Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1893-12-01
PIN POINTS.
HOW THIS USEFUL LITTLE AR
TICLE is MADE.
Wonderfully Ingenious Mechanism
Which Turns Out the Little
"BachelOr's Friend" at the
Rate Of 1900 an Hour.
MACHINE that makes pins

are described in the Youth : Compan-
ion as follows; A reel of wire hangs
over the machine, the free end OF
which passes between two rollers.
As the wire leaves the roller 1t passes
between two matched dies until 1t
touches a guage. Just as 1t does tins
the dies come together and clamp 1t
firmly in n groove in their face. At
the same time the machine cuts 1t OIL
the proper length The gauge then
moves away and little punch forms
the head by striking the end which
rested against the guage. When this
is finished the dies separate and de-
liver the pin into one OF the great
many grooves in the face of the wheel
about a foot in diameter, and Just as
wide across its face as the pin IS long
When the pin is taken by the wheel
it has no point, but as the wheel turns
it rubs the pms against au outside
band. which causes each one to roll IN
its groove. and at the same time carries
them past a set OF rapidlymov files,
which brush against the blunt ends
and sharpens them roughly. They
next pass against the faces oi two
grinding wheels, which smooth the
points. and then to 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 a 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 i'm
mersed in weak sulphuric acid TO re-
move all grease, and then dried by
being placed bushel or SO at IA
time. with about the same quantity OF
sawdust-in machine called tum-
bling barrel. This Is simply cask
suspended on shaft which passes
through it lengthwise. Two or three
hours rolling in sawdust cleans the
nins and wears away any little rough
ness which the machine may have
caused.
Pins and sawdust are taken to-
cether from the barrel and allowed to
fall in a steady stream through blast
of air. The sawdust, being the lighter,
is blown over into a large, room-hke
box. while the pins. being heavier,
fall into bin below After this they
are spread ont 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 tank
containing a solution of tin in muriatlc
acid. and the other wire OF the battery
is inserted in the solution. Electrical
action Immediately begins and deposits
metallic tin on the entire surface of
each pin. They are then washed in n
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 large,
slowly revolving copper-lined tub,
which is tilted at an angle of about
forty-fye degrees. As this regolves
the pins keep sliding down the smooth
copper to the lower side. This con-
slant rubbing against the tub and
against each other polishes them.
1t 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 number of Sits. The
pins catch in these Sits and hanging
by their heads, slide down the incline
to the apparatus which inserts them IN
the paper. As the number of pins IN
a 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 at once III the two
ridges which have been crimped IN the
paper by 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 a single bent or other
wise imperfect pin will cause the
machine to stop feeding until the at
tendant remove it; yet its operation
is so rapid that one machine will stick
90, 600 pinsan hour. Asthe 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.
There are $500 differest species of