NEEDLES AND PINS. 



BY CHARLES M. KARCH. 



[Charles M. Karch, lawyer and statistician; born Mt. Hope, Ohio, January 13, 1873; 

 educated at St. Lawrence university and Georgetown Law school ; has been private 

 secretary to Congressman John A. McDowell and John W. Cassingham; was employed 

 as a statisticial expert at the twelfth census of the United States during which he 

 made an investigation for the government of the manufacture of needles and pins. 



The familiar and very commonplace article known as a 

 pin is not without a history and an ancestry as old as the 

 oldest. When pins were first used is difficult to determine, 

 but it is safe to assume that in some form they were used by 

 our remote ancestors. Nature gave man the pattern for a 

 pin in the thorn, and the first pin used was, undoubtedly, 

 this natural article, but later other materials were introduced 

 for its construction. In the overhauling of ancient ruins, pins 

 made of bone, ivory, bronze, copper, and iron have been 

 found. The most prominent discoveries made in this line 

 were in Egyptian and Scandinavian tombs and on sites of 

 the ancient lake dwellings of central Europe. From the 

 lacustrine stations in Switzerland alone more than 10,000 pins 

 have been taken. These ancient pins are in various forms, 

 and in cases where the ornamental head is used they are very 

 curious and beautiful. They are longer than those now in 

 use and differ from the modern pattern in that they taper 

 gradually from the head to the point. Some were found in 

 central ICurope with double stems like the modern hairpin, 

 and a few were found at Peschiera, Italy, fashioned like the 

 modern safety pin. Many of the single stemmed pins varied 

 in thickness, and others had heads formed of a loose ring in 

 an eye at the blunt end. 



The invention of the process of wiredrawing marked 

 the beginning of the modern pin manufacture. The process 

 originated in France and Germany, and for two centuries 

 these countries monopolized all industries dependent upon it. 

 The first man to manufacture brass pins in England was John 



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