Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/505

 P E M P E N 483 Llawhaddou, Haverford, Roch, Newport ; but Newport lias been turned into a modern dwelling-house. Most of these are Edwardian erections on Norman work, some of them having Tudor additions. The most important ecclesiastical building is the cathedral of St David s. Some sort of church existed on the site from the 6th century, but the earliest work now remaining is that of Bishop Peter do Leia (1180). This was seriously injured by the fall of the tower in 1220 ; the damage had scarcely been repaired when the church was wrecked by an earthquake in 1248. In 1328 Henry Gower succeeded to the bishopric, the most munificent benefactor the church of St David s ever saw ; he transformed the cathedral, introducing the Decorated style throughout the edifice. After the Reformation the building was permitted to fall gradually into de cay, until it had become little better than a ruin. But in 1863 the edifice, more especially the tower, was thoroughly restored under the late Sir Gilbert Scott. PEMBROKE, a municipal and parliamentary borough of South Wales, is picturesquely situated on an elevated ridge at the head of Pennar Mouth Creek, on the south side of Milford Haven, 30 miles south-west of Carmarthen. The ruins of the ancient castle, originally founded by Arnulph do Montgomery in 1094, occupy the summit of the ridge. The castle was one of the strongest of the ancient fortresses of Wales. Beneath it is an enormous natural cavern, called &quot;The Wogan,&quot; 70 feet long and 50 feet wide. At the beginning of the Civil War the castle was held for the Parliament, but, the commandants having gone over to the Royal cause, it was taken by Cromwell after six weeks siege. Near the castle are the ruins of Monkton Priory church, in the Norman style, containing a long vaulted nave in good preservation. The church of St Mary, in the Early Pointed style, possesses a massive steeple. At Pater, 2 miles west of Pembroke, is Pembroke dock, an important Government dockyard, surrounded with very strong fortifications. The dock is 70 acres in extent, and the yard affords employment to about 24,000 artisans. There are also artillery and infantry barracks. Pembroke possesses a town-hall, assembly rooms, a mechanics insti tute, an infirmary, and several charities. The town was incorporated by Strongbow, earl of Pembroke, in the reign of Stephen, but the earliest charter preserved is one granted by John, which was confirmed by successive sovereigns. The population of the municipal borough (area, 5626 acres), which includes the two wards of Pater and Pembroke, in 1871 was 13,704, and in 1881 it was 14,156. The popu lation of the parliamentary borough (area, 6298 acres) in the latter year was 16,339. PEMPHIGUS. See SKIN, DISEASES OF. PEN, an instrument for writing or for forming lines with an ink or other coloured fluid. The English word, as well as its equivalents in French (plume) and in German (Feder), originally means a wing-feather, but in ancient times the implements used for producing written charac ters were not quills. The earliest writing implement was probably the stylus (Gr. o-ruAos), a pointed bodkin of metal, bone, or ivory, which, however, was only used for produc ing incised or engraved letters. The calamus (Gr. KaAa/xos) or arundo, the hollow tubular stalk of grasses growing in marshy lands, was the true ancient representative of the modern pen ; hollow joints of bamboo were similarly employed. The use of such pens can be traced to a remote antiquity among the civilized nations of the East, where reeds and canes are to this day in common use as writing instruments. The earliest specific allusion to the quill pen occurs in the writings of St Isidore of Seville (early part of the 7th century). 1 But there is no reason to assume that the quill pen was not in use at an earlier period, and, indeed, remains have been found which prove that even metal pens were not altogether unknown to the ancient Romans. &quot; Instrumenta scriboe calamus et penna ; ex his enim verba paghiis infiguntur ; sed calamus arboris est, penna avis, cujus acumen divi- ditur iii duo.&quot; The quills, formerly in exclusive use, and still largely employed among Western communities as writing instru ments, are obtained principally from the wings of the goose. Swan-quills are also highly prized, and for special purposes crow-quills and the wing-feathers of certain other birds are adopted. For the method of preparing quills, &c., see FEATHERS, vol. ix. p. 60. In 1809 Joseph Bramah, the famous inventor, devised and patented a machine for cutting up the quill into separate nibs by dividing the barrel into three or even four parts, and cutting these transversely into &quot;two, three, four, and some into five lengths.&quot; Bramah s invention first familiarized the public with the appearance and use of the nib and holder in place of the complete quill or barrel, and in that sense he anti cipated the form of pen now most commonly used. In 1818 Charles Watt obtained a patent for gilding and pre paring quills and pens by manual labour and chemical means, which may be regarded as the precursor of the gold pen. But a more distinct advance in this direction was effected in 1822, when Hawkins and Mordan patented the application of horn and tortoise-shell to the formation of pen-nibs, the points of which were rendered durable by impressing into them small pieces of diamond, ruby, or other very hard substance, or by lapping a small piece of thin sheet gold over the end of the tortoise-shell, and by various other ways securing a hard unalterable point to the pen. Metallic pens, though perhaps not altogether unknown even in classical times, did not come into use till the pre sent century, and indeed did not become common till near the middle of the century. At the meeting of the British Association in Birmingham in 1839 steel pens were scarcely known ; ten years later the manufacture had become an important local industry. In 1803 a steel pen was made and sold in London by a Mr Wise, which was in the form of a tube or barrel pen, the edges meeting to form the slit with sides cut away as in the case of an ordi nary quill. These sold at about five shillings each, and as they were hard, stiff, and unsatisfactory instruments they were not in great demand. In 1808 a metallic pen was patented by Bryan Donkin, made of two separate parts, flat or nearly so, with the flat sides opposite each other forming the slit of the pen, or, as an alternative, of one piece, flat and not cylindrical as in the usual form, bent to the proper angle before being inserted into the tube which forms its holder. In Birmingham a steel pen was made by a split- ring manufacturer, Harrison, for Dr Priestley towards the end of the 18th century. Harrison in after years became associated in the split- ring business with Josiah Mason, who was one of the great pioneers of the steel-pen trade. Mason developed the manufacture on the basis of an in vention by James Perry, who in 1830 obtained a patent for improvements which must be regarded as the founda tion of the steel -pen industry. Perry s improvements consisted in producing pens from hard, thin, and elastic metal, the most suitable material being described as the very best steel brought to a spring temper. The necessary flexibility was given to the pen by a central hole formed in the pen between the nib and the shoulder in connexion with a central slit, and by making between the nib and the shoulder one or more lateral slits on each side of the central slit. Joseph Gillott, who divides with Mason and Perry the credit of perfecting the metallic pen, does not appear as a patentee till 1831, when he patented an im provement which consisted in forming elongated points on the nibs of pens. These early pens lacked softness, flexi bility, and smoothness of action, and subsequent inventions of Perry, Gillott, Mordan, and others were largely devoted to overcoming such defects. Metals other than steel were also frequently suggested by inventors, those most commonly