Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

i8o BRITAIN wire cut into a length for two needles, and it has to undergo many vicissitudes before emerging as a finished article. It is thrown into furnaces, rasped by files, held relent- lessly to grindstones, punched by heavy weights, rolled under great wooden rollers for days, and generally maltreated, but it comes triumphantly through its trials, to be snugly ensconced in a dainty packet and sent into the world, carefully labelled, the very best of its kind. The first process the wire lengths undergo AT WORK. each one is kept revolving, so that the resulting point is uniform and even all round. “ Pointing ” was formerly done by hand, but the fine steel and stone dust was so dangerous to the operator that, in spite of the thick mufflers they wore over the mouth to prevent its inhalation, few of the “ pointers ” lived beyond the age of forty. In the pointing machine now used this dust is blown away through a pipe, by a steam fan, into a chamber specially constructed for the purpose. SCOURING NEEDLES. is the important one known as “ rubbing.” Fastened into bundles by means of rings passed round their ends, they are placed in a furnace, heated, and then taken out and laid on an iron-topped table, where a curved bar or “ file ” proceeds to rub them steadily, the bundles revolving all the time and thus bringing each wire in turn under the action of the file. This both straightens and anneals the wires, which are delivered from the file only to be placed at the mercy of the “ pointing-stone.” By means of a rubber-covered wheel the needles are carried across the concave face of a stone driven at great speed by steam ; After the small preliminary operation of brightening that part of the wires where the eyes are to come, known as “ skimming,” to prevent any extraneous matter from being stamped in, they are carried off to the stamping machine, where the impressions for the eyes are macle preparatory to piercing the latter. Each wire is placed in turn on an anvil in which is set a die of the impression to be made, and a weight set with a similar die falls upon it, thus making an impression on both sides of the wire at the same time. Although stamping is now generally done by machine, it is still sometimes performed