The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-10-25

piece OF crude native metal-a nugget
in short, picked up more or less by acci-
dent. 1t is fashioned into shape with a
hammer and ground to sharpness. Needles
OIL TINS sort were in common use amons.
the ancient Etruscans, who preceded the
Romans Lots of them have been found
among the ruins of the cities which they
overcame. Some of them have n sanpla
eye, and others two. 1t is evident mas
they were used just as modern needles
are.
1t is said that the sewing-machine did
not become really practical until the idea
OF putting an eye in the point of the needle
had been applied. Nevertheless. if seems
to be fact that sailors had adopted this
notlon many years earlier. 1t is beyond
question that mariners have always been
as sklllfuI al sewing as in tying knots. and
that is an argument which rude men are
tond OF bringing up in support of the as
sertioh that men can do anything better
than women, if they choose to try. No
mousse on shore, undeniably, is kept so well
as ship of war; but that does not prove
the proposition. 1t is certainly a fact how
ever, That several modern patents in need
les are merely applications on a small
scale of the principle of the marlinspike
The marlinspike, indeed is nothing more
nor less than a huge needle fastened on
10 the end of rope for the purpose of
making spices.
In the patent office are exhibited a good
many queer devices for sewing One is
called Sewing tool" 1t is a sort of sew
ing machine that can be held between
ones fingers. The needle is curved, and a
clamp holds the thread. As it is passed in
ana out through the CLOTH it does the sew
ing. Another contrivance, obviously de-
signed for use by bachelors, is a needle
that carries with it a spool of thread
When the thread is used up, the needle
may be thrown away. This is meant par
ticularly for sewing buttons There is a
double-pointed needle; a needle for string
ing hsh; needle to sew grainbags and
mattresses; a needle for binding bundles of
grain in the fields, and a needle and cutter
combined for sewing up boned hams in
bags. Not least important are many kinds
of surgical needles, the most delicate of
which serve for sewing up the covering
membrane of the eve
Ordinary sewing needles are made of
very fine steel wire. The powdered steel
and grindstone dust produced incidentally
| to the sharpening process are extremely
| injurious to workmen, and used to be IA
| tai to majority of them in a few years.
| before the adoption of modern precau-
| lions. The comminuted stone and steel
| damaged the lungs. The needles are hard
ened by heating in ovens; then cooled by
| plunging in oil, which makes them brittle
| as though made of glass. Next, they are
| raised to a temperature of 600 degrees
Fahrenheit; cooled gradually; mixed with
| oil, soft soap and emery powder; washed
with hot water, ard finally dried in saw
| dust. Finished, they sell for % cents to
| SIPS per 1000, wholesale, according to
quality.
One reason why the ancients were OBJ
! liged to rely on pins and needles to such
an extent was that they had no buttons.
| The button is a modern invention. No
| body knows who was responsible for it;
-, Iav~r hoo -.
many steps. At all events, the principle
was not applied to clothes until about $50
years ago. 1t made a tonsorial revolu-
| ton; for up to then there had been no
| such thing as ''fit'' in garments. Robes
| had hung loose and flowing up to the time
of the epoch-making button. One very in
| teresting fact is that the earliest buttons
were not meant for use at all; they were
| ornaments. They were of splendid and
costly materials and patterns, and any
| body who suggested that they might be
! made useful would have been treated
with scorn and contumely by the giddy
youths of that luxurious period.
Nowadays only savages dispense with
buttons. Even the numbered Orien-
| tai prizes them. The chief distinction
of the Chinese mandarin is a button on
| the cap. Buttons are made of gold, sill
yer, pewter, pearl, ivory, tortoise shell,
| bone, horn, hair, india rubber, wood
amber, jet, glass, porcelain, leather,
| papier-mache and precious stones. One
| firm in the United States turns out 65,-
100000 iron backs for covered buttons
| every year. Glass buttons are made by
pinching the half-soft material in hot
| pincers. The pincers are furnished with
a die, if it is designed to impress a de-
sign on the buttons. Wood button-molds
| come largely from the south of France,
| where suitable trees are plenty.
Nowadays all sorts of queer materials
are used for making buttons, such as
would not have been dreamed of a gener-
alton ago. They are nodded out Of
great variety of plastic mixtures, such
as waste ivory cuttings and cenuloid, in
fusorial earth and celluloid, hoof parings
and celuloid, sawdust and shellac, lamp
black and sheMac, etc. The making of
shoe-lace studs is an immense industry;
nearly all of them are metal blanks,
stamped out and covered with celluloid
solution which is known in the trade as
"pyroxylene." Most of the ordinary
shoe buttons are cast from one plastic
substance or another Very handsome
buttons are made from the nuts which
are known to commerce as "artihcial
ivory The nuts are cut in two, and
from each half a button is cut, using the
hardest part of the nut
Some of the patents in buttons are very
odd indeed. One of them is made on the
principle of an ink-well that cannot be
upset; 1t is filled with cologne. Another is
a locket, to hold a photograph, perhaps.
If buttons had existed in ancient times,
they would have been used to contain
poison. undoubtedly. That seems to have
been a favorite employment for articles
of ornament in ancient times. Many of
the brooches and ornaments dug up in the
island of Cyprus had attached to them
little bottles which were intended evil
IDENTIFY to hold poison. Life was not so
safe then as it is now, and it was always
possible that there might be occasion for
quick and sure death In those times sui
eide was considered a most honorable
way of getting out of the world.
Mother-of-pearl in a material of which
billions OF buttons are made every year.
The finest of them are cut by hand with
small revolving circular saw. In this
sort of work much skill is exercised, the
object being to get the greatest possible
number of buttons out of each she'll. If
the shell is thick enough, 1t is sometimes
split in two layers. The finest shells for
this purpose come from the East Indian
seas. They are worth $500 a ton in the
The x.yoefa From the ma pufacfIlrp