The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1886-12-16
PINS BY THE TON.
Some Interesting Information Concernine
Their History and Manufacture.


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 win 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 frequent ques-
ton is: "What in the world becomes
of al the pinsP"-an inquiry not easily
answered.
But hundred years ago pins were
SO raj and expensive that school chill
dren never thought of sticking one into
a mate s'for the fun of it.
The need of some utensl serving the
same end with a pin must, from tho
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 p ms.
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 court-those used to fasten the gor-
geous hangings-t'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 ''c.rcum-
stances of the wearer admitted
played the part of pins.
About 1883 pins were first made, from
iron wire, in England, the importat on
of pins from continental Europe being
then prohibited by law.
Toward the middle of the sixteenth
century Cathar ne Howard, the fifth
Queen of Henry VIII, introduced brass
| pins into England from France.
In 1926 the Engl sh began the manu-
facture of pins at Gloucester, and the
industry so prospered that several fac
tories for that urpose were erected,
wherein employment was gwen to
nearly two thousand persons.
| Shortly after the war of 1872 their
manufacture was attempted in the
United States, as, owing to the inter.
ruptior of trade with foreign nations
consequent upon the war, paper oi
pins inferior to those for which we now
pay six cents, cost one dollar. The at
tempt was unsuccessful. For the
shead'-made by winding fine wire
| .sp,rally about one end of the pin ani
fastened in its place by strikingit when
| heated, with a hammer-was exceed
.ingly rude and liable to come off mosi
inopportunely. Such pin, relic o.
days long past, lies before US as W,
write.
In 1881 DR.. John I. Howe of New
pins with ''spun' heads, like those o
European make, previously requirin.
fourteen distinct processes, at one oper
ation-the first machine to do sucl
work automatically. He subsequent
devised numerous Improvements, au'
in 1910 patented the ''rotary" machine
which makes pins with solid heads.
The production of pins is by n
means all there is toi it. They must b
whitened, polished, sorted, stuck int
papers. A boil ng in copper pans, wit
grains of tin, nitr ac.d and water TO
three or four hours deposite upon then
a thin coating of tin. They are drie'
and polished by being rolled in barre
iof hot bran or saw-dust, usually the lat
ter. The perfect are separated fror
the imperfect by swinging them o
belts, which throw off the smooth one
faster than the others. A wheel, re
lvolving horizontally and furnished Wit
I'.fngers" adap ed to the VARYING lengt
of the pins. sorts them. Then they ar
stuck on papers by a machine. S
simple in its construction that it
tended by two children, who can pr
up thousands of papers each day.
AS good pins are now made in th
country as abroad, and their princp.
factories are in Connecticut, some
them making ton day.
A ton of pins! Yes, it is larg
1uantity-in number about two millions
But the population of the United State
is fifty millions, and twenty-five tor
would be necessary in order that eac
person have one pin day. Rather
Small allowance, is it not, readerP S
there is no need that we take especi'
} pains to lose or destroy them from fes
that the world will be glutted with pir
and those engaged in the manufactul
compelled to remain idle.-Cturch az,
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