PTNKNEY-PTNS. 



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The plant is a member of the Bromeliacece, a small 

 endogenous family, nearly related to the ginger and 

 banana families, its plants generally steinless, and 

 mostly epiphytes in the forests of tropical America. 

 The THlandtia, or "long moss," of the Southern 

 States, is a member of the family. 



The pineapple plant is a biennial, with the habits of 

 the aloe, but much thinner leaves, which form a crown 

 of foliage, each leaf being recurved at the point and 

 having small sharp spines on its edges. From the 

 centre of the cluster of foliage rises a stem two or 

 three feet high, bearing on its apex a conical spike of 

 flowers, each flower in the axil of a bract. The upper 

 flowerless bracts develop into a cluster of small leaves. 

 The flowers have three outer or calyx divisions and 

 three inner much longer petalous divisions, six stamens, 

 and three styles. The pineapple is not a fruit bo tan - 

 ically considered, but an aggregation of accessory parts, 

 to which the fruit proper (the ripened ovary) bears but 

 a small proportion, heeds are rarely produced by the 

 cultivated plant, but the whole cluster of flowers under- 

 goes a remarkable change, all parts stem, ovaries, 

 bracts, etc. becoming enormously enlarged, and when 

 quite ripe fleshy and succulent, with a sweet and 

 highly flavored juice. On the oute_r tesselated sur- 

 face the tips of the bracts and the points of the petals 

 show themselves. 



There are many varieties of the pineapple, and when 

 properly cultivated it is one of thejaest of fruits, but is 

 too often tough, coarse, and indigestible. The first 

 specimens seen in England were sent there as a present 

 to Cromwell, and the plant was first cultivated there 

 about 1715. It had been grown in Holland in the 

 previous century. These glass-raised English pine- 

 apples are much superior in flavor to the ordinary 

 commercial fruit, ana still find a market, though sold 

 from three to six shillings a pound, while the imported 

 ones can be had for a much lower price. The fruit 

 imported to American jMirte is better than that sent to 

 England, on account of the shortness of the voyage, 

 yet even here the glass-raised fruit is the best. The 

 Bahamas have long been the source of much of the 

 imported fruit.it being extensively grown there. At 

 Nassau, New Providence, large quantities are canned 

 for exportation. The culture of the fruit for exporta- 

 tion, which was at first restricted to the Bahamas, has 

 extended to Jamaica, Trinidad, the Azores, and oCher 

 islands, and the trade in it has become extensive and 

 important. In addition to the fruit imported fresh 

 and canned, the Juice is expressed and sealed in bottles, 

 for use in flavoring ices and as a syrup for soda-water. 

 It will keep its flavor for a year. The leaves of this 

 and allied species yield a long, fine, and very strong 

 fibre, which is used in Manilla for weaving the beautiful 

 Pina muslin, said to be the finest web in the world. 

 It is exceedingly light, delicate, and durable, and is 

 chiefly employed for ladies' handkerchiefs and dresses. 

 < )nly small quantities of it are exported. (c. M.) 



1'INKNLT, WILLIAM (1764-1822), statesman, was 

 born at Annapolis, Md., March 17, 1764. His father, 

 a native of England and related to the Pinckneys of 

 South Carolina, opposed the movement for American 

 independence. The son studied law with Judge 

 Samuel Chase and was admitted to the bar in 1786. 

