Esterbrook later went on to become one of the largest steel-pen manufacturers in the world. He approached five craftsmen who worked for John Mitchell in Navigation Street with an idea of setting up a business in Camden, New Jersey. In searching for opportunities, Esterbrook realized there were no steel pen manufacturers in the United States. He started by working in the stationery trade of Birmingham, where he learnt about the mechanical process invented by Mitchell for making steel pen nibs. 20th century Īnother manufacturer was Richard Esterbrook, who made quills in Cornwall, his home town. In the latter half of the 19th-century young children were also employed, with ages varying between 10-12 years old. Men served as the toolmakers and looked after the furnaces but the majority of the workers in the factories were women.
Women made 18,000 pens a day, under strict rules of no talking, no singing, and no wasting of the metal among others. These were sold worldwide to many who previously could not afford to write, thus encouraging the development of education and literacy. Many new manufacturing techniques were perfected in Birmingham, enabling the city's factories to mass-produce their pens cheaply and efficiently. Thousands of skilled craftsmen and women were employed in the industry. īy the 1850s, Birmingham was the world center of steel pen and steel nib manufacture more than half the steel-nib pens manufactured in the world were made there.
In 1828 Josiah Mason developed a cheap, efficient slip-in nib based on existing models, which could be added to a pen holder. Leonardt & Co.) traded in George and Charlotte Streets, and M. Hughes traded in St Paul's Square Leonardt & Catwinkle (then D. made pen nibs in Bread Street (now Cornwall Street) for companies such as Perry & Co. (founded as Ash & Petit) traded at 70 Navigation Street Joseph Gillott & Sons Ltd. īaker and Finnemore operated in James Street, near St Paul's Square C. John's brother William later set up his own pen-making business in St Paul's square. The Mitchells are credited as being the first manufacturers to use machines to cut pen nibs, greatly speeding up the process. John Mitchell manufactured pens in Newhall Street he went on to pioneer the mass production of steel pens (prior to this, the quill was the most common form of writing instrument).