PIMARIC ACID. 



PIN MANUFACTURE. 



In thii country, pilots are established at several porta for limited parts 

 of U coast, who are appointed and regulated sometimes by acta of 

 parliament, and sometime* by charters of incorporation ; and in general 

 the master of a ship engaged in foreign trade must put his ship under 

 the charge of uch a pilot, both in hU outward and homeward voyage, 

 within the limit* of every such establishment. PiloUgein the Tliames 

 and Modway, and along the coast, from Orfordnesa to the Isle of 

 Wight, excepting the jurisdiction of the Cinque Ports, has been for 

 several centuries under the management of the corporation of the 

 Trinity-house, and acta of parliament hare been from time to time 

 pained to regulate the Trinity-house and Cinque Port pilots. All 

 thcae regulations were reconsidered by parliament in the year 1825, 

 and the majority of them were consolidated in the statute 6 Qeo. IV., 

 c. 125, which contains also some general provisions respecting pilots in 

 other parts of the kingdom. (Abbott ' On Shipping,' 1840.) 



It was not till the passing of the Merchant Shipping Act, in August, 

 1854, that the present system of pilotage was organised. By it the 

 existing powers for regulating pilotage were confirmed and arranged. 

 Rules of pilotage, limits of districts, funds for superannuated pilots, 

 the granting, renewing, and cancelling licence certificates, powers to 

 make and amend by-laws all these underwent revision : the Trinity- 

 house being the source of authority in case of irregularities in the 

 furnishing of returns, Ac. ; the whole being subject to the Board of 

 Trade (ride 17 & 18 Viet., c. 104). 



P1HAKIC ACID. (TURPENTINE.] 



PIMELIC ACID (C U H 10 O.2HO). A white crystalline acid, 'ob- 

 tained by the action of nitric acid upon oleic acid, beea'-wax, sperma- 

 ceti. Unseed oil, and other fatty bodies. It is a biboaic acid, and its 

 neutral salts have the formula C,.H 10 O,2,MO. 



P1MENTA, or PIMENTO, allspice, the produce of Euytnia Pimento, 

 a tree native of the West Indies, but cultivated almost exclusively in 

 Jamaica, thence called Jamaica pepper. The unripe two-seeded berries, 

 which are about the size of a pea, are dried by frequent turning in the 

 sun, by which their colour is changed from green to brown or grayish- 

 brown. Externally they are of a dull appearance, somewhat rough, 

 crowned with the remains of the calyx, and frequently furnished with 

 a little stalk. The shell is very brittle, about the thickness of a card, 

 and encloses two seeds, which are roundish, dark brown, and somewhat 

 shining ; and having a weak aromatic taste. The shell possesses an 

 agreeable clove-like taste and smell. Two kinds are met with in com- 

 merce, F-nglih and Spanish, of which the former is the better. 



Pimento berries are said to be adulterated with the berries or seeds 

 of the Cocculus Indicus ; these are larger, about the size of bay berries, 

 extremely bitter, and, in large quantity, poisonous. This adulteration 

 is scarcely credible, for the latter come from the East Indies, are 

 dearer, and could only be successfully passed off when mixed with the 

 powdered berries of pimento. The fraud may be detected by making 

 an infusion, which, if pure, is not disturbed by tincture of galls or 

 acetate of lime, which cause a precipitate when cocculus berries are 

 present. 



The shell appears to be the most efficient part, and to contain more 

 of the active principles. 



Bonastre obtained from the shells 10 per cent, of a heavy volatile oil, 

 8 per cent, of a green fat oil, an extractive containing tannin, resin, 

 gum, and sugar ; also a principle simitar to caryophyllin. 



By distillation an oil is procured which resembles oil of cloves, and 

 which conducts itself in the same way towards alkalies. It is a mixture 

 of a light and heavy oil 



l As an aromatic stimulant, pimento stands intermediate between 

 pepper and cloves, for the last of which, on account of its greater 

 cheapness, it may often be substituted. 



It is useful in dyspepsia dependent upon atony of the stomach, and 

 in diarrhoea dependent upon a similar cause. 



PIN MANUFACTURE. It is not known at what time pins made 

 of metal of the present form were first manufactured in this country, 

 but it must have been some time previous to 1543. In this year a 

 xtatute was passed (35' Henry VIII., c. 6), intituled " An Act* for the 

 True Making of Pynnes," in which, after stating that much deceit had 

 been practised in the making of pins, it was enacted that in future 

 none should be sold but such as were well pointed and had the heads 

 firmly soldered on to the stems, and further that the price charged 

 should not be more than six shillings and eight pence a thousand. No 

 mention is made of them in any previous statute, with the exception 

 of an act of Richard III., which prohibited their importation from 

 abroad ; but the pins there alluded to were much larger than those now 

 in use, and were made of box-wood, bone, or silver. 



Pins of English manufacture being in great repute abroad, the 

 foreign trade is very considerable. The number actually made in 

 this country daily was estimated thirty years ago at fifteen millions ; 

 but it must now be far greater, although there exist no means of 

 determining it. By hand labour ten persons can produce a pouix!, or 

 about 5500 pins of medium size, in rather less than eight hours : each 

 person taking up the work as soon as the operation preceding that 

 which he or she has to perform is completed, and each being employed 

 about a tenth part uf the eight hours. These calculations, relating to 

 the division of labour, are taken from Bsbbage's ' Essay on the General 

 Principles which regulate the application of Machinery,' in the portion 

 of the ' Encyclopaedia Metropolitana,' comprising Manufactures and 



Machiui-iy; they aio valuable in relation to the divinum of labour, 

 but the statistics or quantities are no longer strictly applicable to the 

 manufacture under notice. 



