Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

184 BRITAIN AT WORK. in shape, are the colour of brass wire, and greasy to handle. After being thoroughly cleaned by revolving in barrels, they are spread out flat in steam-heated kettles, a fine tin powder is laid over them, a certain quantity of acid is added, and in this the pins are boiled for four hours, They come out bright and silvery, being thinly coated with tin, and are then dried in sawdust, put once more into revolving barrels to be polished, and freed from dust by being placed in a flat tray and tossed about in a fashion only to be mastered by long practice. The next process is to look them over carefully, weeding out all imperfect ones, and then all that remains is to stick them in paper, which is done by a machine. The paper is mechanically crimped and placed in position to receive the pins, which are dexterously swept with a brush down an inclined plane leading to it by the girl feed- ing the machine. They pass into the latter in long vertical lines, a lever brings the paper under their points, a clever bit of machinery presses them into it, and row by row a sheet is filled with from 100 to 500 pins evenly- arranged, and leaves the machine quite ready for the purchaser. A special department of the factory employs girls to make the boxes and packets in which the pins are also put up. I hese vary from small ounce boxes to large decorated cases, and many of them are very pretty as well as useful, containing various kinds of pins in daintily designed receptacles. JOSEPHINE BULLEN. {The illustrations accompanying this article are from photographs specially taken for the purpose, and are the copyright of Cassell and Co., Ltd.}