The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1902-11-17
PINS. HOOKS AND EYES.

| 4AlouSH "OiuCAAhA Ma
chine.
The manufacture of pins has become
such an industry in the United States
that the mills of this country practi-
cally supply the world with this need
ed article, and yet the demand is by no
means a small one. In 1900 the seven
| ty-five million people in the United
States used sixey-six million gross Of
common pins, which is equal to ninety
! five hundred million pins. or an aver
! age Of about one hundred and twenty
six pins for every man, woman and
child in the country. This is the high
est average reached anywhere in the
use of pins. Ten years ago We used
only about seventy-two yins each.
The total number of pins manufac-
, tured in the United States, during 1900,
the census year. was 6S,SS9,26O gross.
There are forty-three factories in all,
with 1858 employees. The business has
grown rapidly during the last twenty
years, for. although there We're forty
factories in 1880, they produced only
half as much, employed only about half
the capital and only 1917 hands. There
has been a considerable increase in the
number of women and children en-
ployed in pin factories of late years,
which is an indication that the machin-
cry is being improved and simplified
and that its operation does not require
so high an order of mechanical skill.
Hooks and eyes are a by-product of
pin-making and are produced at most
of the factories from material that will
not do for pins. The output of hooks
and eyes is 1900 was 1,131.S 1924 gross.
Pins and hooks and eyes are turned
out by automatic machines in such
quantities to-day that the cost of man
ufacture is practically limited to the
value Of the brass wire from which
they are made. A single machine does
the whole business. Coils Of wire,
hung upon reels, are passed into the
machines, which cut them into proper
lengths. and they drop off into recep-
tacle and arrange themselves in the
line of a shit formed by two bars.
When they reach the lower end of the
bars they are seized and pressed be-
tween two dies. which form the heads,
and pass along into the grip of another
st eel instrument, which points them by
pressure. They are then dropped into
solution of sour beer. whirling as
they go. to be cleaned. and then into a
hot solution of tin, which is also kept
revolving. They here receive their
bright coat of metal and are pushed
along, killing time, until they have had
an opportunity to harden, when they
are dropped into a revolving barrel Of
bran and sawdust, which cools and pol
ishes them at the same time. Because
of the oscillation of the bran they work
gradually down to the bottom of the
barrel, which is a metallic plate cut
into Sits just big enough for the body
of the pins, but not big enough for the
head to pass through.
Thus they are Strengthened out into
rows again, and like well-drilled SOL
diers, pass along toward the edge of the
bottom, and slide down an inclined
plane. still hanging by their heads, IN
til they reach strips of paper, to which
they are introduced by a curious jerk
of the machine. The first they know
they are all placed In rows, wrapped
up and on their way to the bid depart
ment stores, where they are sold at
from five to ten cents gross. ma
chine is expected to throw out several
thousand gross an hour
Needles are made by a similar ma
chine. In 1900 there were made 1,S97,-
533 gross of machine needles, 212,6S9
gross for shoemaking, 324,476 gross for
ordinary household sewing machines,
3O7 1926 gross for knitting machines, and
the rest for other kinds of sewing and
knitting machinery, generally for fac
tory use. We imported $41S,004 worth
of ordinary needles. most of them from
England.
Hairpins and safety pins and other
kinds of pins are manufactured in
similar manner. We made 1,1S9,104
gross of hairpins in 1890 Both needles
and hairpins are manufactured to
greater extent in Europe than plain
pins. Safety pins, however, are deci-
dedly American, and of these we make
on an average one million gross a year.
American Exporter.