The Literary echo, and Pawcatuck advertiser. [volume] (Westerly, R.I.) 1851-1854, 1851-12-11
Large Manufacture Of Small
Things.

A correspondent of the New York Post
gives the following account of two estab-
lishments at Waterbury, Conn. The first
is that of the American Pin Company
This" he says, a." is the largest pin
mandatory in the United States, and
believe in the world. 1t has but one COM
petitor in this country, and that is at Bir-
mingham in this State. The patent to
which this company owes it's success, is a
profound secret, not known even to its
stockholders 1t is never shown, there
fore, to strangers. 1t consists in an i'm
provement for the making of pin and head
solid and all from one piece of wire. Till
within few years the head of most of the
pins in use was separate and twisted on the
pin by machinery. A few solid pins were
manufactured in Engl nd, but they cost
from thirty to fifty per cent. more than
those of the older fashion, The discovery
Of the American patent has driven the
twist heads entirely out of use. The
privilege of using it was sold in England
for $4,000, where the same kind of pin
is now manufactured.
"Of the portion of the works which was
permitted to see, was most struck by the
process of sticking the pins upon the
papers. My intellect has striven in vain
to conjecture any process by which ma
chinery could bring order out of the un-
speakable confusion of several millions Of
pins thrown Into a box together I was
here shown row Of very simple machines,
each tended by young girl, which ar
ranged on papers more pins in day
than any one person could possibly have
done by hand in fortnight. A practised
person, was told, would pick 1900 papers
day, each paper containing $50 pins,
making in all 336, 900 day.
"In day of ten hours this company
throw off an average of 4, 4,OOO,OoO pins per
day, or about twelve hundred millions a
year. When | learned this extraordinary
fecundity of a single pin mill, 1 felt it was
of little consequence what became of all
the pins; for it is pretty certain that the
supply is not likely to give out very soon,
in spite of any conceivable extravaganza
in pin money. The capital % this COM
pany is only 100000, but its profits are
reputed to be very great.
"Upon the same premises we were shown
the works of the Waterbury Hook and Eye
Company, where a capital of $4,000 is
in the manufacture of hooks and
eyes. Here were arranged long rows of
little machines about the siz, of small
under which constant shower
of these little feminine convenicnces were
pouring down, but from what cause or by
what agency it was d ficult to conjecture.
Upon closer inspection, large spool of
wire was perceived revolving slowly in it's
rear, growing shorter inch by inch in
mechanical harmony with the machinery,
while iron fingers, curiously articulated
were ready to grasp that severed fragment
and pass it along from change to change,
until it finally dropped into the receptacle
a perfect hook or eye ready for
use. For moment it seemed as if the
machine was instinct with life and intelli-
gence. The power of speech appeared to
be all that was lacking to complete the
delusion. There were but four or five
men in the apartment, who passed around
occasionally from one stand to the other,
to oil the machinery, to supply new wire
when the previous spool was consumed, or
to empty the vessels when filled by the
silvery shower. The whole performance
more resembled voluntary process of
nature than the result of a mechanical
art. The duty of the superintendent of
one of these machines seemed to me
curiously alike to that Of the ga, dner who
plants his peach stones, which after many
days, sprout, grow into a tree, blossom,
and finally bear peaches, which when ripe
drop from their branches and are gathered
for use."
JNDIA R,tporp Dpnr,re t. Ill