NEEDLES.
DRILLING THE EYES.
The manufacture of needles is one of those arts in which manual dexterity is acquired by minute subdivision of labour, each artisan performing only a small part of the process, but so often, that the most wonderful rapidity and accuracy are obtained, insomuch that although each needle has to pass through nearly 150 hands (together with expensive machinery) before finishing, yet they may be bought at an astonishingly low price.
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.