The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1913-01-16

" slSG ueSiSheu LOT a line CafnDr1c
needle. win your highness give me
a hair from your head?" asked the
nag who was showing the o,s-
tinguished visitor through the factory.
The hair was given and the manager
passed it to the workmen at the drill
ing machine, who put a hole through
1t presented it to the prince
threaded with a bit of silk of micro
scopic fineness.
The manufacture Of needles and pins
Is usually conducted in the same fac
tory and the output is usually reck-
oned together in the making nm of
government reports. There are now as
Of these establishments. fewer thai
were reported several years ago, al
thougn their aggregate production is
mucn greater. They employ about five
thousand wage earners, a large -.r-
centage of whom are women and chill
dren, because with the improved ma
chinery, there is less need for hignly
skilled laborers. The total products
of these factories amount to over
$5,OO0,O00 in annual value. The larger
part of his is in pins, for the United
states does a large part Of supplying
the world with pins, for which there
is an ever-increasing demand.
The o~ft-repeated question, what
becomes of all the pins?" has never
yet been answered, and last year there
We're used in this country about one
hundred n ten billion common BINS.
which is an average of more than one
hundred n twenty-five for each man.
woman and child. The average was
only ~ a few years ago, but. in all
probability. in a few years it will reach
a pin a day of which no trace is found,
n the students of waste products
nave before them a complex problem.
The greatest number of common pins
are manufactured in Connecticut.
which last year turned out almost 3D.
0oo,O 900 gross.
Inc earliest forms of pins, excepting
those of thorns n small fish bones.
We're made of bronze. and these an,e-
GATE any historic record. In ancient
Egyptian tombs there have been found
pins of many sizes, some of them elab-
orately ornate. Among the relics of.
the prehistoric lake dwellers in Europe
many pins of bones have been fonnd
some of them III and others of fin.
"Ao IAtAASh' @ultG d ColIeCIlO0 OF
these has recently been secured from
the potion of a lake in Switzerland.
among them are some with double
prongs similar to the modern hairpin.
Some of the pins of antiquity had in
genious design intended to nhanc
utility. In the holy lands now
tourists will frequently pick up bronze
pms made with a hoop and a knob.
which were used to grid up the gar
ments of Biblical characters.
The common pins were first made in
Europe about the middle of the four
teenth century, and they became gem
eral in England some time later. In
1883 the importation of pins from
rance was forbidden by an English
statute, although in 1910 Queen Cath
airline had them imported for her own
use. About this time they began to
be manufactured in England, and there
was a special legislative act passed
providing, N person shall put to sale
any pinnes only such as shall have a
double head n have the eye soldered
fast to the shank of the pinne, the
shank well shapen, the points well
rounded, filed, canted and shaped" At
N''A't as lloVp Liz UtSl DlIS WtTS
made of brass, but this law was espe-
claliy directed against iron pins Whit
ened to resemble brass.
Fms were first made in the United
States during the revolutionary war
by Jeremiah Wilkinson of Rhode Is
land, who formed the heads by twist
ing fine wires. Prizes We're offered In
Carolina in a few years for the first
native pins and needles, although there
is no record of them having been
claimed. The war of 1912 brought
about a great scarcity of pins, and
their price went up so enormously thar
the women of the period carefully pre-
served every needle with a broken eve,
which they converted into a pin by fix.
ing 1t to he head of colored sealing
wax. Some of these wax headed pins
are still preserved as historic relics by
women belonging to patriotic organi-
cations. '
The early pins had their heads made
separately and attached to the shank.
a tedious and unsatisfactory process
for frequently the heads came off.
The need of a firm=headed min was 50
apparent to DR.. John Ireland Howe.
p' A>'"i VI bClICNue llOSDlIdi. New
YORK, that he finally invented it, and
the Howe factories established in New
England in1S33 manufactured pins from
MS method. Previous to this, Lemuel
w. Wright, another American, had Sc
cured a patent in England for making
solid headed pins. In 1871 Samuel slo-
cum invented a pin-sticking machine
Tor sticking the pins into papers, and
ne entered into the Howe Pin Manu-
featuring company, which utilized his
machine in their factory.
The variety in pins is almost as
great as in needles, and there is no
limit to their, uses and designs, The
safety pin is said to be a distinctly
American invention, although anti
quarians now have claimed to have
FOUND it's counterpart made centuries
ago. A most important by product of
the pin and needle industry is the
hook and eye which cause quite as
much trouble to the modern married
mar as did the pin and needle to his
ancestor. The hook and eyes can fire.
Gnpnf1 he man1lfo rf,,~ol 80 ..-A ~.