Los Angeles daily herald., 1886-12-16
WHERE DO THE PINS Coz
They are Made at the Rate OF 400
Per Minute.
See pin and pick 1t up:
All the day you'll have good luck.

All the day you IL nave goou luck'
This commonest of all toilet articles,
the pin. is q child of olden times. Pos
sibly the earliest known pin was the
thorn with which doubtless Mother Eve
pinned ber dress of fig leaves together.
The little verse at the head OF this
article is known to nearly every little
girl or boy in the land, and perhaps the
author of the little couplet was some
thrifty housewife who realized that pins
disappear very rapidly, and who thought
she had chance to appeal to supeIsu'
tion for thriftineSs.
Where the pins all go is wonder;
Millions of them disappear daily ana
millions are made to take Their piac9:
The books tell us that pins are coeval
with the human race, and were first IN
troduced into England in l460. Inc
pin became of such importance that In
1883 its importation was prohibited by
statute in England. In 1910 Queen
Catbarine received pins from France,
and in l543 an act was passed providing
that "no person shall put ON sale any
pinnes but only such as shall be double
headed and have the heads soldered fast
to the shank of the pinnes, well smoothed,
thew shall we'll shapen. the points well
and round filed, canted and sharpened."
As now, pins were then made of brass,
hut they were very different from the
pins of to-day. Instead OF the pin be-
ing made entirely of one piece as now,
it was then made of shank of one
piece and the head was a piece OF fine
wire wound round the shank.
In I775 the attention of the colonists
was called 10 the manufacture of pins
and needles, as prizes were off 9red for
the first of native make, but the success.
full manufacture of pins in this country
wasn't known until 1886, although in
1924 Lemuel B. Wright, an American.
secured in England patent for pia-
making machine.
The growth has been steady, and to.
day pins are ma le by the ton in Eng
land and America. After the invention
of Mr.. Wright's machine the price fell
enormously and the demand increased,
for right after the war OF 1872 the price
had gone away up. There is still an
importation annually from England, but
a great many are manufactured in Mas
sachusetts.
A reporter went out 20 pin factory
in Toledo, Ohio, to learn something
more about the pointed little article.
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.
want to find out all l can about
pins" said the reporter. "How many
do you make here and where do they
go?''
sIn those two factories you just
passed we make 8. 00O, 600 pins per day,
and we sell them nearly all west of the
Ohio river. In Chic lgo We sell l.OOO.-
600 pins daily, aud the rest go to st.
Louis and Kansas City, Cincinnati,
Louisville, Nashville, 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.
Fountaine
Mr., Fountaine is the inventor of the
celebrated Fountaine engine, all the
machinery in which the pins at the
Toledo factory are made, also of the new
railroad crossing that is to revolution
ize the entire system.
In response to a question, he said:
"The manufacture Of pins in this coun-
try began really in 1884, when they
made pins at the rate of thirty per min
ute, for it was in that year that Dr..
Howe, Yankee of Waterbury, Conn,
invented the solid headed pin. Before
that time the head had been merely a
little wire roll Naturally DIR. Howe's
invention revolutionized the manufac-
ture of pins, and the business grew.
The improvements since then have been
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 pinute. This is the fastest
work ever done in the making. They are
stuck in the paper, though. at the rate
of 2700 per minute; that is. each ma.
chine 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 as
cheap as we can. The English pins are
no better than the Amerscan article, but
they are in the old fogy style. The rea-
son they sell is because they are English.
eyes," said the manager, 'the women
want something English. A woman
went into store not long ago and asked
for pins. She was handed a paper with
an American brand. She handed them
back saying she wanted the English.
The clerk handed her a paper marked
Grown Jewel. and she paid fifteen cents
for them and went away happy. The
Joke is that the Grown Jewel pins came
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 800 in the Crown 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-a arms. Nothing at all in here to
indicate that the pins were manufactured
in Toledo. The ladies have to have the
English goods, you see, even if we man
ufacture them right here in Toledo"
"By the way" said the manager
show do those pins sell since we cal
them the Queens Own!"
much BETTER" replied the travelling
man, ''there is a greater demand TO
them"
MIGRATION In NORWAY.