thread´-ing
to-geth´-er
tooth´-comb
smooth
rough
edg´-es
nee´-dle
thought
ov´-en
sec´-ond
steam´-ing
e-nough´
break´-ing
bench
ham´-mer
straight
1. They went on into another room. Here there were boys again! And what
were the boys doing? They were threading the wires together.
2. When they were all strung together, they looked like a long
tooth-comb. The heads were in the middle, and the points lay on either
side.
3. The boys took them to some of the workmen, and these men made the
middle part quite smooth. Rough edges had been left along the tiny
dents, and had to be rubbed down.
4. When this was done, a man made a line along the middle of the 'comb,'
and then gently bent it backwards and forwards till it broke right in
the middle.
[Illustration]
5. Harry and Dora were glad to see this. Each bit of wire looked like a
needle now. It had a head of its own, and an eye, and a point.
6. The next thing was to make the needles hard. Dora and Harry thought
they looked quite hard already, but they did not know.
7. How were they hardened? They were first laid on iron plates and put
into a kind of oven.
'This is the second baking they have had,' said Harry.
They were kept in till they were white-hot.
8. When the needles came out, they were put into cold water! What a
hissing and steaming they made! But they had to lie there till they were
quite cool.
9. Then they were taken out and dried. The man said they were hard
enough now, but something else must be done to them to make them able to
bend well without breaking.
10. They were put on an iron plate over a fire, and gently moved about.
Some of them curled up, and had to be taken off.
11. They were given to a woman, who was sitting on a bench with a little
hammer in her hand and a small steel block in front of her. She laid a
curly needle on the block, and hammered it till it was straight, and
then another, and another.
NEEDLES.