original inventor and general manufacturer of the steel pens.”
We stated at the beginning of this article that of three men— Mitchell, Gillott, and Mason—who might have done something toward fixing the date of the invention of manufacturing pens by the adaptation of tools worked by the screw press, only one—Mason—made a statement:
“The first making of steel pens that I know of was about the year 1780, by my late friend Mr. Harrison, for Dr. Priestley. He took sheet steel, made a tube of it, and the part joined formed the slit of the pen. He then filed away the barrel and formed the pen. I found some of the identical pens amongst other articles and used them for a long time.
“The second mode of making pens was by punching a rough blank out of thin sheet steel. This blank formed the well-known barrel pen. It was brought into the barrel shape by rounding, but before rounding it had to be filed into a better form about the nib, and when rounded in the soft state, a sharp chisel was used to mark the inside of the pen which became the slit, after hardening. Before tempering, this mark was 'tabbered' with a small hammer, and it would crack where the inside mark was made. Then it was tempered and underwent grinding, and shaping the nib until a point suitable for fine or broad, as required.
“I made barrel pens in 1828, and 'slip' pens for Perry in 1829, and the first lot of 100 at one time was sent November 20, 1830. Frequently, lots of 20 or 30 gross were sent between 1829 and 1830, and in 1831 I sent pens to Perry amounting to L.1421, 1s. 3d.
“Perry certainly never made a pen as they are now made, viz., the slit cut with press tools; all he made were cracked slit.
“I made steel barrel pens some time before I made 'slip' pens for Perry.
“It is doubtful when metal pens were made. The first I know of were made by Mr. Harrison, for Dr. Priestley. Perry was certainly not the first maker of steel pens, but I have no doubt that he was the first steel slip pen maker, and no doubt the first to use a goose quill for a pen holder, hence the slip pen.
“The first stick pen holders I made for Perry in 1832, and for Gillott in 1835, and sold sticks to Gillott in 1840—L.293 18s. 7d.”
Mason claimed to have made barrel pens for Perry, of London, in 1828, and “slip or nibbed” pens in 1829; but he does not appear to have made any claim to priority of invention over Mitchell and Gillott.
Now, although Mitchell made no claim himself, on the death of Mr. Gillott the following letter appeared in the Daily Post:
“The remarks which have appeared in a local paper upon the death of Mr. J. Gillott, that the steel pen owes its existence to him, and that the adaptation of machinery to the manufacture of metallic pens was his invention, lead the public to wrong conclusions. It is due to the memory of my late father—John Mitchell—that I should state that he not only made steel pens, but used machinery in their production, for some time before Mr. Gillott commenced in that branch of business.”— HENRY MITCHELL, January 12, 1872.