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 scrap—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 scrap is worth only one-fifth of the value of the raw material, and, as under the most favorable conditions, the scrap averages one-third the original weight given out for cutting, it behooves the manufacturer to reduce the scrap 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 passed 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 passed 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 passed 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 pass 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 muffle, 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.
