Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1890-12-11

a Washington Stag reporter paid
ten cents 70 see d pin.making machine
in operation Tho machine was on
exhibition na Pennsylvania ayenuel
store. The reporter says he found
something well worth ssyinlga com
paratiYelya simple-looking msclSine
that was turning out pins faster than.
the most expert professional light
ming calculator could possibly think,
On topSof the continuance was q
horizontal wheel frame, with q coil
of wire around it. The wire was
madesef Steel with a coating Of tin;
it was exactly tho thickness Of an
ordinary pin, and was feeding itself
into q little mill, by which it was.
chopped up into actual pins. As
the single wire uncoiled automati7
cally from the wheel, passing through
what q person ignorant of mechanics
might describe as a sort OF trap, a
knife descended upon it with rapid
stokes, cutting It off sst p;n-l2ag.hs,
while at the moment each pin was
chopped off a trip hammer struck
ono end of it so as to flatten it out
into q head. Each pin in it's turn
after being out off and headed
in this way, fell into a little groove
on the rim of a wheel revolving YER
tically, which carried it around and
until it dropped naturally
into a groove ON the rim Of a wheel
revolving horizontally below, the
point projecting beyond the edge.
Thus the horizontal wheel went round
with a sort of fringe Of pin points.
That is to say, the points were about
to be made. The inner part of the
horizontal wheel-a disc including all
but the narrow outer rim--was made
20 revolve faster than, the rim itself,
so as to keep the pins in the grooves
on the rim all whirling rapidly on
their own axes. As they whirlcd
the wheel-rim carried them past
small emery wheela: s!sif!l5; iss,,ing,,
so that the ends were sharpened to
points in one revolution of the
whcel-rim. At the end Of this revo-
luton they we're thrown off upon a
revolving endless belt, finished pins,
pointed, headed, and ready for use.
But they were not ready for market
yet. All this, it must be understood,
had been performed witt a speed
that was fairly astonishing, the chop
per chopping the pins into lengths,
the hammer hammering the heads
simultaneously, tho 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 a minute. 1t still remained
to put the pins in papers, as ole
buys them, and this was accom-
plished also without the intervention
of human hands.
The endless belt carried the com
pleted pins into a barrel-shaped
"drum," also revolving, 30 that the
pins in it were constantly being
thrown over a sort of chute inside
the barrel, against an endless chain
passing through the barrel cndways.
The chain was in sections linked
together, each section a small bnc of
solid steel a little longer than an
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, 30 that the endless
chain was carrying out Of the barrel
as 1.-THE chain-passed along, row
after row of pins, just as n pur-
chases them, only hanging in rows Of
grooves and not stuck in paper. But
the chain went along to a queer-look-
ing attachment at the end, through
which a roll of green paper, just the
width of pin paper and yards and
yards in length, was continually
passing. The attachment had jaws
that caught the paper in such u
fashion as to crimp it into a double
fold, just in time to have a row of
pins from the chain forced through
the fold from above; tho chain then
proceeds slowly, so as to bring
another row in position for being
stuck in more neatly than human
hands could do it, and 30 on, the
paper that had taken the pin rows
falling on the floor inch by inch in n
long ribbon.
Then came the final process, which
was simply to cut the ribbon into
proper lengths for sale. each lenptb.