Page:LA2-NSRW-3-0541.jpg



PINS

1493

PIRACY

Virginiana), which occurs in woods in early spring and is conspicuous on account of its crimson red petals.

Pins. These simple articles, almost a symbol for a thing of the smallest value, not only are useful, but are a prime necessity. Yet they did not come into use without the help of art and inventive genius. The earliest pins probably were thorns or small bones of fish or other animals. Later there were pins of brass, copper or iron. These were of various forms, and often had gold and ornamental heads. Modern solid-headed pins are made on a machine that was patented by Wright, an American, in 1824. The process is as follows: Wire of suitable sizes is manufactured, mostly of brass, but also of iron or steel. When reeled, the wire is ready for use. A pair of pincers, worked by a machine, draws from a reel of wire a length sufficient to make a pin; its head, which is made at the same time, is straightened by passing through studs. The pin-length is seized by jaws from which a portion of the wire, of which the head is to be made, projects and is exposed to blows from a die-hammer. The pin is then pushed forward twice, each time receiving a blow from the die-hammer. The wire is then cut to the length of the pin. The headed blanks drop into a slot formed by two inclined and bevel-edged bars. The opening between the bars is just large enough to prevent the heads of the pins from falling through, so that the blanks become sustained in a row along the slot. They are then caught between two parts of the machine, which causes them to rotate, and are thus passed in front of the cylinder which acts like a file and points the pins. As many as 160 a minute can be turned out by a single machine. The pins are cleaned of grease and other matter by boiling them in weak beer. They are next coated in tin, and are then brightened by shaking them in a bag or barrel with bran or sawdust. They are papered by machinery, which is as ingenious as the means by which they are made. America uses nearly 150 pins per inhabitant per year, which is the highest average in the world. Pins are exported from the United States over nearly all the world, although needles are largely imported from England.

Pinturicchio (pen't<56~rek'ke-o), an Italian artist whose name means The Little Painter, was born at Perugia in 1454 and died at Siena in 1503. Fresco-painting was his strong point, and he left only a few easel pictures. He decorated the library of Siena cathedral, and the work was so brilliant in conception and execution, for he knew every resource of art and was a master of ornament, that it is his finest fresco. He was a link between Perugino and Raphael. His real name was Bernardino de Betto Bagio, and he was a man of high character.

Pipe'fish, a long, slender fish with a straight, tubular snout, like a pipestem. It is common on the Atlantic coast from Newfoundland south. The male has a brood-pouch under the tail, in which the eggs are developed and the youngest protected for some time after they are hatched. Several other species are found in different seas.

Piq'ua, O., a city of Miami County, on Miami River and the Miami and Erie Canal, in a rich agricultural section, 27 miles north of Dayton and 72 west of Columbus. It is served by a traction-line from Toledo to Cincinnati and by the Pennsylvania and the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton railway. It has good water-power from the Miami and Erie Canal. Its industries include large strawboard, hosiery and woolen mills, furniture, carriage, stove and bent wood works; the American School Desk Co.'s factory is here, and also a corrugated-iron works. Piqua has fine schools, churches, banks and a public library of 15,000 volumes. Population 13,388.

Pi'racy is robbery on the high seas, and, although considered a crime at the present time by all nations, formerly the sea-rover was as much a pirate as a trader. The Phoenicians combined piracy with lawful seafaring enterprise. In the days of Homer piracy was considered a respectable, even a dignified, calling, and the Greeks had a natural genius for it. Cilicia was long the headquarters for Mediterranean piracy, until in 67 B. C. Ppmpey made his memorable expedition against the pirates with great naval and military forces. The Norse vikings were the terror of western coasts and waters from the 8th to the i ith Christian centuries. The Hanseatic League was formed for mutual defense against the Baltic and other pirates. Later the Moslem rovers scourged the Mediterranean, commingling naval war on a large scale with peddling, thieving and stealing people as slaves. Algiers was a stronghold of pirates till well into the ipth century, and in the iyth century the English Channel swarmed with Algerine pirates. In 1635 these corsairs entered Cork Harbor, and carried off a boat with eight fishermen, to be sold as slaves in Algiers. The buccaneers preyed mainly on the Spanish commerce with the Spanish-American colonies. Captain Kidd, (q. v.), who was sent out against pirates in 1696 by a private company in London,was found to be playing the game of pirate himself, was arrested and tried for piracy and murder, found guilty and hanged on May 23, 1701. The original of Scott's Pirate was John Gow, who, though bold and successful under the guise of friendship, was proved to be a great villain, and with nine of his men was executed. So late as 1864 five men were hanged in London for murder and piracy. The African slave-trade was not considered piracy by the law of nations, though the United States and Great