Windham County Democrat. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1836-1853, 1852-07-07


The polishing remains to he done. The best
needles are polished no less than six times; and
there are three stages of polishing for all. The
final securing is the most emphatic affair. ToSee
it, we must find ourselves at the mill again. IL he
water-power there appears to be moving half-a-
dozen mangles and very much like mangfng the
process is. On very coarse CLOTH which lies on
another cloth, needles are spread to the number
of forty or fifty thousand. Emery dust is strewn
over them oil is sprinkled upon them, and soft
soap, is daubed by spoonsful on the cloth. The
whole precious mess is then rolled up compactly,
and tied at both ends, round and round, as tightly
as pack thread can bind and we have before us
a disgusting black "rolypoly' dumping. Sever
al of these are put into one of the mangles, where
they roll to and fro for eight hours. BY that time
the emery is worn smooth, the packets are taken
out the needles dressed with fresh emery, oil, and
soap; and another eight hours mangling succeeds
From this, the needles come out dirty enough, and
smelling horribly; but they are capable now of
showing their brightness. They are washed with
hot water and cleansing material in iron pans by
boys, who seem TO enjoy the shaking and boiling
of the needles with real Zest. When clean, they
are tossed into saw-dust and tossed about in it till
they are dry and then the saw-dust is tossed out
from them, they are tossed into bundles, and sent
to the factory, TO be assorted and put up for sale.
We shall not come back TO the unsavory mill
any more so we will ask what that boy is doing !;
and how any stone-breaking can be necessary to
the making Of needles? He is breaking into
smaller pieces those not large white stones, from
which emery powder comes. We follow his bar
rowful of pieces into little shed, and find that
the water-powe is working up and down, the pes
tie of q great mortar where the boys fragments
are broken into dust. man is sitting what comes
out of the mortar, and returning what will not go
through his sieve.
Once more in the mandatory, we find the faul-
ty needles separated from the perfect. Among
so many, some must be broken some bent, some
with bad eyes dull points. We inquire what
becomes Of the refuse, or scraps and the an
swer appears to us so curious that we are glad we
did not miss the information. The bright needles
which happen only to have lost their heads are
eagerly bought by picture-frame maker, and cab
inet-makers They are invaluable for delicate
Hastings, for veneerng and where a delicate nail
is wanted of extreme fneness and without head.
The rest of the ''scrap" is equally priced for an
other obiect--making gun-barrels. 1t is sold by
carloads as the finest tempered steel that gun
barrels can be made of. What an idea this gives
OR would give, if we could receive it--of the ex-
tent of the manufacture.
The manufacture is now complete; but the ma
king ready for sale exhibits miracle Of dexterity
TO Impractical eyes.
A handful of needles, lying all manner of ways,
is put in tray, which is shaken back and forth,
until the needles lie all one way. Those whose
points lie left, and those whose lie right, are sep
Grated A little girl spreads heap on her coun-
ter into row, wraps a bit of cloth round the fore
finger of her right hand, shakes the needles We
ry gently, and brings out batch, with their
points sticking lightly in the CLOTH and their heads
supported by her other fore finger These she
lays aside, and does the same thing again, until
all arc separated. A heap is thus separated more
quickly than we can tell how it is done. But the
needles are of different lengths. How should we
set about sorting them? Certainly not in the ac-
sual way. The operation just described is called
'heading." This is called "handling." A narrow
piece of wood, like thick fiat ruler, is heaped
with as many needles as will lie upon it, almost
from end to end A woman feels along both sides
with the lower edge of her hands, and lifts from
the rest with her fingers and palms, the longest
needless which she places on one side. Then fol-
low the next longest which she places on the 9TH
er side. 1t is altogether affair of tact and fine
must be the touch and long the experience, re-
quired 10 do such sorting with accuracy.
Then we arrived at the seat of another wonder
full woman, who is pronounced by her employer
to be hetmost rapid worker he has ever seeh.-
Her business is to count the needles into quarter
hundreds, and paper them up The squares Of
paper lie ready; the needles are before her. She
separates twenty-five Of them, whips them into a
paper ane counts again with incredible rapidty
folding the filled papers when about half dozen
are ready. We are so persuaded that our readers
could never believe how many packets this woman
folds in day, that we will not say how many
thousands they number That so many should &c
forth into the world from house, is wonderful
enough that one woman should put them up fol
their Journey is more than any readers, not needle
makers, could be expected to believe on the de-
claration of an anonymous writer.
Next, we come among boys and girls. One lit
tie boy is cutting out the printed labels, which
have had their figures neatly filed in by an Older
lad. A third is spreading them on a board smear
ed with paste. A girl is putting them upon the
packets of needles. Another is putting on the
warranty ticket, in ike manner. Another is "tuck
ing" slipping one end of the paper into the other
A lad is looking to the drying of the paper in III,
drying closet, in the same room, where they re
main about two hours, and he and another are ty
ing up the papers into packets. Finally, we re
turn to the warehouse, and see the piles of ga,
boxes, which are to be filled with an assortmen
of needles for presents, or for foreign sale. TIL
boxes are branch of industry themselves, will
their portraits of the Queen and Prince, and thei
copies from popular pictures, such as Raffaelle'
Madonna in the Chair. As further temptation
these pictures in the lids so fitted as to be dis
engaged and hung up. They are probably to b
seen on the walls of many log cabin in America
and chalet in Switzerland, and bungalow, in India
and home of exes in Siberia.
1t seems as if all the world of neede-womer
of every cline, were supplied by England. On