266 THE GOLD PEN — ITS HISTORY AND MANUFACTURE. 



Thirteenth. — The nibs are now cut accurately. 



Fourteenth. — The points are set together, and the pens filed into 

 shape. 



Fifteenth. — They pass into the grinder's hands. 



Sixteenth. — They are stoned and polished. 



Seventeenth. — The nibs are finally adjusted, the point smoothed, and 

 the pen is ready for writing. 



Eighteenth, and lastly. — Every pen is now tried with ink. If it be 

 defective, it returns to the operatives ; if not, but writes readily and 

 smoothly, it is transferred to the office, placed in the holder, and exposed 

 for sale. 



Such, briefly, are the various processes through which every pen is 

 compelled to pass before it is ready for the hand of the purchaser. 



Iridium, which forms the so-called " diamond-point " of the gold pen, 

 is the hardest known mineral after the diamond, and is the only one 

 which at all answers the purposes required in the delicate manufacture 

 of which we are speaking. The iridium imported is from the mines 

 of Siberia, and from South America, and is obtained through agents 

 in England, being purchased largely expressly for the use of the gold- 

 pen manufacturers. Its price in gross bulk ranges from $30 to $75 

 per ounce; no good qualities being procurable at a lower rate than $30. 

 Indeed, some years ago, very excellent samples are known to have com- 

 manded $100 an ounce. The same quality, again, which was valued five 

 years ago at $15 and $20 per ounce, now brings $50. As the demand has 

 increased, the quality of the mineral has also grown poorer, it being now 

 quite difficult to procure good qualities to any large extent — the bulk of 

 that imported being at least seven-eighths waste. The details of the sepa- 

 ration of this mineral from its kindred metals, which likewise enter into 

 combination with platinum, would furnish an interesting paragraph, but we 

 must hasten on to other topics. We will say, however, that he who shall 

 discover some mode — chemical or otherwise — whereby the refuse of the 

 iridium in its present unmalleable and infusible state may be rendered 

 subservient to the uses of the manufacturer, will have accomplished an 

 improvement which would add greatly to the rapidity and certainty of his 

 operations. 



It is not easy to make an estimate of the number of gold pens manufac- 

 tured per annum in America, but it is probably not less than 1,500,000. 

 A person who had not thought of the subject would scarcely suppose that 

 1 ,000 lb. of gold are used up every year in America in the manufacture of 

 such a trifling article as pens. A statement of the tons of iron worked 

 into pens in England every year would be even more startling. 



The establishment of which we have spoken is conducted simultaneously 

 in New York and Boston, giving constant employment to some thirty or 

 forty workmen, and transacting business to a very large extent. The two 

 factories turn out annually 10-4,000 gold pens, complete — or an average of 

 2,000 per week. To supply customers and the trade, 150,000 pen-cases, 



