Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

i78 NEEDLE AND EEDLES and pins, those indispensable little articles so closely linked together by long custom and universal require- ment, differ as widely in the methods of their RUBBING NEEDLES. manufacture as in the materials of which they are macle. Few people realise how complicated is the process by which needles are turned out, or how long it has taken to bring them to their present perfection of finish. Thousands of years ago our barbarian ancestors were content to sew their primitive garments of skins together with pointed, skewer-like strips of bone and ivory. The Egyptians, Chinese, Indians, and others progressed far enough towards the evolution of the modern needle to make fine sewing implements of bronze, some of which, found in Egyptian tombs, must be quite four thousand years old. From these needles of ivory and bronze to the delicate, highly finished ones that may be bought at the present clay in packets of twelve, and sometimes twenty-five, for a penny, is a far cry indeed, and the steps by which the one has grown out of the other are many and varied, and steadily PIN MAKING. progressive. A complete history of the needle would probably fill volumes ; suffice it to say that it begins on British soil with the establishment of a needle manufactory at Long Crendon, in Buckinghamshire, in the year 1650, for although needles are said to have been made in London by an Indian in 1545, and again by a negro in Cheapside in the reign of Mary, their manu- facture as an industry was not begun in this country until the above date. Before then English seamstresses were dependent on Spain and Germany for their tools, and a needle was naturally, in those days, a thing to treasure, as readers of the quaint and amusing old play which turns entirely on the loss of “ Gammer Gurton’s ” solitary needle are well aware. Later, the needle industry travelled to Redditch, which has since remained its centre. The town and neighbourhood teem with factories, one of the best known being that of Messrs. Henry Milward and Sons, to whose courtesy POINTING NEEDLES. the writer is indebted for much interesting information, and at whose manufactory our pictures illustrating the processes of Needle Making were taken.