These operations being performed when the steel wires are in a soft state, the wires become more or less bent, and must be straightened, which Is done by rolling them on one plate of metal by a smaller plate dexterously handled ; this is called soft-straightening. The needles are then places!, many thousands together, in a kind of crucible, and covered over with ashes; after which they arc put into a close furnace and exposed to a cherry-red heat. When this degree of heat has been attained, the crucible is withdrawn, and the needles are dropped into cold water or oil ; from this they are taken out and put upon an iron delicate touch, aided by a quick eye, she draws out laterally to the right, those which have their eyes on the right, and to the left, those plate almost red hot, where they are turned about so as to cause the heat to apply equally to all ; and as fast as the needles become of a blue colour, they are removed as being of a proper temper.
Such of the needles as now appear crooked are straightened on a small anvil by blows from a hammer : a process conducted by women, and called hammer-straightening.
The needles are next ranged in parallel rows upon a coarse cloth, which has been smeared with a mixture of oil, soft soap, and fine emery powder. In this cloth from 40,000 to 50,000 needles are rolled up, and twenty or thirty of these rolls are placed together in a machine like a mangle. The rolling to which they are here subjected is con tinued, by means of steam or water power, for two and sometimes three days, during which time the cloth wrappers being worn out, require to be once or twice replaced by new ones. The finest needles require forty hours of this kind of friction. When taken out, after rolling, the needles are perfectly bright.
The excellence of modern needles consists, in part, in the process of drilling, to which the best kinds are subjected. When the eyes of needles are only stamped and pierced, their edges are apt to cut the thread ; but by a subsequent drilling, the eye becomes as smooth and polished as any other part. To effect this, the needles are blued, or heated to a particular temper ; then countersunk, to bevel the edges of the,eye ; then drilled by means of delicate wires which pass through the eyes; then grount on small revolving gritstoncs, to give roundness to the head of each needle ; and then polished by pressure against revolving wooden wheels covered with buff-leather, and touched with polishing paste. The different stages in these highly-finished needles
are shown In fig. 4.
The needles, whether of the finer or commoner kinds, are now examined for the rejection of any that may be imperfect; and then shaken in a flat tray until all become parallel. But, though parallel, they are not regular ; seeing that the heads of some are in one direction, and those of others in another. They are brought into regularity in a simple but remarkable way. A girl, seated at a window, spreads out the needles before her, parallel with the window ; by a which have their eyes on the left ; and then combines the two parcels. Women then separate the needles into parcels of 25, and wrap them up in blue papers—at the rate of 3000 needles in an hour. Labels are pasted on the papers and dried ; 20 papers are packed into a parcel; and from 10 to 50 parcels are made up into a bundle, for the wholesale trade. If for exportation, the bundles are placed in soldered tin boxes. A bundle of 10,000 needles, of the kind called No. 6, forms a compact mass 6 inches long, 34 wide, and 2 in thickness.
Redditch, which was only a village a few years ago, is now a con siderable town, almost all the inhabitants of which live by the needle trade. Eight or ten thousand persons are employed in the works in the town and neighbourhood ; and these support the bulk of the remaining part of the population. The work is conducted on two different systems, the factory and the domestic. On the factory system a large building is constructed, supplied with steam or water power, and with efficient machines of all kinds ; and in this building all the processes are conducted. On the domestic system, country people, living within to few miles of Redditch on all sides, come to the warehouses or manufactories in the town, fetch away a packet of wires or needles, take it home, do a portion of the work, and return the packets to the warehouses. Some do the annealing, some the pointing, some the piercing, some the drilling, &c.; each person, (of whom more than half are females) being competent for only one branch of the manufacture. The product of the whole neighbourhood, even several years ago, was supposed to reach 100,000,000 needles per week !