industry metalworking founded 1827 ; 189 years ago 1827 in birmingham england founder joseph gillott headquarters west midlands england area served worldwide products dip pens parent william mitchell ltd. website official homepage joseph gillott s is a company based in birmingham england which has been manufacturing high quality dip pens since 1827 . 1 the company is currently part of william mitchell ltd. contents 1 history 1.1 beginning and development 1.2 british pens and present days 2 products 3 see also 4 references 5 external links history edit beginning and development edit joseph gillott . albert edward prince of wales and princess alexandra at gillott s victoria works 1874 . advertisement c. 1900 . gillot s 291 pens with their holder . joseph gillott was a working cutler in his home town sheffield but in 1821 he moved to birmingham where he found employment in the steel toy trade the technical name for the manufacture of steel buckles chains and light ornamental steel work generally . about 1830 he turned his attention to the manufacture of steel pens by machinery and in 1831 patented a process for placing elongated points on the nibs of pens . subsequently gillott adapted the stamping press to the requirements of the manufacture as cutting out the blanks forming the slits bending the metal and impressing the maker s name on the pens . he also devised improved modes of preparing the metal for the action of the press tempering cleansing and polishing and in short many little details of manufacture necessary to give them the required flexibility to enable them to compete with the quill pen . one great difficulty to be overcome was their extreme hardness and stiffness ; this was effected by making slits at the side in addition to the central one which had previously been solely used . a further improvement that of cross grinding the points was subsequently adopted . the first gross of pens with three slits was sold for seven pounds . in 1830 the price was 2.00 ; in 1832 1.50 ; in 1861 12 cents and a common variety for 4 cents a gross . the simplicity accuracy and readiness of the machinery employed enabled gillott to produce steel pens in large quantities and as he sold them at high prices he rapidly made a fortune . he ultimately employed 450 persons who produced upwards of five tons per week and the price was reduced from one shilling each to 4 pence a gross . his son also joseph continued the family business of manufacturing steel pen nibs and continued to live in the birmingham area close to the large factory on graham street in the jewellery quarter known as the victoria works . 2 british pens and present days edit nevertheless the decreasing production of dip pens and the subsecquent demise of the industry in birmingham is often blamed on the invention of the ballpoint pen in 1938 by the hungarian laszlo biro . 3 4 in 1920 when hinks wells & co and william mitchell came together at the pedigree works in birmingham founded a new company called british pens 5 which added cumberland pencils in 1921 . after world war ii staff from the london jewel company joined them and they began to produce ballpoint pens . in 1961 british pens acquired the pen businesses of perry & co. and other manufacturers like john mitchell and joseph gillott s. as part of the twinlock group its name was changed to cumberland graphics in 1975 . byron head the managing director of william mitchell acquired british pens in 1982 renaming it william mitchell ltd. . 6 the company still makes pens in the west midlands . 7 products edit gillott currently manufactures fine point dip pens suitable for drawing mapping and calligraphy purposes . nibs currently produced are 170 290 291 303 404 659 850 1068 1290 1950 and 2788 . 8 9 see also edit birmingham pen trade list of pen types brands and companies references edit more about the pen trade in birmingham archive 1 jul 2010 joseph gillott pen maker pen makers william mitchell and joseph gillott birmingham mail 3 nov 2014 a brief history of writing instruments part 3 the battle of the ballpoint pens by mary bellis on about.com poole philip and michael woods letters to john gwin 1996 1998 about us at william mitchell website retrieved 18 jul 2014 pen room manufacturers gillott products at wm website gillott nibs in scribblers website external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to joseph gillott s pens . official website a tour around gillott and his pen factory gillott s pens models retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title joseph gillott % 27s pens & oldid 743915608 categories manufacturing companies established in 1827manufacturing companies based in birmingham west midlandspenswriting implementsart materials brands1827 establishments in englandhidden categories commons category with local link same as on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages add links this page was last modified on 12 october 2016 at 00 53 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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