Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/254

 24:4: PEN PENANCE then stamped in a die with the name of the maker and any other desired mark, and next receive their final shape by being placed in a grooved die shown in fig. 2. They are next tempered in oil and polished with emery pow- der by revolving in a large cylinder, after which the nibs are ground. Then follows the most important operation, that of making the central slit, upon the nicety of which the value of the pen greatly depends. This is done in a hand press, similar to those previously used, but the cutting is effected by two chisels, one fixed on the table, the other in the lever, and so accurately adjusted as just to clear each oth- er. Being further tempered in a revolving cyl- inder over a charcoal stove, and given a brown or blue color, they are glazed with lac dis- solved in naphtha, when they are selected and counted. The manufacture of pens of elastic material furnished with durable points of some extremely hard substance began in England with attempts to secure bits of metal to pens made of glass, tortoise shell, and horn. This finally led to the production of gold pens, the manufacture of which is carried to the highest perfection in New York, the best pens being made here and sent to Europe and other parts of the world. In 1823 John Isaac Hawkins, an American residing in England, imbedded pieces of diamond and ruby in the points of tortoise- shell pens, which were softened in water to receive the stones. The same manufacturer, hearing that bits of an extremely hard native alloy of iridium and osmium, sent by Dr. Wol- laston to a penmaker to be used for points, had been returned as too hard for working, obtained these for his own experiments, and was the first to produce the famous "diamond points " soldered to gold pens. The right to make gold pens was purchased of Mr. Haw- kins by Mr. Cleveland, an American clergy- man then in England, who on his return in- duced Levi Brown, a watchmaker in Detroit, to undertake their manufacture. This was about the year 1835. The experiment was attended with little success. Mr. Brown re- moved in 1840 to New York, and there intro- duced the business, which gradually increased in importance as the quality of the pens was improved, and the price diminished by their more rapid production. At first the pens were cut with scissors from a thin flat strip of gold, and a slit being cut in the nib a bit of iridium was soldered to each point separately, and the points were then rounded up into shape with a mallet upon a stick. The infe- rior pens thus made by hand sold for $5 to $10 each. The first machines, and almost the only important ones in use applicable to the differ- ent branches of this work, were invented by Mr. John Rendell, who was employed by Mr. Brown. He continued to make these machines of various forms and of extraordinary perfec- tion from the year 1844, and furnished them to Mr. Bagley and Mr. Barney, who were well known as among the early makers of gold pens. To these inventions is chiefly due the excellence of the gold pens made in this coun- try. Mr. Rendell systematized the process, giv- ing to each workman his peculiar branch, and thus nicety and certainty of good work were attained. Great improvements have been in- troduced, and the cost of production materially lessened, the general process being similar to that for steel pens. The finishing consists in fixing iridium points, which is done by laying them in a notch at the end of the slit and fu- sing them on with a flux. A copper emery wheel grinds the points to the desired shape and thick- ness, when they may be further brightened by dilute nitric acid and a polishing wheel. Pens have also been made of hardened gutta percha, and of caoutchouc similarly treated; but they have not proved of much service. The so-called "Protean fountain pen" con- tains a supply of ink in its hollow handle, and the tube which holds it extends nearly to the point, the pressure upon which in writing causes the ink to ooze down to it just as it is required. These pens are furnished with holders suitable for carrying in the pocket, and thus are always at hand for use with their own supply of ink. PEftAFORT, or Pefiaforte. See PEXNAFOET. PEVMCE (Lat. panitentia, penitence), a pen- alty accepted or self-imposed by way of sat- isfaction and token of sorrow for sin. Ec- clesiastical penances were inflicted under the Jewish dispensation, and we read in the Old Testament of individuals and whole cities or peoples fasting and performing other acts of humiliation. The idea of penance seems to have been familiar even to heathen nations. The revolting austerities practised by the Hin- doo devotees, if they can properly be called penances, are among the most striking exam- ples of this class. In the early Christian church penances were of three sorts, secret, public, and solemn. The first consisted of such ac- tions as are commonly imposed by confessors at the present day, as for instance the recita- tion of certain prayers. Public penance was in use from the earliest days of the church, and accompanied the readmission to commu- nion of persons who had been excluded from it for grievous offences. It was frequently 'very severe, and the penitents, besides being required to kneel in worship while the rest of the faithful were permitted to stand, had to make a public confession of their sins in the church. Of solemn penance, which seems to have originated about the middle of the 3d cen- tury, or soon after the rise of the Novatian her- esy, there were four degrees. The first was that of the weepers, who remained at the door of the church clad in sackcloth and ashes, and begged the prayers of the faithful as they passed in. The second was that of the listen- ers, who were permitted to enter the vestibule to hear the reading of the Scriptures and the sermon, but went away before the mass of the catechumens commenced. The prostrate, who