1835.] Scientific Intelligence. 399 



stance. The edge of this instrument is finer than any razor, but is 

 much harder, as it does not require to receive an edge during the whole 

 of the day. This superior quality is given to the steel by beating it 

 for several hours with a hammer. It is an important fact, and appears 

 to have been discovered by the pen manufacturers. A triangular 

 piece is next cut out at the upper end of the slit in the pen, which is 

 called piercing. The next object is to give them their proper shape, 

 which is effected by means of a punch fitting into a corresponding 

 concavity. 



The pens are then heated red hot and dipped into oil, which must 

 be at least 3 feet deep. The oil in a few weeks looses its properties 

 and becomes charred. The next operation is polishing. This is 

 effected in a peculiar apparatus, called emphatically the devil, con- 

 consisting of a fly wheel and box in which the pens are placed, and to 

 which a motion is given, resembling that required in shaking together 

 materials in a bag. This motion is continued for eight hours, when 

 the pens are found to be completely deprived by the friction against 

 each other of any asperities which might have existed on their edges, 

 and though not visible to the naked eye, would have obstructed the 

 free motion of the pen in writing. After this they are tempered in 

 a box, shaken and brought to a blue colour, being carefully watched, 

 and the heat lessened whenever a shade of yellow is observed on their 

 surface. The split is now completed by touching its side with a pair 

 of pincers. 



With regard to the number of steel pens made, from information 

 communicated to Dr. Faraday, it appears that Mr. Perry manufac- 

 tures one hundred thousand weekly, or five million two hundred 

 thousand per annum. Mr. Gillot employs 300 pair of hands, and 

 consumes 40 tons of steel annually. Now, 1 ton of steel produces 

 about two millions of pens. Hence, this manufacturer alone makes 

 eighty millions of pens annually. The total quantity of steel em- 

 ployed in this country for making pens amounts to 120 tons, which is 

 equivalent to about two hundred millions of pens. 



Notwithstanding the immense product of the manufacture, it is 

 remarkable that the consumption of quills has not diminished, indeed, 

 it is on the increase ; this may be accounted for by the consideration 

 that within the last 10 or 15 years, the population has increased ^, 

 and 3 people now can write for 1 at the commencement of that pe- 

 riod ; and besides, both the Continent and America are supplied by 

 us. When first introduced, steel pens were as high as 8s. per gross, 

 then they fell to 4s. and recently have been manufactured at Birming- 

 ham at as low a price as 4d. the gross. It appears that the only in- 

 terest that has suffered by the employment of steel pens, is that of the 

 pen-knife makers. Pens have also been made of horn and tortoise- 

 shell, and it is no small consolation to consider that if steel should fail 

 us we can have recourse to such abundant materials. 



Scientific Books in the Press and on hand. 



MARTINET'S MANUAL OF PATHOLOGY: Edited by Jones Quain.M.D. 

 Professor of Anatomy and Physiology in the University of London. A New- 

 Edition, with numerous Additions. 



NATURAL HISTORY of the ORDER CETACEA and the OCEANIC 

 Inhabitants of the Arctic Regions. By H. W. Dewhubst, Surgeon. 



