THIMBLE, a metallic cap or sheath used to protect the end of the finger in sewing. Seamstresses use a thimble having a rounded end with numerous small pits or indentations. Those used by tailors are open at the end. The manufacture of thimbles is very simple. Coin silver is mostly used, generally sil ver dollars, which are melted, and cast into solid ingots. These are rolled into the required thickness, and cut by a stamp into disks of any required size. A solid metal bar the size of the inside of the intended thimble, moved by pow erful machinery up and down in a bot tomless mold of the size of the outside of the thimble, bends the circular disks into the thimble shape as fast as they can be placed under the descending bar. The work of brightening, polishing, and deco rating is done on a lathe. First the blank form is fitted with a rapidly revolving rod. A slight touch of a sharp chisel takes thin shavings from the end, another does the same on the side, and the third rounds off the rim. A round steel rod,
dipped in oil and pressed on the surface, gives it a lustrous polish. Then a small revolving steel wheel, whose edge is a raised ornamental design held against the revolving blank, prints that design just outside the rim. A second wheel prints a different design around the center, while a third wheel, with sharp points, maks indentations on the lower half and end of the thimble. The inside is bright ened and polished in a similar way, the thimble being held in a revolving mold. The completed thimbles are boiled in soapsuds to remove the oil, brushed up, and packed for the trade. Thimbles are said to have been found at Herculaneum, and long ago used by the Chinese.