“In 1821 there was a B. Smith, steel toy maker, St. Paul's [Mary's] Square, Birmingham. He had a book of engravings of steel toys, among which were steel pens, made to screw on and off. This pattern book might have been one hundred years old. I sold his pens in 1823.”
The Editor of “Notes and Queries” says “Smith's pattern book was probably fifty years old,” and further remarks that steel pens must have been a regular article of manufacture before they appeared in a steel toy maker's pattern book.
“C.J.,” in note 372, says:
“The pattern book of John Barnes, Eagle Works, Wolverhampton, contains engravings of early steel pens.”
Mr. Robert Griffin says:
“In 1824 I wrote very much with a steel pen made under the direction of James Perry—a pen that lasted about eight or nine weeks, writing eight hours a day.”
In note 344, “Anon” says he remembered his father (who had premises in Water Street, Birmingham), in the summer of 1823, bringing a tall, quiet, respectable man to the manufactory. He had a piece of iron, or steel, which he required to be cut up into strips of about two inches wide. The man said he was going to get the strips rolled to make into steel pens. He gave the writer of the note sixpence and a barrel pen for his trouble. In answer to inquiries the writer put to his father, the latter stated he did not know the man's name nor where he lived, but “that he met with him in a smoke room, where he (the father) sometimes spent his evenings.” The writer further remarks: “Where the man had got his ideas from which induced him to try his hand at making steel pens I do not know, but I have an impression that there were several experimenters in existence at that time; and very soon afterward Mr. William (Joseph) Gillott, with whom my father was on terms of intimacy, came into notice as a maker of steel pens.” This is a very important statement, as it fixes a date respecting pens being made from sheet steel.
One of the oldest toolmakers in the trade has informed us that, about the year 1823 or 1824, he was frequently taken by his father to visit an uncle named Clulee, who rented power at the Water Street mill. On these occasions his father and uncle would talk about the visits of Gillott to the latter, and the hopeful manner in which he spoke of the experiments he was then making. Gillott rented power at the Water Street mill, and was engaged in grinding and finishing penknife blades, which were inserted in one end of a silver pencil case, which his relative—Mitchell—was then making.
Now, who was this “tall, quiet, respectable man?” It could not have been Gillott, as he was not tall and the father of “Anon” knew him; and Mitchell was also a short man. We have failed to trace him, and his identity is lost among the “sowers” who failed to reap the harvest of their inventions.
Mr. George Wallis, speaking of steel pens, remarks: