Esterbrook Recognized as a Major American Steel-Pen Manufacturer

By 1890, our Camden works had developed into one of the country's substantial steel-pen manufacturing operations. That year's Historical and Industrial Review of Camden, N.J. described the Esterbrook factory as the “oldest, largest, and also the first successful steel pen manufactory in this country.” This was the contemporary publication's characterization; earlier American steel-pen ventures had existed, so the distinction rested particularly on Esterbrook's sustained commercial success and scale. DVRBS The same account provides a detailed picture of production at the Cooper Street factory. It described approximately 24 processes, beginning with cutting prepared steel sheets into strips and ending with packing, labeling and shipping the finished pens. Between those stages, blanks were cut with dies, annealed, stamped, formed in presses, hardened or tempered, ground, pointed and slit. Pens were then inspected, with defective examples rejected, before receiving finishes that could include gray, silver, bronze, nickel or gold plating and varnish. DVRBS The factory itself was described as a large four-story brick building containing extensive machinery, including equipment specially designed for pen production. The review also emphasized the role of skilled employees trained for particular manufacturing tasks. Together with a range of roughly 400 pen varieties and an established international market, this specialized production system illustrates the scale the Camden operation had reached three decades after its beginnings.