Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1908-05-29
HOW THE Pins Get here
With No Attempt to Tell Just What
Becomes of Them---Adam
and Eve Used them.

OLDEST REMAINS OF PREHISTORIC HU-
MAN BEING DISCLOSE THEIR USE,
EVEN TO THE SAFETY KIND, BUT
THE CHINESE HAVE NOT COME
AROUND TO THEM YET-AMERICANS
FIRST MADE THEM BY MACHINE
To the perennial question, "Where
do all the pins go?' no adequate an
swer has ever been made. Some are
swallowed, for every now and then
there is published statement in regard
to persons who survive operations for
the renewal of this foreign body from
the human system. The majority are
lost for whoever is able to find pin
always when it is needle p, and it may
be presumed that all finally disinte-
CRATE and return to the earth, from
| which came the elements combined in
these articles of use and convenience
The origin of the pin is also in the
mists of antiquity, but as it's prototype
is found in the thorn and the slender
fish bone, it may readily be concluded
that the use of these began with the
invention of clothing, usually ascribed
to the father and mother of the race,
Adam and Eve, when "they sewed fig
leaves together and made themselves
aprons" in the "Garden eastward in
Eden, although the fact of sewing
would seem to show that the needle is
of higher antiquity than the pin. In
man race yet discovered, those of the
lake dwellers, in Central Europe, there
have been many pins found, some of
bone and others of bronze
| SAFELY PIN OF ANCIENT USE.
AS if to show that there is nothing
now under the sun, some have been
found which almost exactly resemble
the modern safety pin. Brass pins
| find mention in the Book of Exodus.
Pins of wood, bone, ivory, bronze, sill
yer, and gold, more or less rudely con-
! structed, were in use among the ancient
dwellers in Egypt, Rome, Greece and
Asia. The Chinese are practically the
only pinless nation, with all their skill
and inventiveness never having made
use Of this device, which is regarded as
indispensable by the rest of the world.
Artistically wrought pins are found in
the tombs OF ancient Egypt In Pom
peii and Herculaneum are preserved
bronze pins and bone hairpins There
are many references to these useful
articles in classic literature.
The modern making of pins dates
back to the fifteenth century, when
| pins Of iron were first manufactured in
England, but it is believed that these
were without heads and were practical
ly skewers. In the year 1910, pins
made from brass were introduced in
England by Queen Catherine Howard,
the fifth Of the six wives of King Henry
| VIII. In 1913 there was an act of Par
lament which was designed 'sto avoid
the slight and false making of pins, !"
and provided that mo person shall put
on sale any pinnes, but only such as
shall be double headed, and have the
head soldered fast to the shank of the
pinnes, well smoothed, the shank well
shapen, the points well and sound filed,
canted and sharpened."
PERFECTED IN AMERICA.
AT that time the chief source of sup
ply was France, but in 1926 the manu-
facture of pins took great start in
England, and one man employed 1,50O
persons Ten years later the pinmakers
of London formed a corporation, but
later the industry found its chief seat at
Birmingham. In this country, in ITS,
prizes were offered in the Carolinas for
the first native-made pins and needles,
but it was not until the war of 1912 put
a practical embargo on the importation
Of pins, and the price rose to prohibit
tive proportions, that their actual man
u u'acture was started in the United
States, and it was inventive Yankees
who perfected the modern process of
pin making.
The invention of wire drawing was
the first great promoter of the pin in
dustry, and some aged persons can re-
member when pins were made in two
parts, the shank being of one piece of
wire of the proper length and filed to a
point at one end and the head being
finer piece of wire twisted or soldered
at the other end. But this was COM
plicated piece of work, and involved
the labor of dozen different persons.
AS early as 1897 a solid-headed pin was
invented by Timothy Harris, in Eng
land, the head being of lead and anti
mony and pressed to the wire by a
mold Another Englishman patented
a device for making head by COM
pressing the metal in 1917, but it did
not get into use, and was soon super
seded by the machine invented by
Lemuel Wellman Wright, of Massa-
chusetts, which, with some modifica-
tions, is the pinmaking machine in
use to-day III England, where it was
patented in 1924. In this country it
was superseded in 1881 by the inven-
ton of DR.. John Ireland Howe, of
Bellevue Hospital
The modern pinmaking machine
works automatically and completes the
pin, with the exception of coloring and
polishing, without the aid of human
hands In 1871 the device for sticking
pins in rows of papers was invented by
Samuel Slocum, of Connecticut, and
put in use in the factory where pins
were made by DIR. Howe's machine. 1t
was later improved by Thaddeus Fow-
ler. This machine is described as
scarcely less ingenious than the pin
making invention. By the use of these
devices the total pin product in this