The first tiling to be done, in the pin-manufacture, is to reduce a 

 quantity of brass wire to the requisite size. This, though properly 

 speaking a preliminary operation, is generally done in the pin-factory, 

 as the wire is received of larger diameter than necessary. It is 

 performed in the usual manner of wire-drawing. The wire is then 

 made up into coils of six inches diameter; and any dirt or crust whirh 

 may be attached to the surface is got rid of by first soaking the coils 

 in a diluted solution of sulphuric acid and water, and then beating 

 them on stones. The next process is to straighten the wire. Two 

 short lines, parallel and very close to each other, are drawn at one end 

 of a board or table, and seven or nine pins are driven into the wood, 

 at a short distance apart, alternately in the two lines. The end of the 

 wire is placed between these two rows of pins and is thus held in a 

 zig-zag position : it is then drawn between the pins to the other rn.l 

 of the table, and a length of about twenty feet is cut off. This process 

 is repeated until all the wire is straightened and cut into similar pieces. 

 A number of these lengths are then taken together, and by means of a 

 powerful pair of shears, worked by the foot, they are cut up into 

 shorter pieces, each a little longer than six pins. These latter piece! 

 are then pointed at each end. The pointer sits in front of a small 

 machine, which has two steel wheels or mills turning rapidly. These 

 wheels are usually about six inches in diameter, and their rims or 

 cutting surfaces are about three inches broad. The riuis are cut some- 

 what after the manner of a file : one coarse, for the rough formation 

 of the points, and the other fine, for finishing them. Several of the 

 pieces of prepared wire are taken in the hand, and by a dexterous move- 

 ment of the thumb and fore-finger are kept continually presenting a 

 different face to the mill, against which they are pressed. The points 

 are then finished off by being applied in the same manner to the fine 

 mill. After both ends of the pieces have been pointed, one pin's 

 length is cut off from each end, when they are repointed ; and so on 

 until each length is converted into six pointed pieces. The steins of 

 the pins are then complete. The next step is to form the head, which 

 is effected by a piece of wire called the mould, the same size is that 

 used for the stems, being attached to a small axis or lathe. At the 

 end of the wire nearest the axis is a hole, in which is placed tin- < ml 

 of a smaller wire, which is to form the heading. While the mould 

 wire is turned round by one hand, the head wire is guided by the other, 

 until it is wound in a spiral coil along the entire length of the former. 

 It is then cut off close to the hold where it was commenced, and the 

 coil taken off the mould. When a quantity of these coils are 

 prepared, a workman takes a dozen or more of them at a time in his 

 left bond, while with a pair of shears in his right he cuts them up into 

 pieces of two turns or spirals each. To prevent them from flying off 

 from the shears when separated, the fore-finger of the left hand is 

 applied to the tip of the coil, and the end thus cut off is caught in a 

 bowl placed beneath it. In some factories this is performed by a chisel 

 and gage, instead of the shears, a mode which has the advantage of re- 

 quiring less dexterity. The heads, when cut off, are annealed by being 

 made hot and then thrown into water. When annealed, they are ready 

 to be fixed on the stems. In order to do this, the operator is provided 

 with a small steel die, containing a hollow the exact shape of half the 

 head. Above this die, and attached to a lever, is the corresponding die 

 for the other half of the head, which, when at rest, remains suspended 

 about two inches above the lower one. The workman takes one of the 

 stems between his fingers, and dipping the pointed end into a bowl 

 containing a number of the heads, catches one upon it and slides it to 

 the other end; he then places it in the lower die, and, moving a 

 treadle, brings down the upper one four or five times upon the head, 

 which fastens it upon the stem, and also gives it the required figure. 

 There is a small channel leading from the outside to the centre of the 

 dies, to allow room for the stem. The pins are now finished as regards 

 shape, and it only remains to tin or whiten them. They are boiled in 

 a pickle, either a solution of sulphuric acid or tartar, to remove any 

 dirt or grease, and also to produce a slight roughness upon their 

 surfaces, which facilitates the adhesion of the tin. After being boiled 

 for half on hour, they are washed, and then placed in a copper vessel 

 with a quantity of grain tin and a solution of tartar ; in about two 

 hours and a half they are taken out, and after being separated from 

 the undissolved tin by sifting, arc again washed. They are then dried 

 by being well shaken in a bag with a quantity of bran, which is after- 

 wards separated by shaking them up and down in open wooden 

 trays, when the bran flies off and leaves the pins perfectly dry and 

 clean. 



Papering the pins for sale is one of the slowest operations in the 

 manufacture. When the pins ore separated from tliu bran, as just 

 described, they arc thrown into bowls, with their points in all dilu- 

 tions ; but before papering it is necessary to arrange them all the same 

 way. This is done by laying a number of them upon a sort of comb, 

 between the teeth of which they are caught by the head ; they ar< 

 placed upon a piece of metal, with as many grooves as there are pins 

 required in a row, and held there by another piece of metal being 

 placed upon them. These pieces of metal are not quite so broad as 

 the pins are long, so that their points project beyond the edge of the 

 metal. The paper is folded into the required shape, and pressed 



