The record-union., 1895-08-31
/WOMAN'S BEST FRIEND.
Process of Manufacturing a Useful
Article.
Wonderful Industry Which Has
Grown From Very Crude Be.
ginnin2s in Connections.

That was an interesting idea of an en-
| terprising Western business firm, which
advertised not long ago that it would
give to the woman making the most logi-
cal and acceptable answer to the ques-
ton, What is the most necessary article
used in woman's dress?" very hand
some silk gown.
Although the contest was intended to
be a purely local one, the answers to the
question poured in on the firm from all
over the country. The result was that
two silk gowns were awarded, one OF
them going to a woman in the town In
which the firm is located and another to
Miss Emma Belford of Birmingham,
Conn.
With the gown Miss Belford received a
letter in which the firm declared that her
answer was the most acceptable and the
only one of the kind received. Just two
words covered it: "a pin."
1t is doubtful whether one woman in
10000 has the slightest idea of the compH-
Gated machinery required to turn out
that little article, and the originality OF
Miss Belford's idea is not entitled to such
great consideration after all, for Blrm-
ingham, her home, is the birthplace OF
pins, and she works ten hours day
making them.
The material of which pins are made is
a mixture of copper and zinc, two parts
of the former to one of the latter. and ar
rives at the factory in the shape of ingots
II by 3 inches and feet in length. In this
form they are annealed, rolled into
sheet about an eighth Of an inch thick
and then cut into strips having four
sides. These strips, heated to the proper
degree, are drawn until they become
wire. This wire is Strengthened on small
reels and wound onto the standard pin
reel, which is 22 inches in diameter, at
the rate OF l 900 feet per minute, during
which time it passes between a series Of
heavy horizontal and vertical rollers
which straighten it perfectly.
The next stage in the process OF making
this "woman's 1riend' finds the large
reel on rack in front Of the pin machine
rollers and cut into the required sizes,
the head being formed in this machine
by three blows given by cam and tog-
gle on the end OF the out wire. From
this machine the halfmade pins are car
ried on verticle wheel to two revolving
disks, betweon which they are rolled,
passing over four steel files various
RtduoS, ny AICu tiOJ olc pOlASOQs
An emery wheel finishes up the "buSi-
ness end' Of the article. The sawdust
tumbler next comes into use. Into this,
which is nothing more than bin Of
sawdust jolted about by the machinery,
the pins are dumped and cleaned of oil
and dirt. They are then bathed and
boiled in a preparation of pure Banca
tin, then immersed in lye and finally GO
back to the sawdust bin where they are
thoroughly tumbIed so as to give them q
high polish.
The finished pins are dumped into a
hopper and are then pushed out by re-
vOlving fingers to an inclined bed with
radial slots, into which great mum bers of
the pins fall. Those which descend with
the points downward are arrested in
their progress by machinery which grasps
the head. while those that 60 down head
foremost pass right through the machine
unmolested and fall into receptacle
from which they are again dumped into
the hopper.
Those which are grasped by the head
in their descent are held by what is
called the cutting off" plate and num-
Der of tiny little hammers, one for each
pin. descend and drive the pins into the
paper, all oiled out TO the proper length,
crimped and held in position to receive
it's gIistening little tenants. This done,
the proper number of rows are reeled Off
the continuous sheet OF paper, blade
descends and cuts the paper, and still an
other device rolls them up in the shape in
which the consumer buys them.
In i775 the colony of Carolina offered
prizes for native-made pins. A factory
which was started in 1912 to manufacture
them failed. and in 1924 a Massachusetts
man, Lemuel w. Wright, was granted a
patent for pin making machinery by the
English Government, but the machine
was never operated here.
About twenty years later the fact
that patients in hospitals were making
pins by hand in their leisure moments
gave suggestion to DR.. John L. Howe,
New Yorker. During vacation in
England he made u study of pins and
pinmaking. after which he brought one
OF the machines to this country, used it
as model .or the construction of others
and started in the business. The plant
was esta blished at Birmingham, Conn.,
has been there ever since and still bear q
his name.
But the imported machine q marvel at
the time, only made the pins. They were
taken home by the country folk in the
evenings, and the farmers, their wives,
sons and daughters used to have a right
! merry time giving "pinning parties"
At these affairs an immense closely
woven basket heaping with pins was
placed in the center of the room, and
around this the coterie of country folk
sat on stools putting the pins in paper by
hand. AS they worked they gossiped
and sang song with quaint, swinging
melody, tha refrain of which ran as fol-
lows, with an air something like
"Mother. may go out 20 swim?"
Pick up pin and stick it in
Stick and do not linger:
Pick up pin and stick in,
But don't you stick your finger.
For doing this work they were paid six
cents per dozen papers, but this labor
caused many rural youths brain to
palpitate with pains for doing the work
mechanically. One of them, Josegh Nara
more, invented and patented most of the