The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1843-07-18

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factory. The number would amount to somewhere
about thirty; but il will be in accordance with
our object to dispense with such an enumeration,
and to present the details of manufacture in certain
groups, without adhering to strictly technical ar
! rangement
First, then, for the material II is scarcely neces-
sary to say that needles made of Steel and that
the steel is brought into tn shape of fine wire before
| ii can assume the form of needles The needle.ua
kers are not wire drawers; they do not prepare their
own wire, but purchase it, in sizes varying with the
kind of needles which they are about to make, from
Sheffield or Birmingham, or some similar town. We
will suppose therefore, that the wire is brought to
the needle factory, and is deposited in store-room
This room is kept warmed by hot air to an equable
temperature, in order that the steel may be preserved
free from damp and other sources of injury Around
the walls are wooden bars racks, on which are
hung the hoops of wire. Each hoop contains, on an
average, obout twelve or fourteen pounds Of wire Tho
length varying according to the diameter. Perhaps it
may be convenient to take particular size of the
nerde, and make it our standard of comparison dur
ing the details of the process The usual size OF
sewing needles are from No. Of which twenty two
thckncsses make an inch, TO No. IL, ofwhch there
are an hundred TO an inch. Surprising that the man.
uiacturer about to make sewing needles Of that
which is known to sempstresses No. 6-then the
coil of wire is about two feet in diameter weighs
about thirteen pounds; the length of wire is about
mile and quarter; and it will produce forty or fifty
thousand needles. The manufacturer has gusge
consisting of small piece of STEEL perforated at the
edge with eighteen twenty small Sits, all of differ
ent sizes, and each having particular number attach
ed tot By this guage the diameter of every coil O.
wire is tested and by the number every diameter OF
| wire is known.
| coil of wire, when about to be operated on, is
carried to the cutting shop where it is into pie
ces equal to the length of two needles about to be
| made. Fixed up against the wall Of the shop is pom
derous pair ofshears,wt the blades uppermost. The
workman takes probably hundred wires at once
grasps them between his hands, rests them against
guage to determine the length to which they are to
be cut places them between the blades Of the shears
and cuts them by pressing with his body or thigh
ganst of the shears. The coil is thus reduced to
twenty thirty thousand pieces, each about thrccn-
ches long; and each piece had formed portion of
two feet in diameter, it is easy TO see that it
must necessarily devate somewhat from the straight
line. This straightness must be vigorously given to
the mode by which it is effected is one of the most
remarkable in the whole manufacture In the first
! place the wires nnneaed. Around the walls of
the annealing-sh we see of number of iron rings
hung M, each from three four six or Sc ven in
ches in diameter, and quarter or half an inch in
thickness. Two Of these rings placed upright on
their edges, at lu 10 distance apart; and within
them are placed many thousands of wires, which are
kept in group by restin the interior edges of
| the two rings. In this state they placed on
shelf in a small furnace, and there kept till red hot.
On being take out, at glowing heat they are pIac-
ed iron plate the wires being horizontal land the
rings in which they inserted being vertical The
process of rubbing uhe technical name for the
straightning TO which alude) then commences
The workman takes long piece iron STEEL per-
haps an inch in width, and inserting it between the
two rings, rubs the needles backwards and forwards,
causing each needle to revo!ve on its oAis, and
also over and under those by which it is surrounded
The noise emitted by this process just that of filing,
hut no filing takes place; for the rubber is smooth
and the sound arises from the rolling of wire
gainst another The rationale Of the process is this
the action of one wire another brings them all
to perfectly straight form, because any conveAity
close contact of The adjoining ones. The heating of
wires facilitates this process; and the workman
knows, by the change Of sound when all the wires
have been rubbed straight. by the facility Of the
moving of the rings the bench, the facility of
movement among the wires in the rings, and the Pc
culiar mode in which the workman applies his tools,
every individual wire is in turn brought in contact
with the rubber.
Our needles have assumed the form of per-
fccty straight pieces ofwire, say little than
three inches in length, blunt at both ends, and dulled
the surface by exposure to the fire. Each Of these
pieces to make needles, the ends constitu-
ting the points; and both points made before the
piece of wire s divided into two. The pointing i'm
mediaeIy succeeds the rubbing and consists in grind
ing down each end of the wire till it is perfectly
sharp. This is the part of matchmaking which has
attracted attention than all the put together
The surprising manipulation by which the needles
applied to the grindstone; the rapdy with which