The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1897-05-26

roller over which the paper passes
and press descends upon il makinga q
double "crimp" in the paper. At the
same time the narrow frame which
holds the line of the pins is automat-
ically raised and the pins are neatly
thrust through the paper, being re-
leased and left in exact and orderly ar
ray rs soon rs they have pierced it.
The long strips of mounted pins are
cut into proper lengths as they emerge
from the sticking, machines and pass
on to the inspectors. The inspectors
from the court of last resort, where all
deformed or injured pins that may by
any possibility have escaped the ma
chine. are discarded and thrown out.
This work requires the greatest skill,
and only experienced hands are EN-
ployed. II may be said in passing that
all the inspectors and most of the
workers employed in the sticking de-
partment are women. Men do the
work in the whitening room and oper-
ate the pinmaking machines.
inspecting the Product.
The inspectors have the lightest and
pleasantest room in the factory, for
plenty of light and keen vision go to-
gether to make their work effective.
The inspectors sit in row before n
table The papers of pins are spread
ont before them, and they deftly re-
move all blunt and injured pins, in
serting fresh ones in the places. BY
their work of handling thousands of
pins every day their eyes become won
derfully trained, so that they can de-
tect the slightest flaw. OF the pins
that they throw out one will be found
to have little hook on the point, an
other an ill-shaped head, but the i'm
perfections are so slight that the or
binary person, unframed to such
work, would not detect one in hun
dred. A paper of pins of standard
size contains twelve rows, with thirty
pins in row. So deftly and quickly
does the inspector do her work that
she handles thousands of pins in the
course of IN hour, yet she almost
never overlcoks one that contains an
imperiection.
After leaving the inspectors, the
papers are folded, labeled and packed
in cases, ready for shipment. 1t may
have been only two or three hours
since the little pin now reposing in its
neat case, along with hundreds of its
fellows, was part of coil of wire
many rods in length, but during that
time it has passed through dozen
different operations and twice that
number of pairs of hands.
The process described is that
through which the ordinary pin, what
may be called the house pin, passes,
but, of course, there are endless vari-
ations on this usual form. Some of
the brass pins are allowed to retain
their original color, and these, of
course, do not pass through the nick
cling baths. Instead, they are boiled
in another solution. Then there is
which it is desirable to have dark
color. These are subjected to the
treatment known as japanning. From
the manufacturing room they go to the
basement, where they are placed in u
revolving cylinder half filed with the
hot japanning mixture. When re-
moved from here they are hung on
racks and placed in big ovens under
an intense heat, where they are allowed
to "bake" for an hour or more. Then
they are removed, cleaned in sawdust
and henceforth treated like the others.
Safety Pins.
Safety pins require more hand Ia
Dor than any other kind, and are made
by separate process. The point is
sharpened while the pin is still u
straight piece of wire. Then it passes
through machine which deftly winds
it about an upright steel rod, thus
making the spring. The heads are
made separately by machine which
stamps them out of long strips of wire,
and the two parts are firmly joined by
n clamping machine.
No machine has yet been invented
that will stick safety pins into the pa
pers, and this part of the work is done
by hand. Here again experience lends
speed, however, and a girl who is an
expert can mount 100 gross of safeties
in day.
The statement that 800 workmen and
more than 100 rapid working ma
chimes, capable of turning out 800 or
more pins per minute, are employed
in single factory gives no adequate
impression of the great mountain Of
pins that is required to supply the
market every year.-Washington Star.