NEEDLE (AS. wr,//, floth. m'abi, 011G. oddla, (ler. N4141,1, from r111:. mijan, (len piihrn, to 1414.w; ultimately 1.011111Peled with Oh% St141//11/4/, thread, AS sficor, IEng. snare, Ilk. VIEW urrin, to sew). All instrunlratt of metal, or other material, used to carry the thread in sewing. embroidering. knitting. netting. and other similar operations. Needles are trade of metal, but bone, ivory. and wood are also used: for ordinary needlework, called sewing, they are made of line steel, and are too well known to 1141011 41,-44•1'illt i4411 for (41 her kinds of work they are often nineli larger and differently formed. The eorliest needles were not 14411'141441, hut Were like awls, and acre used for g hides in skins,through which roots of plants or lenther thongs \\ cre passed. Later, a hole was bored in 0410 4.1141 of the or bronze needle through \Odell the root or thong was and this drogged through the leather as it was punebed. SIIMP needles, with a hole in the end opposite the point. are found in the remains of 1L0 done tritli are found in the T44404441' On 1'11, 411 flee :u111 lake ing'44 of Central Europe, The needles that have come down to us from ancient Egypt are very coarse. but filler needles must have been made to execute the delicate embroidery that was pro duced by that people. The ancient Oreeks must have been skilled ill needlework. judging from the descriptions of embroidery in Homer. Ordi nary needles and surgeon.' needles have been tumid in the ruins of Pompeii.
The Chinese are believed to have been the first to use needles of steel, and these implements gradually found their way Westward until they were brought into Europe by the :Moors. By 1370 the needle-making industry was established in Nuremberg. In England it was not until the reign of Queen Elizabeth that their manufacture was taken up on any considerable scale in small shops, and after 16.i0 it gradually developed until the greater part of the hand-sewing needles are now made in England. Subsequent developments included the introduction of the needle with the eye and the gradual development of machines for their Manufacture. The first drill-eyed needles were made in IS'20.
NeedleAnaking is an important industrial art, and it has attained to extraordinary perfection.
The first 01s-ration. after the wire has been se lected and its thickness accurately gauged. is to cut it into eight-foot knoll's; this is done by winding it in a coil of sixteen feet circumference, and then cutting this (-oil into exact halves with powerful cutting shears. The coiling of the wire is so managed that there are 100 pieces in each half when cut : the bundles of 1(1(1 wires are again cut into the necessary lengths for two needles. The pieces eat from a coil, although now reduced to the length of two small needles, are nevertheless somewhat curved; they are therefore collected into bundles and placed in two iron rings, which hold them loosely together; they arc then slightly softened by tiring. and are laid on an iron plate or bench, and are with a small curved bar in two Or three positions, by which the operator manages to make them all perfectly straight. The blanks after being re moved from a hopper in regular succession are next pointed at both ends by a grindstone to whose face they are held by a rubber hand.
The eyes are next punelicd by means of dies.
(See DIES AND The IdallkA or double needles are now placed on two wires and the two sets broken apart to form 1441`141 1.11t44 1144141 The roughly formed needles still have to be polished, tempered. and have the heads ground into shape. operations whieh are mechan ically performed.
Besides the ordinary sewing needle already de scribed and other hand needles—such as those used in sail-making. leather work. upholstery. and surgery—many forms of sewing-machine needles are manufactured. The most familiar of these is the needle used in the domestic sewing machine. with the point in the eye and grooves on each side to protect the thread from being o emit in passing through the fn brie. The latched needles in ...locking machinery are very &Bente pieces of mechanism. as the latch is held by a rivet obout inch in diameter between walls which are no thicker. For leather sewing the needles must be adapted for use with waxed thread. and often arc made with hook at the end, instead of a hole: while the for sewing, welts in boots and shoes, is the shape of a segment of a circle.