Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/44

* PIN. 28 length of wire to a point nml then twisting a piece of fine wire around the other extremity. The complete process involved thirteen or four- teen operations, re(|uiring the labor of as many dill'iient persons. Most of these processes were performed by hand tools as distin-rnished from automatic machinery, and in many cases a whole pin was made at a time. Toward the close of the eighteenth century various inventors were ilevising machines for shorteninf; this complicated process. In 1707 a solid-headed pin was made by Timothy Harris, of En>;land. The l)lanks were placed in a two-part mold in which prints at the proper place represented the pin-head. Into this mold an alloy of lead and antimony was poured, which solidified and formed a stdid head to the pin. Successive improvements followed, the most im- portant of which was the machine invented by Lenuiel Wellman Wright, of the United Slates, in 1824. This did little more than make solid heads to the pins, by a process in principle like that used for nail-making — viz., by driving a ]iortiiiii of the pin itself into a counter-sunk hole. The action, however, was automatic, and con- sisted in an arrangement by which the wire was seized in two small grooved cheeks. When both cheeks are placed face to face, the wire is held tightly in the groove with a small portion pro- jecting, a small ram or hammer connected with the machine strikes on the projecting portion described, and compresses it into a small cup- sliapcd depression, and thus the head is formed. In 18:!1 a machine for making perfect solid- headed pins, like those now in use, was invented by .lohn Ireland Howe, a phvsician in Bellevue Hospital, New York City. The following year a company was org'anized to make pins after his patents, which, six years later, moved to Derby, Conn. The modern pin-making machine, without the aid of, hands, completes the pin in all respects except the coloring and polishing. First, a reel of wire as it comes from the wire-drawer is placed in the rear of the machine, and the end of the wire is taken hold of by a pair of nippers, which pull it over a sirniijhtening-bodrd, and pass it on completely straightened, vintil it is seized by two cheeks, when a cutter descends and cuts it off, leaving the projecting part for the head; on the withdrawal of the cutter, the hammer flies forward, and makes the head as before described; the cheeks open and the pins drop on to a sloping metal plate, finely grooved, down which they slip with the heads upward, until the end which is to be pointed comes in contact with a cylindrical roller with a grinding surface, which soon grinds points upon them, by the operation of two or three ingenious arrange- ments; the first is, that the grooved surface of the |)late bv which the pins descend terminates a little above the griniling roller, then a slight depression is given to the sloping plate, and also to the roller, so that one end is an inch or two lower than the other ; therefore as the pin de- scends the groove, and is thus brought dotn the inclined plate, until it lies on the smooth part, where it is highest, and its end in contact with the grinding roller which is revolving, the pin itself is compelled by the friction of the roller to turn round, and gradually descends from the upper to the lower part of the inclined plate, and then falls into a box placed to receive it. These operations are performed so rapidly that the.y PINA CLOTH. can scarcely be perceived by the eye, and the pins, beautifully pointed, fall into the box in-a stream. They are then yellowed, tinned, and prepared for papering. Samuel Slocum, of Connecticut, invented the first ]>in-sticking machine. It was introduce<l into Dr. Howe's factory in 1841. The modern sticking machine is worked by two cliiUlren ; one feeds the machine with pins, the other with ])a- pers. The first part of the machine is a box, about 12 inches long by ti inches broad, and 4 inches deep; the bottom is made of small sijuare steel bars, sufiicientlv wiile a])art to let the shank of the pin fall through but not the head, ami they are just as thick as the space between the jjapered pins. The lower part of the bottom of the bo.x is made to detach itself as soon as the row of pins is complete, and row after row at regular intervals is received and ])assed down a corre- sponding set of grooves, until they reach the pajjer, which, as before described, is pinched into regular folds and pierced to receive the pins, which, by the nicest imaginable adjustments, come exactly to their places, and are pressed into them. The same general process is followed in the making of safety pins, only here the process is more complex, as not only must the wire be cut and pointed, but it nmst be bent to the desired shape, and in certain styles of i)ins a sheath or catch for the point must be attached. The machines are entirely automatic in their ac- tion, and retjuire but little attention. Enamel-headed pins are largely made at Aix- la-Chapelle, (iermany. Great (piantities of needles are also made in the same city and the enamel- headed ])ins were made, at first, to utilize the imperfect needles. Now, however, they are made in such <|uantities that wire shanks are specially pre])arcd for this purpose. Enamel, or glass, is spun into a rod about three-sixteenths of an inch thick. The end of this glass is kept viscous by a gas jet. Into this .soft substance the workman plunges the pin-shank, and by a complex whirling motion detaches a bulbous mass from the rod which adheres as a head to the pin. It is said that a workman can head from 25,000 to 30,000 pins dail.v. Black or mourning pins are made of iron wire, heated in a nuiffle till the proper tint is obtained; or they are coated with a suitable varnish, which is afterwards hardened bv storing the pins. Statistics. The chief pin-manufacturing cen- tres are located as follows: In France, at Aix-la- Chapelle, German.v; at Birmingham, England; and, in the United States, principally in Connecti- cut. The growth of the industry in the United States is shown bv the following figures taken from the Twelfth Census, Washington, 1902: In IS.'iO there were four pin factories in the country, having a combined cajjital of .$164,800, and a com- bined annual product of $297,.5.50. In 1!)00, BO.- 107.817 gross of pins were produced, valued at $898,0.54. Of these 47,.3.38,429 gross were com- mon or toilet pins; 1,189,104 gross were hair- pins; 1,(140,284 gi-oss were safety pins. PINA (pe'nya) CLOTH (Sp., pineapple). A very beautiful fabric made of the fibres of the leaves of the pineapple plant (Ananas sativus) , and other allied species. (See BiiOMEr.iA.) It is of a delicate, soft, transparent texture and a yellow- ish tint. This cloth, which is made in Manila, re-