The following is an outline of the process of manufacture. The wire
is first selected, of the best steel and of a proper size, then
wound round a cylinder some fifty times, and the coil is cut in two
places opposite to each other through all the wires. These wires are
placed together in bundles several feet long, each containing about
a hundred wires, which are then cut up into lengths sufficient for
two needles by a pair of shears worked by powerful machinery. As
the wires are crooked, they have to be straightened, which is done
by packing them in bundles and enclosing them in two iron rings
so that they may be rolled forcibly backwards and forwards between
steel plates with grooves cut in them to receive the projecting
rings, and this straightens them thoroughly. The wires are next
ground to a point at each end by holding them, a dozen or two at a
time, against a revolving stone, to which they are pressed with a
piece of leather, at the same time turning or twirling them between
the thumb and fingers; when pointed, they are cut in two by a gauge
which divides them in the middle, and the blunt ends are spread out
in the form of a fan on a small anvil by the thumb and finger of
the left hand, several at one time, and flattened by the blow of a
small hammer. This flattening makes the ends too hard for piercing,
so that they have to be softened by being made red-hot and slowly
cooled; they are then pierced by children, who lay each needle on
a piece of lead and with a small punch and hammer strike out the
eye, but in nearly all cases the eye is drilled, in which case the
wire is held for an instant to the point of a small drill turned by
machinery. The groove which leads to the eye is made either by the
stroke of a small file or by compression, and the end is next rounded
off. In some needles the eyes and grooves are made by punching two
in the middle of a wire, which is afterwards divided. The needles are
tempered, by placing some thousands of them on an iron plate which
is made red-hot, and then throwing them suddenly into a vessel of
cold water; they are by this means made too hard, and have again to
be slightly heated to give the proper degree of temper and toughness
(see “Steel”), which is done by putting them in boiling oil. They
have next to be polished, and this is the most tedious part of their
manufacture. The needles, to the number of about a hundred thousand,
are packed, together with oil and emery-powder, in a strong sort of
bag, so that they all lie side by side, and several of these bags
or bundles are rolled backwards and forwards between wooden beams in
such a way that every needle rubs against others, and the friction
thus produced grinds them bright and smooth. After a time they are
taken out, and the black paste formed by the emery-powder, oil, and
steel, is cleaned off by putting them into saw-dust, and turning
them in a barrel fixed in a frame for the purpose; the saw-dust and
dirt are then blown away by a blowing-machine, and the needles again
undergo the same process several times, using finer emery-powder each
time, so as to polish them; after which they are scoured with soap
and water and wiped dry by rolling them in dry wash-leather. They are
now perfectly bright, every roughness rubbed off, and a finish being
finally given to the points by hand on a hone which turns round, they
are packed, twenty-five in each paper, for sale.