The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1894-12-29
The Useful Pin.


The machine that makes pins turns out
1900 of these tiny essentials in an hour.
Before the pin is finished it goes through
very many operations, which are described
as follows A reel of wire hangs over the
machine, the free end of which passes be-
tween two rollers. As the wire leaves the
rollers it passes between two matched dies
until it touches guage. Just as it does
this the dies come together and clasp it
firmly in grove in their face. At the
same time the machine cuts it off the proper
length. The guage 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 deliver the pin into one of the 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 pins against an
outside band, which causes each one to
roll in its groove, and at the same time
carries them past a set Of rapidly-moving
files, which brush against the blunt ends
and sharpen them roughly.
They next pass against the face of two
grinding wheels, which smooth the points
and then to rapidly moving leather band
having fine emory glued on its face. This
gives them the final polish, and as they
leave the band they are dropped into box
under the machine After this the pins
are plated with tin to give them bright
silvery appearance They are prepared
for plating by being first immersed in weak
sulphuric acid to remove all grease, and
then dried by being placed bushel or so
at time, with about the same quantity of
sawdust, in a machine called tumbling
barrel. This is simply cask suspended
on shaft which passes through it length
wise. Two or three hours rolling in saw
dust cleans the pins and wears away any
little roughness which the machine may
have caused. Pins and sawdust are taken
together from the barrel and allowed to fall
in steady stream through blast of air.
The sawdust being the lighter is blown
over into a large roOmlike box, while the
pins, being heavier, fall into a bin below.
After this they are spread out on trays
having sheets of zine in their bottoms
which have previously been connected with
one of the wires of an electric battery.
The trays are then placed in tank con-
tanning solution of tin in muriatic acid,
and the other wire of the battery is inserted
in the solution. Electrical action imme-
diately 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
instance, they are put into large slowly
revolving copper-lined tub, which is tilted
at an angle of about As degrees. As this
revolves, the pins keep sliding down the
smooth copper to the bottom. 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 sepa-
rate them by very ingenious machine,
but it has been found more economical to
keep each kind by itself
From the polishing tub the pins are car
ried to the ''sticker, where they fall
from hopper on an incline plane, in which
are number of Sits The pins catch in
these Sits, and, hanging by their heads,
slide down the incline of the apparatus
which inserts them in the paper. As the
number of pins on 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 in 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 by the machine the paper will fold up
properly.
The whole machine is so delicate in its
action that single bent or otherwise i'm
perfect pin will cause the machine to stop
feeding until the attendant removes it; yet
its operation is so rapid that one machine
will stick 0,0OO pins an 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 ship
ment.