 He was a member of the State Convention which rati- 

 fied the Federal Constitution in 1788, and he was 

 elected to Congress in 1790, but did not take his seat, 

 though he defended the legality of his election, which 

 was questioned on the ground that he did not reside in 

 the district whence he was chosen. By his eloquence 

 and learning he rose to the head of the Maryland bar, 

 and was prominent in State legislation. In 1796 he 

 was sent to London as one of the commissioners under 

 Jay's treaty, and during his eight years' stay recovered 

 fur Maryland from the Bank of England a claim of 

 $800.000. In 1806 Pres. Jefferson appointed him 

 II. S. Minister to England, and after his return in 

 1811 Madison made him II. S. Attorney-General. In 



the British attack on Washington Pinkney was 

 wounded at Bladensburg, while commanding a battalion 

 of volunteers. After the war he served one term in 

 Congress and then went to Naples as special envoy 

 and thence to Russia as minister resident. Returning 

 in 1818 he was U. S. Senator from 1820 until his death 

 at Annapolis, Feb. 25, 1822. His Life has been 

 written by H. Wheaton (1825) and by his nephew 

 Bishop Pinkney (1853). 



PINS. The original pin was undoubtedly a thorn, 

 See Voi xix 'Mob was used to fasten together the 

 p 97 (p 106 ru ^ e clot "i n g f F remote ancestors. 

 Am. Rep.) Afterwards a considerable variety of 

 materials came into use for this purpose. 

 In early England wooden skewers were used, while 

 clasps and ribbons also did the duty of pins. The 

 metal pin was introduced from France in 1543, the 

 manufacture in England beginning in 1626. At Bir- 

 mingham, which has long been the centre of the Eng- 

 : lish pin manufacture, the industry began about the 

 middle of the last century. Pins were long made 

 ! there by hand labor, it being given as a remarkable 

 ' evidence of the division of labor that it took 14 per- 

 sons to make a pin. Now it takes but 2 or 3 to per- 

 form the same work, while the making of a needle, 

 a much more complex process, requires about 70 

 persons. 



Pin-making machines are American inventions of 

 which many have been made during the present 

 century. The first of these of importance was devised 

 by Mr. Wright, a native of New Hampshire, who 

 took out a patent in England in 1824. This machine 

 was adapted to produce a complete pin at every revo- 

 lution of a wheel. It at first worked imperfectly, and 

 was rendered available only by long-continued experi- 

 ment and at great expense. Its method of operation 

 in its perfected state is briefly as follows : A pin is a 

 piece of polished brass wire, with point and head, and 

 covered with a coating of tin. In Wright's machine 

 the wire is drawn from a wheel by pincers, which push 

 forward the proper length for a pin at each rotation of 

 the shaft. This is cut off by a die and carried forward 

 to the pointing apparatus, where it is held while a 

 revolving bevel-edge file-wheel roughly points it. It is 

 then carried to a finer file- wheel which finishes the 

 pointing. A third carrier takes the pin to the first 

 heading die, where a steel punch thickens up the wire 

 for the head, while a fourth carrier takes it to a second 

 die, where the head is finished. The complication of 

 this process is now reduced by one machine being used 

 for pointing and another for heading. It only remains 

 to whiten and stick the pins. The former is done in a 

 copper vessel, where the pins are boiled in water con- 

 taining tin. Several very efficient machines are in use 

 for sticking the pins in paper. 



The manufacture of pins in America was begun in 

 1810 by some English pin-makers. It was abandoned 

 after the war, but practised for a short time again 

 about 1 820. A patent for the manufacture of pins at 

 one process was taken out in 1816, but the machine 

 proved too intricate. Somewhat later a small machine 

 is said to have been in operation which made 30 solid- 

 headed pins per minute. In 1832 a machine was in- 

 vented by John J. Howe which produced from 40 to 

 50 pins per minute. In this machine the head was 

 not solid, but was made from a coil of fine wire which 

 was wrapped round the pin wire and pressed fast by 

 dies. These "spun-head" pins had the defect that 

 the head often came loose, and the Howe machine was 

 soon adapted to make solid-headed pins which were 

 first made in 1838, and soon superseded the spun-head 

 pins. There have been other inventions, but those 

 named are the most important. Pins are now made 

 with astonishing rapidity, and fastened in papers by 

 machines which seem almost magical in their opera- 

 tion. In one process the pins as made by the machine 

 are placed in a feeding dish, from which they fall to a 

 trough with a slit just wide enough to let the shank 



