Search the Community

According to the Birmingham Daily Post in 1865. Not sure I quite believe it, considering how little hesitation the manufacturers had to come out with new designs. Perhaps some of the innovations were difficult or expensive to make. That was known to happen with some designs, and until someone could figure out how to manufacture it more cheaply, they never were built. And for those like me not familiar with the old English money system, Shilling = 12 pence Half a Crown = 2 Shillings 6 pence, or 30 pence (2.5 shillings) So, they went from 2.5 pence a pen, to .083 pence a pen. When they were going for 2.5 pence a pen in England, Williamson in the US was making pens in Baltimore from 1808 to about 1820 and selling them for $1 each. A generation later, in 1857, Washington Medallion was selling their mass-produced pens for 1.04-cents each ($1.50 per gross). 15 years later, Esterbrook sold their Falcon for half that cost.

As far as I can tell, the British patents are not as accessible as the US patents. I may be missing some great resource, and if so, please tell me. Otherwise, I've gathered the following resources from Google Books. I am focusing on British patents to about 1860, but have gathered resources for up to 1850, then 1852 - 1869 and 1881. Unfortunately, these indices get you the patent number, date and patentee, but no real details around the patent. If anyone knows of a way, short of visiting the British national archives in person, to get the details, or even a good summary of these patents, please let me know. So, for patents up to Oct1852 start with these two indices of titles. "Pens" are under "Stationery" so they're in volume two. I'm going to list the patents I've found from this volume related to pens (I'm focused on metallic pens, but I've included others that may be of interest on FPN). Titles of Patents of Invention, Chronologically Arranged: From March 2, 1617 (14 James I.) to October 1, 1852 (16 Victoriae) Vol 1 up to 5th june 1823 Titles of Patents of Invention: Chronologically Arranged from March 2, 1617 (14 James I.) to October 1, 1852 (16 Victoriæ), Part 2, Issues 4801-14359 For those patents for 1852 on, they were published in yearly pamplets. The patent numbers changed to be the year+number. Google books has some of the indices for these years after Oct. 1852. Here are some of the resources on a year-by-year basis. Look in the front to find on what page the pens, pencils etc.. category is found. There are some gaps in the years. I have not found the subject matter indices for 1862, 1865, 1870-1880 yet. They may be out there, if so, let me know. Subject-matter Index of Patents Applied for and Patents Granted 1852 https://books.google.com/books?id=OA1HAQAAMAAJ Subject-matter Index of Patents Applied for and Patents Granted 1853 https://books.google.com/books?id=n_bHSOv4E0MC Subject-matter Index of Patents Applied for and Patents Granted 1854 https://books.google.com/books?id=kQX501VYA2AC Subject-Matter Index Of Patents Applied for and Patents Granted For the Year 1855 https://books.google.com/books?id=cq05AQAAMAAJ Subject-Matter Index Of Patents Applied for and Patents Granted For the Year 1856 https://books.google.com/books?id=c605AQAAMAAJ Subject-matter Index of Patents Applied for and Patents Granted 1857 https://books.google.com/books?id=8n1w3mAER1IC Subject-Matter Index of Patents Applied for and Patents Granted, for the Year 1858 https://books.google.com/books?id=7K05AQAAMAAJ Subject-Matter Index of Patents Applied for and Patents Granted 1859 https://books.google.com/books?id=Ca45AQAAMAAJ Subject-Matter Index of Patents Applied for and Patents Granted for the Year 1860 https://books.google.com/books?id=ia45AQAAMAAJ Subject-matter Index of Patents Applied for and Patents Granted 1861 https://books.google.com/books?id=156Fj-WntwcC Subject-matter Index of Patents Applied for and Patents Granted 1863 https://books.google.com/books?id=Tf8VGpFN-4MC Subject-matter Index of Patents Applied for and Patents Granted 1864 https://books.google.com/books?id=PsfuvWKnbuQC Subject-matter Index of Patents Applied for and Patents Granted 1866 https://books.google.com/books?id=0uomv_waIGsC Subject-matter Index of Patents Applied for and Patents Granted 1867 https://books.google.com/books?id=IvPMOMGbLt8C Subject-matter Index of Patents Applied for and Patents Granted 1868 https://books.google.com/books?id=_ltMtuunDScC Subject-matter index of patents applied for and patents granted 1869 https://books.google.com/books?id=M9bJzZjzuc4C Subject-matter Index of Patents Applied for and Patents Granted 1881 https://books.google.com/books?id=56NkqczPHOUC I'm cross posting this list, and will keep it updated, out on my steel pen blog. https://thesteelpen.com/