The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1893-11-30
PIN POINTS.
HOW YHus USEFUL LITTLE AR
TiCLE IS MADE.
Wonderfully Ingenious Mechanism
Which Turns Out the Little
"Bachcior's Friend" az the
Rate of 1900 an Hour.
MACHINE that makes pins

turns out 'oVO OF THESE tihy
! ~ essentials an hour. Before
/. the pin is finished 1t goes
through very many operations. which
are described in the Youths Compsn-
ION a. follows: A reel Of wire hangs
over the machine, the free end OF
which passes between two rollers.
As the wire leaves the roller il passes
/ between two matched dies until IL
/ touches a guage. just as it does this
/ the dies come together and clamp 1T
/ firmly in groove in their face. At
/ the same time the machine cuts il of
| the proper length. The gauge then
moves away and little punch forms
the head by striking the end which
rested against the gusge. When this
is finished the dies separate aud de-
liver the pin into one of the great
many grooves in the face of the wheel
about foot in diameter, and just rs
wide across its face as the pin is long.
When the pin is taken by the wheel
il has no point, but as the wheel turns
/ it rubs the pins against an outside
/ band, which causes each one to roll in
its groove, and at the same time carries
them past set of rapidly moving files,
which brush against the blunt ends
and sharpens them roughly. They
next pass against the faces of two
grinding wheels, which smooth the
points. and then to n rapidly moving
leather band having fine emery glued
on its face. This gives them the final
polish. and as they leave the band they
are dropped into box underneath
the machine. After this the pins are
plated with tin to give them a bright,
silvery appearance. They are pre-
pared for plating by being first inn
mersed in weak sulphuric acid to re-
move all grease, and then dried by
being placed--a bushel or 80 at
time, with about the same quantity of
sswdust a machine called q tum
bling barrel. This is simply cssk
suspended on shaft which passes
through il lengthwise. Two or three
hours rolling in sawdust cleans the
pins and wears away any little rough
ness which the machine may have
caused.
Pins and sawdust are taken to.
D
fall in a steady stream through blast
of air. The sawdust, being the lig ghter,
is blown over into large, room-like
box, while the pins, being heavier,
fall into bin below. After this they
are spread out in trays having sheets
of zinc in their bottoms, which have
previously been connected with one
of the wires of an electric battery.
The trays are then placed in a tank
containing s. solution of tin in muriatic
acid, and the other wire of the battery
I is asserted In the solution. Electrical
action Immediately begins and deposits
metallic tin on the entire surface of
each pin. They are then washed in
tank of water and put into other
tumbling barrels with hot sawdust
When they have been dried and cleaned
Of the sawdust, as in the former in
stance, they are put into II large,
slowly revolving copper-lined tub.
which is tilted at an angle of about
forty-fve degrees. As this revolves
the pins keep sliding down the smooth
copper to the lower side This con
stant rubbing against the tub and
against each other polishes them,
II was the practice formerly to allow
pins of all lengths to become mixed in
the different operations, and. after
polishing, to separate them by very
ingenious machine, but it has been
found more economical to keep each
size to itself.
From the polishing tub the pins are
carried TO the "sticker," where they
fall from hopper on an Inclined plane
in which are a number of slits. The
pins catch in these slits and hanging
by their heads, slide down the incline
to the apparatus which inserts them in
the paper. As the number of pins III
row on the paper and the number OF
Sits are the same, an entire row is
stuck at once by an ingenious device
which takes one pin from each slit and
inserts them all Mt once III the two
ridges which have been crimped in the
paper by "A wheel that holds it in place
to receive the pins. At the same time
the wheel crimps the paper it spaces
the rows, so that when filed with pins
the paper will fold up properly.
This whole machine is so delicate in
its action that single bent or other
wise imperfect pin will cause the
machine TO stop feeding until the at
tendant remove it yet its operation
is 30 rapid that one machine will stick
80, 900 pinsan hour. As the long strip
of paper on which the pins are stuck
comes from the machine it is cut into
proper lengths by girls, who then fold
and pack the papers in bundles ready
for shipment.