[Illustration: GRINDING NEEDLE POINTS.]
There is perhaps no implement of greater importance than that smallest
of all tools, the needle, and in all civilized countries the number of
needles consumed is so great, and such an enormous supply is required for
the sewing of the clothes of mankind, that the manufacture is one of the
most remarkable in this country, whence by far the greater part of the
whole supply is derived.
It will only be proper in this place for the author to acknowledge his
obligations to Mr. W. B. Tegetmeier, whose most useful little work on
“Common Objects” affords brief and reliable information on this as well
as on many other interesting subjects.
The material from which needles are made is soft steel wire of the
requisite degree of fineness. This is obtained from the manufacturer in
large coils, each containing sufficient wire to form several thousand
needles. These coils are first cut up into pieces of the length required
to make two needles, usually about three inches, large _shears_ being
used, capable of cutting a coil of one hundred wires.
[Illustration: Shears. Needles placed in iron rings. Soft Straight Liner.
Trowel for hardening.]
Five or six thousands of these lengths are made into a bundle kept
together by a ring of steel at each end. They are then heated to redness
in a furnace, and afterwards laid upon a flat iron plate, and rubbed
backwards and forwards with a steel bar until each wire is perfectly
straight.
The next stage is to grind a point at each end of the wire. This is done
by the aid of grindstones about eighteen inches in diameter and four
inches thick; they are made to revolve so rapidly that they are liable to
fly into pieces, and are therefore partially enclosed in iron plates to
avoid injury to the grinder, should such an accident occur. The grinder
takes from fifty to sixty wires between the thumb and forefinger of his
right hand; and as he presses them against the stone, he causes all the
wires to roll round, and thus each is ground to a point. So expert do the
grinders become by practice, that they point a handful of these wires,
usually about sixty, in half a minute, or about seven thousand in an
hour. During the grinding every wire gives out a stream of sparks, and
these together form a bright glare of light.
[Illustration: Rubbing.]
Pointing these wires is the most unhealthy part of the manufacture; the
fine dust is carried into the lungs of the workmen, and destroys them
in a few years, very few living beyond the age of forty. Wet grindstones
cannot be used, as the points of the needles would be rapidly rusted.
[Illustration: Drill for making the Eyes. Smooth File for rubbing.
Hammer. Cullender. Packet of Needles. Flat File.]
The wires thus pointed at each end are stamped by a heavy hammer, raised
by a lever moved by the workman’s foot. The under surface of this hammer
is so formed, that when it falls on the wire midway between the two
ends it stamps on one side the gutters, or grooves, in which the eye is
afterwards made; and the anvil on which the wire rests when the hammer
strikes it forms the two grooves on the opposite side. This stamping
also makes a slight depression or pit on each side at the spot intended
for the eye. The wires are then passed to a boy, who takes a number of
them in his left hand, whilst with his right he works a press, moving
two hard steel points or piercers. These come down upon the wire as it
is placed beneath them, and pierce the eyes for the two needles. Each
wire now resembles two rough unpolished needles united together by their
heads; and as it would require much trouble to divide them separately
into two needles, a number are threaded upon two very thin wires, and are
separated by filing and bending.
[Illustration: Hand Press for piercing the Eyes. Stamping.]
Any needles which may have been bent in the several processes are
straightened by rolling under a steel bar, and are hardened by heating
in a furnace, and suddenly cooled in cold water or oil. After hardening
they are tempered by being slightly heated, and if any are bent during
hardening, they are straightened by being hammered on anvils with small
hammers; finally, the whole are polished by laying twenty or thirty
thousand side by side upon a piece of thick canvas, smearing them with
oil and emery, rolling up the canvas, and rubbing them under a press for
several hours or even days.
[Illustration: Soft Straightening. Needles placed ready to be filed.
Needles in different Stages of Manufacture.]
Drilled-eyed needles undergo another operation—a fine _drill_ is made
to revolve rapidly in the eye of each, to take off the rough edge and
to prevent their cutting the thread when used; finally, the points are
finished on a revolving stone, and polished on a wheel covered with
leather, and enclosed in a paper for sale.
Simple as the construction of a needle may appear, it has to pass through
the hands of 120 workmen, from the time it leaves the iron mine until the
manufacture is completed.
The chief seat of the needle manufacture in this country is Redditch,
in Worcestershire, where upwards of seventy millions are made weekly.
English needles are far superior to those of foreign manufacture.
[Illustration]