The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1879-02-15
HOW NEEDLES ARE MADE.
Facts for Labor Reformers- What Machin-
cry has done.


Faots for Labor Reformers-W Machin- |
cry has done.
In these days every contribution to lit
erature serves good cause if il brings to
notice facts which show that machinery
stimulates consumption, and is the friend
of labor, coadjutor aud not the enemy of
the workingman. No further back than
our own childhood, if We have had the
fortune-good or ill-to live past the age
of fifty, we read in Miss Edgeworth's
books for children remonstEance on the
part of Rosamond's mother against the
sinful extravagance Of losing four needles
in a weeks time. Needles we're then
handmade; each fashioned separately, at
vast expense, and the careless expenditure
Of paper Of needles was an item worth
consideration is an economical household.
The first needles made in England we're
by Elias Krause, a German, who came
over in the reign Of Queen Elizabeth.
Before that time Spanish needles were i'm
ported; but who taught the Spaniards to
fashion steel needles we do not know
They must have been valuable aud expen-
sive, however, for English court history
informs US that King Richard ii. appeared
before his court in blue satin mantle
adorned with innumerable eyelet holes,
from each Of which hung the needle by
which it had been worked, glittering as he
walked among his courtiers and their Jew
els. Scripture speaks Of needles and "a
needles eye" eighteen centuries ago, but
the Oldest needle in the world Is in a
collection of Egyptian household antiqui-
ties; it is five thousand years old, and was
taken from mummy. IL was found ad-
herring to an unfinished piece Of darning,
and was in the tomb Of lady, whose last
labor probably was to mend her muslin
dress, surrounded by her children, for their
playthings--a doll with tow hair, and
crocodile with q swapping under jaw
were also found beside her. The needle
is of wood, not steel, fashioned as fine as
possible, but sadly clumsy. The thread
with which it worked is in it still The
darn, owing to the imperfections Of the
implement, is less like the darning of to-
day than what ladies designate as "herring
bone"
After Elias Krause settled in London,
in 1865, little improvement seems to have
been made in his branch of industry for
nearly three centuries. Each separate
needle had to be hammered, rolled, heated
and cooled, pressed and filed. Fifty years
ago under this system the population en-
gagged in England in making needles was
about fifteen hundred; twenty-five years
later, in 1852, after the introduction of
better methods and machinery, it was
about ten thousand. We have not the
statistics at hand giving the increase dur.
ing the past twenty-five years, Needle
pointing was long considered 4 deadly
trade. 1t was followed by young men,
who never were permitted to exercise il
before they were twenty, aud rarely an
instance happened of needle pointer
living past the age of forty. They we're
tempted to the employment by high wages.
Some earned FIVE dollars, none less than
ten dollars week. But though these
wages were very high for an English work
man early in this century, the drinking
habits they INDUCED in caused them in.
variably to leave their wives and children
unprovided for Their employees did their
best to remedy this state Of things. A
mask of magnetized iron, to be worn over
the mouth, was invented, arrested the fine
particles Of steel thrown off in the grinding
before they were taken into the lungs; but
the grinders looked on it as a device to
lower their wages, and insisted on their
right to sacrifice their own lives if they
pleased. In 184S, only thirty years ago,
a strike among the needle workers 10 the
principal-almost sols-needle manufacto-
, ry, the Victoria Works, at Redditch, gave
the master manufacturers an opportunity
on the return Of their work people, to in
sist upon the use Of some sanitary appa.
ratus to protect them from the deadly
dust Of the grinding operations. The men
after three months strike, were exceed,
ingly anxious for employment, aud con-
sented to yield. They soon found the
comfort and advantage Of the new arrange
ment, and have since been able to live
and labor as long as other people. The
number Of needle pointers in this estab-
lishment rose in four years from thirty to
one hundred and ten.
All needles are made out Of steel wire,
which is furnished Of various sizes. The
wires, having been cut and Strengthened,
are first roughly ground by water power,
and then pass into the hands Of the dry
grinder, who sits before his grindstone
pointing each wire (which is to make two
needles) at both ends. A fan wheel as he
works drives the deadly dust away from
him. The wages of the needle pointer re-
main the same as Of old, but each man Is
taxed about twenty-five cents week for
the extra expense Of the life-saving ma
chinery. Next the two-pointed wires are
"guttered in stamping machine, and
then the eyes are punched. The twin
needles are then separated, but they look
rough and rusty, and are soft enough to
bend with a touch. They are hardened
BY being heated red hot, aud then plunged
into cold water They are subsequently
tempered by great heat on metal plate;
if they get too little heated they bend; IL
too much they break Lastly, they must
be polished. For very superior needles
this has to be done six times, for none less
than three. polishing is accomplished
10 a sort Of mangle, by oil, soap and emery.
Each polishing requires about eight hours;
aud when all is finished they have still 10 be
cleaned, dried, sorted and put up for sale.
viii those who doubt that much pro-
duction makes an increased market, and
who believe 10 injury TO workingmen in
ficted BY new methods and machinery
sndeavor 10 calculate the increase Of en-
plcyment given by the increased use Of
needles since Miss Edgcworth wrote the
"Two Plums," about 1909?
A guided horseshoe, beautifully pain.
ted, says a city iournal Il found 4, ,n.o,