The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-12-04

tation annually from England, but
great many are manufactured in Massa-
chusetts.
A Blade reporter yesterday afternoon
went out to the Toledo pin factory to
learn something more about the pointed
little articles. Jumping off the street
car just beyond the wagon-works, the
reporter walked down the street and
passed two large buildings lit up with
electric light. The manager was found
in the office.
81 want to find out all can about pins
for the benefit of the Blade readers" said
the reporter. "How many do you make
here and where do they go?"
SIN those two factories you just passed
we make 100000 pins per day, and we
sell them nearly all west of the Ohio
River. In Chicago we sell 100000 pins
daily, and the rest go to ST. Louis, Kan
sas City, Cincinnati, Louisville, Nash
vile, Cleveland, st. Paul, Minneapolis,
and other cities. We have been running
Two years and are now running twelve
and one-half hours daily, working fifty
two or fifty-three hands. AS for pins,
however, here comes the greatest pin
man in America, and he can tell you what
you want-Mr. Fontaine, here is Blade
reporter who wants to know something
about pins"
Mr.. Fontaine is the inventor of the cele-
brated Fontaine engine, all the machinery
III which the pins at the Toledo factory
are made, also of the new railroad cross
ing, that is to revolutionize the entire
system.
In response to question he said: "The
manufacture OF pins in this country began
really about 1884, when they made pins
at the rate of thirty per minute, for it was
in that year that DR.. Howe, Yankee of
Waterbury, Conn, invented the solid
headed pin. Before that the head had been
merely a little wire roll. Naturally, DIR.
Howe's invention reyolutionized the man.
ufacture of pins and the business grew.
The improvements since then have been in
increasing the facilities for making pins
faster. Brass wire is used in good pins,
but in cheaper goods steel wire is used
| The difference between now and 1884 is
that we can now make pins at the rate OF
400 per minute This is the fastest work
ever done in the making. They are stuck
in the paper though at the rate of 2,700
per minute; that is, each machine works
that fast. So you see pins are handled
very rapidly"
"You say there is still an importation
of English pins?"
"Yes, but not because the quality is
any better. The duty is 30 per cent, but
even if that duty were removed they
couldn't bring pins here and sell them rs
cheap as we can. The Eng lish pins are
no better than the American article, but
are in the old-fogy style. The reason
they sell is because they are English"
eyes," said the manager, "the women
want something English. A woman went
into a store not long ago and asked for
pins. She was handed paper with an
American brand. She handed them back
saying she wanted the English. The
clerk handed her paper marked Grown
Jewel and che paid fifteen cents for them
and went away happy. The joke of it is
that the Grown jewel pins come from
the same barrel that the others did. We
have to fix the brand to suit them. The
same pins in the other paper would have
cost her eight cents, and there were 800
pins in the paper, while there were but
300 in the Grown Jewell"
'That's true" said the travelling man
who stood back of the desk. Here is
box of pins which bears the English coat
of-arms. Nothing is here at all to indi-
cate that the pins are manufactured in
Toledo. The ladies have to have English
goods, you see, even if we manufacture
them right here in Toledo"
"By the way" said the manager, show
do those pins sell since we call them the
| Queens Own'?"
"Much BETTER" replied the travelling
man; "there is a greater demand for
them" -Toledo Blade.