The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1890-01-09
VARIETY IN NEEDLES.
About Those Used by Mechani
of Every Description.

cOmetHbuS hUOut uUBC O0Cu ~ McCuUubCO
of Every Description.
A needle is a little thing. hardly
worth mentioning, in fact, but the daily
consumption of them in the United
States is 100000, About one-sixth Of
these are made in Brooklyn, but the
greater part of the needles we use come
from Redditch, England.
There are needles which all wig
makers use. They are as delicate as
hair and shaped like q fish-hook. There
is tambour needle and the needle for
stirring machines: the great sail needle,
which has to be pushed with steel
palm the knitting machine needle with
Its little latchet; the arasene and crewel
needle, and the long instrument which
the milliners use.
Then there is the surgeons cruel
outfit, the probing needle, made for
hunting after bullets or internal sores;
the post-mortem needles, of various
curves and sizes: the hair-lip needle;
the long accupressure pins, for pinning
gaping wounds in place; all the needles
for eye, head and body, long, short,
curved once, twice or three times. Then
the veterinary surgeon has his case of
needles. too. The upholsterer is favored
man. He has needles on half curve and
on the quarter curve round points
and sword points, long eyes, round eyes,
egg eyes and counter-sunk eyes. The
cook is not left out OF this trade, but has
a curious trusting needle, made for car
rying melted butter or savory sauce
right into the very heart of fowl or
roast, being hollow and large at the end
where the butter is poured in. There Is
also the Harding needle, which sews
large pieces of meat together or fastens
q bit Of fat deep in a lean piece of meat.
One Of these was invented by French
chef. The other was made to meet the
demands of butchers who cook large
quantities of meat for the free-lunch
restaurants, and who wish to sew their
meat into good shape, so that it will cut
we'll. The collar-maker's needle Is not
unlike the upholsterer's. The netting
needle has little branch at each end,
and with it goes broad 'mesh" Of ivory
or polished wood. The knife-point hem
needle, with its broad blade, was in
vented to suit the men at the Chicago
Stock Yards. The broom-makers' needle,
like the sailors, has to be pushed with
a steel palm. That which the millers
use has a spring eye which the heavy
thread enters when the side of the eye
is pressed.
A novice could never guess how to use
the needle made for sewing solcs on
shoes. The glove needles are marvel
Ously fine affairs, though even the daint.
lest of them have three-cOrnered points.
The knitting or astrachan needle wants
no mention.-American Artisan.
BIRDS IN MiD-ocEAN.
Sir Edward Arnold Gives Poetic Accoun,
OF Their Charming Grace.
Sir Edwin Arnold, in an account Of
hts voyage to America, says:
Every day we see, playing round the
ship and Swimming up and down the
wave-hollows, companies of lovely little
terms and sea swallows, the latter nc
people OF the deep have not by any
means followed us from the land, living
as gulls often will, on the waste thrown
from the vessel. They are vague and
casual roamcrs of the ocean, who, spying
the great steamship from afar, have
sailed close up, to see If we are a rocl
or an island, and will then skim away
again on their own free and boundles
business.
"Yonder tiny bird, with purple ant
green plumage, his little breast ant
neck laced with silver, is distant on,
thousand miles at this moment from
drop of fresh water, and yet cares n,
more for that fact than did the 1risl
squire who lived twelve miles from ,
lemon
''If his wings ever grow weary, it il
but to settle quietly on the bosom Of
great billow and suffer 1t for time h
rock and roll him amid the hissinI
spindrift, the milky flying foam. and tn
broken sea-lace which forms and CLEAN
and disappears again upon the darl
slopes.
"When he pleases, . stroke of tn
small red foot and beat Of the wonder
full wing launch him of from the jagge
edge of his billow, and he fits past II
| at one hundred knots an hour, laughin
! steam and canvas to scorn, and stecrin
for some nameless crag in Labrador Q
Fundy, or bound, it may be, homewar
| for some island or marsh of the far-awa
| Irish coast.
"Marveiously expressive Of power a
il our untiring engine. which all da
and all night throbs and pants and pulse
in noisy rhythm under the deck. what
clumsy. imperfect affair it Is compare
to the dainty plumes and delicate nut
clcs which will carry that pretty, feal
| less sea swallow back to his rOoetl"-
London Daily Telegraph.