THE PIN MAKER.

The Pin-maker is a person who makes small instruments of brass wire, with a head at one end, and a point at the other, which are used by females in adjusting their dress.

It is not easy to trace the invention of this very useful little implement. It is first noticed in the English statute book in the year 1483, prohibiting foreign manufactures : and it appears from the manner in which pins are described in the reign of Henry the Eighth, and the labour and time which the manufactured them would require, that they were a new invention in this country, and probably
brought from France,

At this period, pins were considered in Paris as articles of luxury ; and no master pin-maker was allowed to open more than one
shop, for the sale of his wares, except on new year's day, and the day before that ; it should seem, therefore, that pins were given away as new year's gifts ; hence arose the phrase pin-money, the name of an allowance, frequently made by the husband to his wife for her own spending.

The art of making pins of brass wire was not known in England before the year 1543 : prior to that period they were made of bone, ivory, or box.

The pin manufactory was introduced into Gloucester in 1626 by John Tilsby. There are now in Gloucester, nine distinct pin manufactories, which employ together at least 1,500 persons. The pins sent annually to the metropolis, amount to the value of 20,000l. but the chief demand is from Spain and America.

Pins are also manufactured in other places in England : some are made in Bristol.

There is scarcely any commodity cheaper than pins, and but few which pass through more hands from their first state of rough wire to their being stuck in paper for sale : it is reckoned that twenty-five workmen are successively employed from the commencement to the finishing of this simple article.

Pins are now made wholly of brass wire; formerly iron wire was made use of, but the ill effects of iron have nearly discarded that substance from the pin-manufactory. The excellence and perfection of pins consist in the stiffness of the wire, and its blanching ; in the heads being well turned, and the points accurately filed. The following are some of the principal operations.

When the brass wire of which the pins are formed, is first received, it is generally too thick for the purpose of being cut into pins. It is therefore wound off from one wheel to another with great velocity, and made to pass between the two through a hole in a piece of iron of smaller diameter than the wirfe itself is, which operation is called wire-drawing. This operation is repeated with holes of
different diameters, till the wire is reduced to the size which it may be wanted : what it loses in bigness, it of course gains in length.
The wire is then straightened, and afterwards cut into lengths of three or four yards, and then into smaller ones, every length being
sufficient for six pins ; each end of these is ground to a point, whioh is performed by a boy, who sits with two small grinding stones
before him, turned by a wheel. Taking up a handful be applies the ends to the coarsest of the two stones, being careful at the same
time to keep each piece moving round between his fingers, so that the points may not become flat ; he then gives them to the other stone and by that means a lad of twelve or fourteen years of age, is enabled to point about 16,000 pins in an hour. When the wire is thus pointed, a pin is taken off from each end, and this is repeated till it is cut into six pieces. The next operation is that of forming the heads, or as the pin-maker terms it, head-spinning, which is done by means of a spinning wheel, one piece of wire being thus wound round another with astonishing rapidity, and the interior one being drawn out, leaves a hollow tube ; it is then cut with shears, every two turns of the wire forming one head ; these are softened by throwing them into iron pans, and placing them in a furnace till they are red hot. As soon as they are cool, they are distributed to children, who sit with their anvils and hammers before them, which they work with their feet by means of a lathe; and, taking up one of the lengths, they thrust the blunt end into a quantity of the heads which lie before them, and catching one at the extremity, they apply them immediately to the anvil and hammer; and, by a motion or two of the foot, the point and the head are fixed together in much less time than it can be described in, and with a dexterity only to be acquired by practice, the spectator being in continual apprehension for the safety of the fingers' ends.

The pin is now finished as to its form, but still it is merely brass; it is therefore thrown iato a copper containing a solution of tin and
lees of wine. Here it remains for some time ; and when taken out it assumes a white though dull appearance. To give it a polish, it is put into a tub containing a quantity of bran, which is set in motion by turning a shaft that runs through its centre, and thus by means of friction it becomes perfectly bright. The pin being complete, nothing remains but to separate it from the bran, which is performed by a mode exactly similar to the winnowing of corn, the bran flying off, and leaving the pins behind fit for immediate sale.

The pins most esteemed in commerce are tbose of England; those of Bourdeaux are next ; then those made in some of the other
departments of France. The London pointing and blanching are most in repute, because our pin-makers, in pointing, use two steel mills, the first of which forms the point, and the latter takes off all irregularities, and renders smooth, and as it were polished ; and in
blanching they use block-tin granulated ; whereas in other places they mix their tin with lead and quicksilver, which not only blanches worse than the former, but is also dangerous, as any puncture made with pins of this sort is not readily cured.

Besides the brass pin, above described, pins are sometimes made of iron wire, rendered black by a varnish of linseed oil with lamp-black. These are, of course, designed for persons in mourning.

Pins are distinguished by numbers ; the smallest are called minikins, the next, short whites. The next larger ones are numbered 3, 3 and a half,4, 4 and a half, and 5, to the 14th, whence they go by two's, viz. No. 16, 18, and 20, which is the largest size.

Pins are not only sold in papers and packets as in the above numbers, but they are also sold by the pound weight, being tied up in
pound papers, and having a great variety of sizes mixed together in each paper, for convenience. There are also pins with double beads, of several numbers, used by ladies to fix the buckles of their hair for the night, without the danger of pricking.