The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1871-11-17
Needle-Making.

country town, surrounded by some of
the most charming scenery in Worces-
tershire, and presents striking contrast
TO the black and busy hardware vii
lage we have just left behind us. Why
the needle-makers chose this place
above all others in which to settle down
to the pursuit of their calling, there is
no evidence to show. AS early as the
year 1850, however, one Christopher
Greening appears TO have set up a needle
shop at l. tile Crendon, hamlet Just
outside Redditch, and he was followed
in the course of a few years by several
other members Of the craft from Lon
don. In short time, however, Crendon
was abandoned, owing to the absence of
water-power, and the needle makers es-
tablished themselves at Alcester, Stud
ley, and Redditch. In times still more
remote the district lying between Alces-
ter and Redditch was a great industrial
center of some kind, mills dating from
monastic ages, and great dams, no long
er used, still remaining to tell of de-
parted and forgotten industry.
The first mills used in the needle
Nrade were horse mills, one Icing es
tablished at Studley very early in the
last century. These mills were used for
securing and pointing needles, super
seding the primitive method of wrap
ping up the needles in the buckram with
emery dust and olive oil, and rolling
them to and fro by the movement of
the workman's foot. The earliest
needles made in this district were the
squareeyed, a shape most readily
produced. 1t was with square-eyed'
needles that Mary Queen Of SCOTS
wrought these beautiful tapestries for
the walls of her prison cell. After many
ffruitless attempts, drilledeyed needles
were successfully brought out in 1926,
and two years later the furnishing ma
chine, which gave a beautiful finish to
the eve, was introduced. In this latter
process, as now carried out, the needles
are threaded on steel wires which have
been "roughed" with file, and hard
ened. The ends of these wires are then
attached to a steam machine by which
the needles are made to revolve at an
enormous speed with an oscillating mo-
ton round the wires.
Previous to the year 1910, needles
were hardened in water, during which
process the majority became crooked,
and Strengthening the crooks was, in
consequence, an occupation for consl-
derable number of wOrk-people In the
year mentioned, however, Redditch
manufacturer revived the practice of
hardening in oil, and the result was that
crooked needles were the exception in
stead Of being the rule. This SO exas-
perated the crook ghteners that
they mobbed the enterprising manutac-
turer out of town, and for some time
great tumult prevailed. Eventually,
however, the revived process came to be
generally adopted. A pointing machine
is the latest invention of Importance in
the needle trade. On this invention,
Messrs. Bartlett and Woodward-two
excellent authorities-thus reported a
little while since:
The needle-pointing machine is an
English invention, though it is not gen.
orally supposed to be so, and its fore
runner, which, though not perfect, APP
preached so nearly perfection as to alarm
the pointers, was some years ago pur-
chased by them and broken to pieces on
Redditch Church Green. The needle
pointing machine is as yet only partially
used in this district. A grooved grind
stone, revolving at great speed, Is en-
ployed to grind the end of each wire in
to the desired shape. To this grind
stone the wires are applied from an in
clined plane, on which a number are
placed ready to cut to the length re-
quired. BY means of disc, surrounded
with caoutchouc, revolving slowly in a
s<t, t,.ny To he M Sfn
a continuous supply OF wires rapidly
revolving in succession Is supplied to
the stone, and the same disc causes the
wires to revolve whilst being pointed.
In Redditch and the neighborhood
needle making now employs something
like 800 work people, a considerable
proportion of whom are females. The
earnings considerably vary, those of
children ranging from Is. Cd. to 5s.,
women, IS. to l5s., and men, Us. to 4Os.
per week.
A needle has to pass through seventy
pairs of hands before it is considered to
be finished and ready for use sub
division of labor TO which may be attri-
buted the combination of excellence
and cheapness in the production of
these articles. The variety of needles
made in these days is marvellous, the
surgeon, tailor, harness maker, book
binder, felt worker, sail-maker, saddler,
glover, embroiderer, and housewife, each
requiring needles of shapes, sizes and
lengths almost infinite. Redditch, and
the Immediate district, may be regarded
as the only important center of the
needle trade in the three kingdoms.
The principal seat of the industry on
the continent is AK la Chapelle, but at
Lyons and one or two towns in Nor
mandy the common qualities are also
largely made.
The Chinese supply their own require
ments in the needle way, and it is
thought that the craft is more ancient
in the Celestial Empire than in Europe.
Certain it is that round-eyed needles
were made in China long before the pri-
mitive square-eyed ones were known in
England. There is nothing new under
the sun l-Mechanic'S Magazine.
Double Antid0te for Love.
The White Pine Nel0S, of the 18th
ult., says: Yesterday morning young