Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1889-09-24
RIai4I TO rhe rolnr.



delicate predecessor we hear OF in old
world tales. The Egyptians them
selves nsed something OF the kind. and
among the Romans. 50 the records say.
there were pins OF bronze, with orna-
mented head. from one to eight inches
long; and. also they were made OF
ivory. bone or wood. In England, up
to the middle Of the sixteenth century.
people made use OF skewers OF wood
for this purpose, though there were
pins OF gold. silver and brass.
But II was not until about 1926 that
pin manufacture in England became
settled thing. In 1883, that such an
industry might best be fostered, the
importation OF pins was prohibited BY
public statute. But the law became
very much Of dead letter, and as
late as 1850 there is evidence that at
least one OF the royal family was in
the habit Of receiving her pins from
France. For ut that time very large
proportion OF those of English manu-
iacture were made Of iron wire,
bSnched or wh.tened, and passed of
as the good qua ity brass pin. Three
years later this net was declared:
No person shall put to sale any pnues but
only such as shall be double he adeI nd have
the heads soleered last TO The shank OF the
pInnes, well smoothed, the shanks well sharpen.
the points well and round fled canted and
sharpened.
To-day England is the greatest PIN
making country in the world. Its pro-
ducts is something like fifty billion
pins Il year, and Birmingham is the
center. with an outturn Of 81 ,OO0. 0OO.-
900. There are made the pins OF the old
trade marks and the great regulations,
and it matters not that America Is
abe to produce exactly as good; very
many papers of these are always
salable here.
The old form OF pin. fortunately OBJ
solete. spoken of nowadays as the
pin OF the old German head" was
what was made in the early days OF
the industry in the United States. The
era OF the solid headed pin of now
dates from S. mewhere in the eighteen
thirties. The old pin has been wisely
described as "a shank with separate
head of fine wire twisted around it."
This head, variously known as s.spun
head or a wound head" would
sometimes fit on tightly and then
again loosely. So apt was it to come
entirely away from the shank that
among the old women of cary in the
century this popular warning to chill
dren arose: Don't scratch your ear
with the head of pin; if you do the
head IL come off and make you deaf
In this country the first attempt at
pin manufacturing was made soon
after the war OF 1912 Then, with
wartime prices. a paper OF pins sod
for 81, and they were OF inferior quail
ity to pins bringing now but six cents
The first place of rs nufacturing was
in the old States prison in that part OF
New York known as Greenwich Vii
lage. This enterprise was soon aban-
doned. but the plant was used else
where. In 1924 the first solid headed
pin machinery was invented, but it
was several years later before it was
az thdtiS put lALo
Beyond mechanical improvements in
execution and finish the difference be-
tween the old and the present pin is
thus in the heads. The spun head
was of IA finer wire than the shank 1t
was wound around Il lathe into a spiral.
Three turns of the spiral cut off fur
nished the head for one pin. The
heads. then annealed, were shaped BY
hammer. Each, taken up upon
pin wire-this introduced. point down.
wards, in hole. the center of a
die-was secured by hammers
blow. NOWADAYS the pin machine.
the bit OF wire having been sharpened
and filed, by carrier takes it to the
first heading die. Here steel punch
forces one end OF it into a recess,
where the head is partially formed,
| and another heading die little further
on completes the work. Thus the
m king OF the head of the solid head
ed pin.
Brass is now. as ever. the most ap-
proved material. Iron aud steel have
been tried, but iron and steel will rust
After the fling and the heading the
brass pins go into a bath of solution of
tin. from which they come OF silyery
| appearance. Many of the mourning
pins one sees, however, are of iron
| wire. japanned. And thereby is all
their temper or spring as pin
man puts it. gone. And no wonder.
for the japanning process in its latter
stages is that of baking in an oven.
| Quite recently, however. new
| method has been devised. A brass pin
| is coated over with a black nickel
wash. No quality of temper is de-
stroyed and the necessary luster is OBJ
| tanned.
But the pin trade isn't growing. APP
| preciably. it has no greater volume
than in 1890 The calculation was
then made that eveay man. woman and
child in America used la pins year
| Why no more are used now is ex-
planned by the fact of their being so
many safety pins to take their place.
These latter. in fact, form separate
business. and since their invention
eighteen years ago have popularized
rapidly.
The making up OF the paper of pins
entirely by machinery it isis in
two ways. The American stuck" is
fourteen rows of twenty pins each. the
| English stuck" twelve rows of thirty