Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-07-23
MAKING NEEDLES.
Tho vast Amount of Labor Expended on
These Trihing Articles.

These IrlulnS .ATticISSs
This little but useful instrument has a
| vast amount of labor connected with 1t
| before the bit of steel is made to as
| sumo the proper form and shape tor
| market. 1t has to 90 through the hands
| of five score workmen at least. The
steel Wire being drawn to the proper
size, is submitted to various physical
tests to ascertain its quality; then it is
cut into proper lengths with shears,
which, by striking a blow every two
seconds cut in ten hours over 100000
ends of steel wire, which produce twice
this number of needles. Ihes are
passed on for further manipulation to
other workmen, who straighten n
point the pieces of wire. After point
ing they are cut in two, so as to form
two separate needles of equal strength
and quality. For each different size a
small copper plate is employed. This
plate is nearly square and has a turned
|. up edge on two of it's sides; the n isin-
tended to receive all the points, while the
other resists the pressure of the shears,
On this plate a certain number of wires
are put with their points in contact with
the border, and they are cut together
flush with the plate, by mean of a
small pair of shears moved by the
knees of the workman. They are now
all even, and the wires arc taken to
the head tlattener. This workman.
seated at his table with Il cubic block of
steel about three inches square, takes
about twenty-five of these needles lH-
tween his thumb and fingers. Spread
ing them out like a fan, with the points
under the thumb, he lays the heads ON
his steel block, and, with a small faced
hammer, strikes a few successive blows
upon them SO as to 1lattcn them in an
instant. The heads having become
hardened by hammering, are now an
nealed by heating and slow cooling,
then handed to the pierccr, generally a
child, who forms sixty eyes per minute,
by LAYING the heads on a block of steel,
and by driving a small steel punch
through on one side with a quick, sharp
stroke of the hammer, and then exactly
opposite on the other. The eyes are
again trimmed by driving the punch
through them again on a lump of lead.
and after laying the needle with the
punch sticking through it, upon the
block of steel, hammering the head on
the sides, which causes it to assume the
form of the punch.
The next operator makes the groove
at the eye and rounds the head, which
he does with a small file. The needles.
being thus prepared, are thrown, by the
workman, pcll-mell into a box or drum,
in which they are made to arrange
themselves into parallel lines by means
of a few deXterous shakes of the work.
mans arm. Now they are ready to be
tempered, for which purpose they are
arranged on sheet iron plates, about
thirty pounds at atimc, containing, say.
SOC, 1000 needles, and are placed in Il
proper furnace where they are heated
to Il bright redness forthe largcrneedles,
and to a less intense degree for the
smaller ones. They are thus removed.
and inverted suddenly over a bath of
cold water in such Il manne that all the
needles are immersed at the same time,
yet separate of each other. This has
the effect of making them veryhard and
brittle. After the water is run off the
needles are removed for further opera
tons, sometimes by throwing into a
bath of melted lead, others by putting
in burning grease. They are now ready
for polishing, the most prolonged and
expensive process through which needles
pass.-lliIlanG Industrial Gazette.