FOUNTAIN PENS AND LEAD PENCILS

Whenever there was a convenient goosepond on the way to school, the
children of less than one hundred years ago used to stop there to hunt
for goose quills. They carried these to the teacher, and with his
penknife--which took its name from the work it did--he cut them into
the shape of pens. The points soon wore out, and "Teacher, will you
please mend my pen?" was a frequent request.

When people began to make pens of steel, they made them as nearly like
quill pens as possible, with pen and holder all in one. These were
called "barrel pens." They were stiff, hard, and expensive, especially
as the whole thing was useless as soon as the pen was worn out, but
they were highly esteemed because they lasted longer than quills and
did not have to be mended. After a while separate pens were
manufactured that could be slipped into a holder; and one improvement
after another followed until little by little the cheap, convenient
writing tool that we have to-day was produced.

A pen is a small thing, but each one is worked upon by twenty to
twenty-four persons before it is allowed to be sold. The material is
the best steel. It comes in sheets five feet long and nineteen inches
wide, and about one fortieth of an inch thick, that is, three times
as thick as the finished pen. The first machine cuts the sheet
crosswise into strips from two to three inches wide, varying according
to the size of the pen to be made. These strips are put into iron
boxes and kept at a red heat for a number of hours to anneal or soften
them. Then they pass between heavy rollers, a process which not only
helps to toughen them, but also stretches the steel so that it is now
fifty inches long instead of nineteen.

At least six or seven people have handled the material already, and
even now there is nothing that looks like pens; but the next machine
cuts them out, by dies, of course. The points interlap; and the
cutting leaves odd-shaped openwork strips of steel for the scrap-heap.
This part of the work is very quick, for the machine will cut
thousands of pens in an hour. Now is when the little hole above the
slit is punched and the side slits cut. To make the steel soft and
pliable, it must be annealed again, kept red hot for several hours,
and then cooled. Thus far it has looked like a tiny fence paling, but
at length it begins to resemble a pen, for it is now stamped with
whatever letters or designs may be desired, usuall