PIN 3IANUFACTURE. It is not known at what time pins made of metal of the present form were first manufactured in this country, but it must have been some time previous to 1543. In this year a statute was passed (35' Henry VIII., c. 6), intituled "An Acts for the True Making of Pynnes," in which, after stating that much deceit had been practised in the making of pins, it was enacted that in future none should be sold but such as were well pointed and had the heads firmly moldered on to the stems, and further that the price charged should not be more than six shillings and eight pence a thousand. No mention is made of them in any previous statute, with the exception of an act of Richard III., which prohibited their importation from abroad ; but the pins there alluded to were much larger than those now in use, and were made of boxwood, bone, or silver.
Pins of English manufacture being in great repute abroad, the foreign trade is very considerable. The number actually made in this country daily was estimated thirty years ago at fifteen millions; but it must now be far greater, although there exist no means of determining it. By hand labour ten persons can produce a pound, or about 5500 pins of medium size, in rather less than eight hours : each person taking up the work as soon as the operation preceding that which he or she has to perform Is completed, and each being employed about a tenth part of the eight hours. These calculations, relating to the division of labour, are taken from Itabbage's ' Essay on the General Principles which regulate the application of Machinery,' In the portion of the Encycloptedui Illetropolitana,' comprising Manufactures and Machinery; they are valuable In relation to the division of labour, but the statistics or quantities are no longer strictly applicable to the manufacture under notice.
The first thing to be done, in the pin-manufacture, is to reduce a quantity of braes wire to the requisite size. This, though properly speaking a preliminary operation, is generally done in the phi-factory, as the wire is received of larger diameter than necessary. It is performed in the usual manner of wire-drawing. The wire is then made up into coils of six inches diameter ; and any dirt or crust which may be attached to the surface is got rid of by first soaking the coils in a diluted solution of sulphuric' acid and water, and then beating them on stones. The next process is to straighten the wire. Two short lines, parallel and very close to each other, are drawn at one end of a board or table, and seven or nine pins are driven into the wood, at a short distance apart, alternately in the two lines. The end of the wire is placed between these two rows of pins and is thus held in n zig-zag position : it is then drawn between the pins to the other end of the table, and a length of about twenty feet is cut off. This process is repeated until all the wire is straightened and out into similar pieces. A number of these lengths are then taken together. and by means of powerful pair of shears, worked by the foot, they are cut up into shorter pieces, each a little longer than six pins. These latter pieces are then pointed at each end. The pointer sits in front of a small machine, which has two steel wheels or mills turning rapidly. These wheels are usually about nix inches in diameter, and their rims or cutting surfaces are about three inches broad. The rims are cut some what after the manner of a file : one coarse, for the rough formation of the points, and the other fine, for finishing them. Several of the
pieces of prepared wire are taken in the hand, and by a dexterous move ment of the thumb and fore-finger are kept continually presenting a different face to the mill, against which they are pressed. The points are then finished of by being applied in the same manner to the fine mill. After both ends of the pieces have been pointed, one pin's length is cut off from each end, when they are repointed ; and so on until each length is converted into six pointed pieces. The stems of the pins are then complete. The next step is to form the head, which is effected by a piece of wire called the mould, the same size is that used for the stems, being attached to a small axis or lathe. At the end of the wire nearest the axis is a hole, in which is placed the end of a smaller wire, which is to form the heading. While the mould wire is turned round by one hand, the head wire is guided by the other, until it is wound in a spiral coil along the entire length of the former. It is then cut off close to the hold where it was commenced, and tho coil taken off the mould. When a quantity of these coils are prepared, a workman takes a dozen or more of them at a time in his left hand, while with a pair of shears in his right he cuts them up into pieces of two turns or spirals each. To prevent them from flying off from the shears when separated, the fore-finger of the left hand is applied to the tip of the coil, and the end thus cut off is caught in a bowl placed beneath it. In some factories this is performed by a chisel and gage, instead of the shears, a mode which has the advantage of re quiring less dexterity. The heads, when cut off, are annealed by being made hot and then thrown into water. When annealed, they are ready to be fixed on the stems. In order to do this, the operator is provided with a small steel die, containing a hollow the exact shape of half the head. Above this die, and attached to a lever, is the corresponding die for the other half of the head, which, when at rest, remains suspended about two inches above the lower ono, The workman takes one of the stems between his fingers, and dipping the pointed end into a bowl containing a number of the heads, catches one upon it and slides it to the other end; he then places it in the lower die, and, moving a treadle, brings down the upper one four or five times upon the head, which fastens it upon the stem, and also gives it the required figure. There is a small channel leading from the outside to the centre of the dies, to allow room for the atom. The pins are now finished as regards shape, and it only remains to tin or whiten them. They are boiled in a pickle, either a solution of sulphuric acid or tartar, to remove any dirt or grease, and also to produce a slight roughness upon their surfaces, which facilitates the adhesion of the tin. After being boiled for half an hour, they are washed, and than placed in a copper vessel with a quantity of grain tin and a solution of tartar ; in about two hours and a half they are taken out, and after being separated from the undissolved tin by sifting, are again washed. They are then dried by being well shaken in a bag with a quantity of bran, which is after wards separated by shaking them up and down in open wooden trays, when the bran flies off and leaves the pins perfectly dry and clean.