The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1886-12-24
PINS BY THE TON.

PINS sY THE TON.
Some Interesting Informssion Concernine
Their History and Manufacture.
Among tho many who read this arti-
Gle some are doubtless familiar with
Grecian mythology. and they will 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 como
into existence, so numerous are they.
Nor is it strange that frequent ques-
ton is: "What in the world becomes
of all the pins?"-an inquiry not easily
answered.
But hundred years ago pins were
so rare and expensive that school chill
dren never thought of sticking ono into
a mate ''for the fun of it."
The need of some utensil serving the
same end with pin must, from the
earliest times. have been felt, and to
meet it recourse has been had to various
devices. Most likely our uncivilizcd
ancestors used thorns for holding their
garments together, and in compare
lively modern times Mcxicans 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:
Gan the pins of the tabernacle and of
the court-those used to fasten the gOr-
geous hangings-"shall 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, i'll England, the impOrtat on
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 ut 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. paper of
pins inferior to those for which we now
tempt was unsuccessful. For tho
'.hcad"-made by winding fine wire
spirally about one end of the. pin and
fastened in its place by striking it when
heated, with 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 l. Howe of New
York. invented machine which made
pins with ''spun' heads, like those Of
European make, previously requiring
fourteen distinct processes, ut one oper-
work automatically. He subsequently
devised numerous Improvements. and
in 1910 patented the ''rotary" machine,
which makes pins with solid heads.
The production of pins is by no
means all there is tOit. They must be
whitened, polished, sorted. stuck into
papers. A boiling in copper pans, with
grains of tin, nitro acid and water for
three or four hours deposite upon them
a thin coating of tin. They are dried
and polished by being rolled in a barrel
of hot bran or saw-dust, usually the lat
ter. The perfect are separated from
the imperfect by swinging them on
belts, which throw off the smooth ones
faster than the others. A wheel. re-
volvng horizontally and furnished with
'.fingers" adap ed to the VARYING length
of the pins, sorts them. Then they are
stuck on papers by machine. so
simple in its construction that it is
tended by two children, who can put
up thousands of papers each day.
AS good pins are now made in this
country rs abroad, and their principal
factories are in Connecticut, some of
them making ton a day.
A ton of pins! Yes, it is large
number about two millions.
But the population of the United States
is fifty millions, and twenty-five tons
would be necessary in order that each
person have one pin day. Rather a
small allowance, is it not, reader? So
there is no need that we take especial
pains TO lose or destroy them from fear
that the world will be glutted with pins
and those engaged in their manufacture
to remain idle.-Church and