Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/378

* NEEDFIRE. 330 NEEDLE. post. As in ttic vase ul now tire, the needfire was almost always aeeonipanieil with the e.- tiiiguishiug of the lires of tlie locality and the nei-^hbors also rekindled their fires from it as in the new fire ceremony. In practice the people passed or the herds were driven throiij,'li or he- twecn the llanios of the needtire for pnrilication. The needllre custom survived well into the nine- teenth century, anil it is probable that traces of it still exist in jiarts of Europe. NEED'HAM, .Joiix Turherville (1713-81). An English naturalist, born in London. He studied at Douai. and was ordained to the priesthood in ITIi.S. In 17t!!l he became director of the Academy of Sciences of Brussels. Need- liam was a friend of IJull'on, and in his time well known as a scientist. His great 'discovery' was that all life proceeds from vegetation; it is con- tained in his Ubscrvations upon the Clenerul Composition and Decomposition of Animal and Vegetable Hubslances (174!)), and youvclles ob- servations microscopitjiics (17.50). NEEDHAM, or JSTEDHAM, M.^rciiamont (ltlii(l7S). An lOn^rlish journalist and pam- phleteer, born at Burford, xfc)rdshire. He was educated at . Souls' College. Oxford, and after studying medicine and law turned to journalism, and founded in 1(14:! the .lrn-iiiii(S liritmutifus (.sic), to which he was frcciuently the sole contrib- itor. The boldness of his scurrilous attacks upon Charles I. led to his incarceration in the Fleet Prison in 1645 and in 1G4G, but the following year he became a Uoyalist himself and began the publication of Merciiriiis I'ragmnlicus, where- in he defended the King and turned his venom- ous pen against the .Scots and Oliver Cromwell. Afterwards he rejoined the popular party, and signalized his conversion by the publication of The Ca»e of the Commonireallh of Enqland Htnted (ir..iO). After the Protector's death he went to Holland and continued the publication of his abusive pami)hlets. such as .1 Short flis- torii of the English ftrbvllion. Completed in Verse (1(>61). and Chrislianissimiis Christianondns ; or. Reasons for the Reduction of France to a More Christian State in Europe (lfi7S). NEEDLE (AS. nwdl. Goth, ncala, OHG. niidihi. iii'iilla, Ger. adel, from OHG. nii/mi, Ger. niilirn, to sew; ultimately connected with Olr. sniithiid. thread. AS. sncar, Eng. snare, Lat. nere. Gk. vietv tirein. to sew). An instrument of metal, or other material, used to carry the thread in sewing, endiroidering. knitting, netting, and other similar operations. Needles are generally made of metal, but bone, ivory, and wood are also used : for ordinary needlework, called sewing, they are made of fine steel, and arc too well known to need description; for other kinds of work (hey are often nuK'h larger and dilTerently formed. ' The earliest needles were not pierced, luit were like awls, and were used for making holes in skins, through which the long roots of ])lants or leather thongs were passed. Later, a hole was bored in one end of the stone or bronze needle through which the root or thong w-as passed and this was dragged through the leather as it was punched. Stone needles, with a hole in the end opposite (he [iidnt. are found in the remain.s of the Stone .Age. Tione needles with eyes are found in the reinileer caves of France ami lake <lwell- ings of Central Europe. The needles that have come down to us from ancient Egypt are very coar.se, but finer needles must have been made to execute the delicate embroidery tluit was pro- duced by that people. The ancient Greeks must have been skilled in needlework, judging from the descriptions of embroidery in Homer. Ordi- nary needles and surgeons' needles have been found in the ruins of Pompeii. The Chinese are believed to have been the first to use needles of steel, and these implements gradually found their way westward (uitil they were brought into Euro))e by the Jloors. By l.'J70 the needle-making industry was established in Xurendjerg. In JOniiland it was not until the reign of (^)ueeii Klizaljcth that their manufacture was taken up on any considerable scale in small shops, an<i after ll).')0 it gradually developed until the greater part of the hand-sewing nwdles are now made in England. Subsequent developments included the introduction of the needle with the eye and the gradual development of machines for tlieir manufacture. The first drill-eyed needles were made in 182(3. Xeedle-making is an important industrial art, and it has attained to extraordinary perfection. 'J'he first ojx-ration. after the wire has been se- lected and its thickness accurately gauged, is to cut it into eight-foot lengths; tliis is done by wimling it in a coil of sixteen feet eireumferenee, and then cutting this coil into exact halves with powerful cutting shears. The coiling of the wire is so managed that there are 100 pieces in each half when cut; the bundles of 100 wires are again cut into the necessary lengths for two needles. The pieces cut fr<im a coil, although now reduced to the length of two small needles, are nevertheless somewhat curved: they are therefore collected into liun<lles and placed in two iron rings, which hold them loosely together; they are then slightly .softened Ijy firing, and are laid on an iron plate or bench, and are pressed with a small curved bar in two or three positions, by which the operator manages to nuikc them all perfectly straight. The blanks after being re- moved from a ho|)per in legular succession are next pointed at both ends by a grindstone to whose face they are held by a rubber hand. The eyes are next piimdied by means of dies. (See Dies .xd Hie-.Sixkino. ) The blanks or double needles are now ])laccd on two wires and the two sets broken apart to form se|iarate needles. The roughly formeil needles still have (o he i)olishcd, tempered, and have the heads gro id into shape, operations which are mechan- ically performed. Besides the ordinary sewing needle already de- scribed and other haml needles — such as those used in sail-making, leather work, upholstery, and surgery- — many forms of sewing-machine nee eye and grooves on each side to protect the thread from being worn or cut in passing through the fabric. The latched needles used in stocking machinery are very ilelicate pieces of mechanism, as the latch is held by a rivet about ,i„ inch in diameter between walls which are no thicker. For leather- sewing machines the ni'cdlcs mist be adapted for use with waxed thread, and often are made with n hook at the end. instead of a hole: while the welting-maehine needle, for sewing welts in boots and shoes, is the shape of a segment of a circle. (