Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-12-28
PINS BY THE MILLIONS.
How They are Madc-An Industry That
lisa Curiosity Also.

pins, the sort we use every day or our lives;
and yet one of the most astonishing marveis Of
this mechanical age"
1t was the tall man in the silk hat who spoke.
He stood in doorway on Pennsylvania avenue
and barked for his own business enterprise. In
front of the little shop gaunt stranger, prob
ably from Virginia, in long boots and SLOUGH
hat had paused hesitatingly. His wife and five
children OF various ages accompanied him.
Only the price of a paper OF pins to git imp"
he said.
That's ALL sir"
and the pins thrown IMP"
why. certainly"
''Wa-al, Mandy, / heerd Won say this mornin'
you wanted pins and here's chance to buy
EN-, with free show fer us all thrown in.
Come, children
COSTLY CITY PINS.
Whereupon the stranger. followed by his
wife and offspring, strobe into the shop, the
front of which was partitioned off. SO as to con-
ceal the rear, and they paused before table
covered with papers of pins.
How much for paper?" he inquired.
Ten cents. if You please" replied the pretty
young woman in attendance.
Ten cents. Great gosh. These must be city
prices. Why, Mandy. you never paid more
than seven cents for pins at the store did you?
No. of course not, and five cents was more like
falr price. But I've allus heard that dissipa-
ton costs money and, seem this is a sort of
spree up in the city, Ill go it. Here's a dime;
gimme the pins. Now. children, let's 60 in be-
hlnd the screen an see what's on exhibition
hey! What did you say, young woman? Why
can't we go in? I've paid for the pins"
Yes, sir, responded the pretty girl, blush
ing, but it's paper of pins for each person
| admitted We can't let a whole family in for
! one paper purchased"
BY thunder exclaimed the customer from
rural parts. Il was told that everybody met
III the city would try to rob me- Take back
your paper of pins and gimme my ten cents.
Now. Mandy, let's git out of here I'm willin'
! to walk around awhile and look at the Christ
mas things in the shop windows; but you don't
eaten me smeliin' into any moro places, to be
| robbed out of every cent I've got"
THE PIN MACHINE AT WORK.
With that he walked out, followed bv his
| Struggling family. STAR writer, who had
| entered i'll time to overhear the colloquy,
purchased paper Of pins and ventured behind
| the partition, where he found something well
worth seelng-a comparatively simpie-looking
! machine that was turning out pins faster than
the most expert professional lightning calcu-
| lator could possibly think.
| On top of the contrivance was horizontal
| wheel frame, with a coil of wire around it. Tae
wire was made of steel. with a coating of tin:
it was exactly the thickness of an ordinary pin,
| ana was feeding itself into a little mil, by
| which 1t was chopped up into actual pins. As
| the single wire uncoied automatically from
! the wheel, passed through what person ignor-
| ant of mechanics might describe as a sort of
! trap knife descended upon il with rapid
| strokes, cutting it off at pin-lengths, while at
| the moment each pin was chopped off trip
hammer struck one end of it SO as to 1atten it
! out INTO head. Each pin in its turn, after
! being cut OF and headed in this way, fell into
little groove on the rim of a wheel revolving
| vertically which carried it around and down.
| ward until 1t dropped naturally into a groove
on the rim OF wheel revolving horizontally
below, the point projecting beyond the edge
| Thus the horizontal wheel went round with a
sort of fringe of pinpoints. That is to saw the
points were about to be made The inner part
of the horizontal wheel-a disk including all
! but the narrow onter rim-was made to reyolye
faster than the rim itself, SO as TO keep the
pins in the grooves on the rim all whirling rap
Idly on their own axes. As they whirled the
| wheei-rlm carried them past small emery
wheels swiftly circling. so that the ends were
| sharpened to points in one revolution Of the
| wheel-rim. At the end of this revolution they
were thrown off upon a revolving endless belt,
| finished pins, pointed, headed and ready for use
| PAPERING THE PINS.
But they were not ready for market vet. All
this. it must be understood, had been performed
with speed that was fairly astonishing. the
chopper chopping the pins into lengths, the
| hammer hammerlng the heads simultaneously
| the wheel carrying the pin points over the
| emery wheels and throwing them off on the
endless belt at the rate of goodness knows how
! many minute. 1t still remained to put the
| pins in papers. one buys them and this was
| accomplished also without the Intervention of
human hands.
The endless belt carried the completed pins
| into Il barrel-shaped drum" also revolving. so
! that the pins in it were constantly being
| thrown over sort of chute inside the barrel
! against an endless chain passing through the
| barrel endways. The chain was in sections
linked together, each section a small bar of solid
| steel a little longer than ordinary row of
pins and with as many vertical grooves, close
| together, as there are pins in a row. Poured
| from the chute upon the chain the pins would
catch by their heads in the grooves, which
would be filled up Immediately, 80 that the
endless chain was carrying out of the barrel as
1.-THE chain-passed along, row after row of
pins, just as one purchases them, only hang
ing IN rows OF grooves and not stuck in paper
Bat the chain went along to a
queer-looking attachment at the end.
| through which q roll Of green paper
jus: the width Of pin paper and yards and
yards in length was continually passing. The
| attachment had jaws that caught the paper in
such fashion as to crimp it into double fold
just IN time to have a row of pins from the
chain forced through the fold from above; the
chain then proceeded slowly, so as to bring
| another row in position for being stuck in more
neatly than human hands could do it, and so
on, the paper that had taken the pin rows fall
! ing ON the floor inch by inch in a long ribbon.
THEN CAME THE FINAL PROCESS,
| which was simply to cut the ribbon into proper
lengths for sale, each length, when folded I'D.
making a paper" This scissor performance
| was the only part of the entire operation, from
| the original wire to the papering of the pins.
that was not accomplished automatically by the
| machine without human interference. The
proprietor said that his was the first pin ma
| chine ever exhibited, the pin trust having
| formerly kept the improved mechanism a Sc
cret.. He added that he found he could make
more money by showing the machine than by
| making pins himself in any ordinary fashion.
New Things I'm Silver and Gold.
/ From the Jewellers Weekly.
The shell of clam reproduced in silver
makes pretty butter dish.
| Pansies, roses and ferns worked in repousse
on the back of silver hand mirror have
pretty effect.