328 CHARLES M. KARCH 



Tilsby, who, in 1626, established a plant in Gloucestershire, 

 where he met with remarkable success, and his make of pins 

 became famous. By 1636 the industry was so well established 

 that the pin makers of London formed a corporation, and the 

 trade soon found its way to Bristol and Birmingham, where, 

 in connection with other ironwork manufacture, the industry 

 became localized. In those cities pins were made for some 

 time by hand labor. The construction of a single pin re- 

 quired from 14 to 18 different operators, and involved the 

 following processes: Straightening and cutting the wire; 

 cutting, printing, twisting the heads; cutting the heads; 

 annealing the heads; stamping or shaping the heads; clean- 

 ing the pins; whitening or tinning the pins; washing, drying, 

 and polishing; winnowing and pricking the papers to receive 

 the pin. This method was improved upon by Timothy 

 Harris, in 1797, who made the solid headed brass pin by laying 

 the blanks into a two part mold in which prints representing 

 the heads were cut. When the mold was closed an alloy of 

 lead and antimony was poured in, and as soon as the pins 

 were released the gets were cut off and the pins were cleansed 

 by immersion in a solution of sulphuric acid and water, and 

 then dipped into a solution of sulphate of copper and finished 

 in the same way as other brass pins. 



In 1812 Bradbury and Weaver conceived the idea of 

 heading by means of an automatic machine. After the shanks 

 were pointed and the heads prepared they were put into 

 separate hoppers, where a mechanical device placed the 

 shank and head into relation with each other. In this posi- 

 tion the pins were pressed by screws against dies, which made 

 the head and bound it to the shank, when they were with- 

 drawn by hooks operated upon by parallels worked by the 

 machine. 



In 1817 Seth Hunt invented a machine to make the pin 

 with head, shaft, and point from one piece, but his invention 

 was not a success. In 1824 W. L. Wright, an American, a 

 native of New Hampshire, invented the solid headed pin 

 making machine, which entirely revolutionized the pin manu- 

 facture. He did not have his machine patented in America, 

 but took it to England and put it into operation. He formed 



