The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1896-06-19
THE AGE OF PINS.

Pins are, as the saying goes, as old
as the hills In some form or another
they have been in existence ever since
our first parents clothed themselves in
tig-leaves, which grew wild i'll the Gar
den of Eden. As matter Of fact, pins
claim very high antiquity, the earliest
form being the natural thorn, which is
still used to some extent by the peas
ant women of Upper Egypt. In pre-
historic times pins were also made OF
small bones of fish and animals.
Among the remains Of the lake
dwellcrs of Europe have been found
bronze pins and bronze brooches, in
which the pins form the prominent tea-
ture, many of which are highly orna-
mented and very beautiful. \ few
copper and one iron pin have also been
found 1t is estimated that 10 900
pins have been collected ut the laclls-
trine station in Switzerland alone. 4
few of these pins have double stems,
and were probably used as hairpins.
Three have been found at Peschiera,
which are exactly the same in form as
the safety pin Of the present time.
Among the single-stem pins are many
ingenious devices for preventing the
spike from passing entirely through
the cloth or other material it is used
for fastening together. Many Of them
are so formed that they are thicker in
some place than in others. \ large
number, both of bronze and bone, have
the head formed by Il loose ring passed
through an eye in the pin. \ few
heads have been discovered, while in
ancient Rome bronze pins and bone
hairpins, with ornamental heads, have
been discovered among the relies of
Pompeii.
In England the ordinary domestic
pin had become in the fifteenth centu-
| rv an article of sufficient Importance
to warrant Legislative notice. An act
of Parliament passed in 1883 prohibi-
ted the importation Of pins. As Il ne
cessity of the toilet pins were intro
| duced into England in the latter part
of the fifteenth century by Catherine
Howard, queen of Henry WILL, who
received them from France.
Very good pins were made at this
period of brass, but a large portion of
them were made of iron, which were
blanchcd and sold for brass pins. In
order to prevent this imposition upon
the good people of England, Parlia-
ment in l543 passed an act providing
that 'no person shall put to sell any
pins but such us double-headed and
have the heads soldered fast to the
shanks of pins; well smoothed, the
shanks we'll shapen, the point well
rounded, filed, canted and sharpened.' -
England depended upon France for
its supply of pins until 1927, when
John Tilsby introduced the manufac-
ture in Clouchestershire His busi-
ness grew to such an extent that it Is
said he gave employment to 800 per-
sons: at any rate, his pins, Stroud
pins as they were called, gained a high
reputation In 1886 the manufacture
was introduced into Bristol and Bir-
mingham, the latter place ultimately
becoming the great center OF the i'll
dustry.
Pins in America made their first ap-
pearance during the last century. In
1873 a prize was offered to the colon
lists of Carolina who introduced the
first native pins and needles. During
the war of 1872, when, owing to the
restrictions upon commerce, the price
of pins rose to 81 per paper, the man
uf:lcturc was actually started in the
| United States. but does not seem to
have met with success, us the enter
prise WIS soon abandoned. The in
dustrv was not fairly started in this
county until the year 1886.
The early pins in this country were
made with glohular heads of fine twist
ed wire made separately and secured to
the shank hv compression from Il falling
| bleck and die. These old pins had the
misfortune of often parting with their
| heads 1t was to overcome this difficulty
/ that the attention of the early lnven-
tor wasdirectcd The solid-headed
Din in common use today took the
place of the old form about 1910.
Before the Introduction of machinery
bins were made 10y manual labor i'll
such way rs to require their passage
through the hands OF fourteen different
persons before completion. BY
machinery in use at the present time
it is estimated that 100 pins are turned
out per minute. In England 1000, 900
pins are made daily, ofwhich 81 ,ooo, 600
are made in Birmingham alone.
Connecticut is the principal center of
the industry in the United States.