10. Washing the pins, in pure water.
11. Drying and polishing them, in a leather sack filled with coarse bran, which is agitated to and fro by two men.
12. Winnowing, by fanners.
13. Pricking the papers for receiving the pins.
14. Papering, or fixing them in the paper. This is done by children, who acquire the habit of putting up 36,000 per day.
The pin manufacture is one of the greatest prodigies of the division of labour; it furnishes 12,000 articles for the sum of three shillings, which have required the united diligence of fourteen skilful operatives.
The above is an outline of the mode of manufacturing pins by hand labour, but several beautiful inventions have been employed to make them entirely or in a great measure by machinery; the consumption for home sale and export amounting to 15 millions daily, for this country alone. One of the most elaborate and apparently complete, is that for which Mr. L. W. Wright obtained a patent in May, 1824. A detailed description of it will be found in the 9th volume of Newton’s London Journal. The following outline will give my readers an idea of the structure of this ingenious machine:—
The rotation of a principal shaft mounted with several cams, gives motion to various sliders, levers, and wheels, which work the different parts. A slider pushes pincers forwards, which draw wire from a reel, at every rotation of the shaft, and advance such a length of wire as will produce one pin. A dye cuts off the said length of wire by the descent of its upper chap; the chap then opens a carrier, which takes the pin to the pointing apparatus. Here it is received by a holder, which turns round, while a bevel-edged file-wheel rapidly revolves, and tapers the end of the wire to a point. The pin is now conducted by a second carrier to a finer file-wheel, in order to finish the point by a second grinding. A third carrier then transfers the pin to the first heading die, and by the advance of a steel punch, the end of the pin wire is forced into a recess, whereby the head is partially swelled out. A fourth carrier removes the pin to a second die, where the heading is perfected. When the heading-bar retires, a forked lever draws the finished pin from the die, and drops it into a receptacle below.
I believe the chief objection to the raising of the heads by strong mechanical compression upon the pins, is the necessity of softening the wire previously; whereby the pins thus made, however beautiful to the eye, are deficient in that stiffness which is so essential to their employment in many operations of the toilet.
PIPERINE, is a crystalline principle extracted from black pepper, by means of alcohol. It is colourless, has hardly any taste, fuses at 212° F.; is insoluble in water, but soluble in acetic acid, ether, and most readily in alcohol.