The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1886-12-25
PINS BY THE TON.
Some Interesting Information Concerning
Their History and Manufacture.


Among the many who read this arti-
Gle some are doubtless familiar with
Grecian mythology, and they viii re-
member the story of Cadmus, who
sowed dragons teeth, which sprung
from the earth armed men.
In similarly marvellous manner it
would seem that pins must have come
into existence, so numerous are they.
Nor is it strange that a frequent ques-
ton is: What in the world becomes
of all the pins?"-an inquiry not easily
answered.
But a hundred years ago pins were
so rare and expensive that school chill
dren never thought of sticking one into
mate ''for the fun of it. "
The need of some utensil serving the
same end with a pin must, from the
earliest times, have been felt, and to
meet it recourse has been had to various
devices. Most likely our uncivilized
ancestors used thorns for holding their
garments together, and in compara-
lively modern times Mexicans were
wont to substitute thorns of the agave
for pins.
When some knowledge of working
metals had been acquired pins were
made therefrom. In Exodus we read:
''All the pins of the tabernacle and of
the courthouse used to fasten the gor-
geous hangings-''s be of brass.
The pins of the ancient Romans were
made of bronze, as are most of those
that have been discovered in Egyptian
tombs.
Until the beginning of the fifteenth
century strings, ribbons, hooks, skewers
of such material as the 'circum-
stances of the wearer admitted
played the part of pins.
About 1883 pins were first made, from
iron wire, in England, the importation
of pins from continental Europe being
then prohibited by law.
Toward the middle of the sixteenth
century Catharine Howard, the fifth
Queen of Henry VIII, introduced brass
pins into England from France.
In 1926 the English began the manu-
facture of pins at Gloucester, and the
industry so prospered that several fac
tories for that purpose were erected,
wherein employment was gwen to
nearly two thousand persons.
Shortly after the war of 1912 their
manufacture was attempted in the
United States, as, owing to the inter-
ruptior of trade with foreign nations
consequent upon the war, a paper of
pins inferior to those for which we now
pay six cents, cost one dollar. The at
tempt was unsuccessful. For the
"head" made by winding fine wire
spirally about one end of the pin and
fastened in its place by striking it when
heated, with u hammer-was exceed
ingly rude and liable to come off most
inOpportunely. Such a pin, relic of
days long past, lies before us as we
write.
In 1881 DR.. John /. Howe of New
York, invented a machine which made
pins with ''spun' heads, like those o.
European make, previously requiring
fourteen distinct processes, at one oper
ation-the first machine to do such
work automatically. He subsequently
devised numerous Improvements, anC
in 1910 patented the rotary machine
which makes pins with solid heads.
The production of pins is by NJ
means all there is to it. They must b,
whtened, polished, sorted, stuck int
papers. A boiling in copper pans, witt
grains of tin, nitric acid and water fol
three or four hours deposite upon then
a thin coating of tin. They are dried
and polished by being rolled in barre
of hot bran or saw-dust, usually the lat
ter. The perfect are separated from
the imperfect by swinging them OF
belts, which throw off the smooth one
faster than the others. A wheel, re
volving horizontally and furnished witt
Fingers adap ed to the varying length
of the pins, sorts them. Then they az
Stuck on papers by machine, S
= simple in its construction that it
tended by two children, who can pu
up thousands of papers each day.
AS good pins are now made in thi
; country as abroad, and their principa
( factories are in Connecticut, some {
e them making ton a day.
A ton of pinSl Yes. it is y l8rg
quantity-in nHmber about s~0 Titiiisionl
But tho population of the United State
, is fifty millions, and twenty-five tor
= would be necessary in order that cac
person have one pin deg. Rather
, small allowance, is it not, reader?
( there is no need that we take especi;
t pains to lose or destroy them from fe;
n that the world will be glutted with pr
G and those engaged in their manufactul
: compelled to remain idle Church an
o Home.
y "A Lancaster Pa,) grocer hi
). adopted a rather novel way of colleC
e ing debts. The other morning he pla
9 II ~, liz -L1,rn ,,.irdnr.- IL cri,-i,,o. u