﻿A CHAPTER FOR THE CHILDREN AHOUT NEEDLES. VO 



shop is a ponderous pair of shears, with the blades uppermost. The 

 workman takes probably a hundred wires at once, grasps them be- 

 tween his hands, rests them against a gauge to determine the length 

 to which they are to be cut, places them between the blades of the 

 shears, and cuts them by pressing with his body or thigh against 

 one of the handles of the shears. The coil is thus reduced to twenty 

 or thirty thousand pieces, each about three inches long; and as each 

 piece had formed a portion of a curve two feet in diameter, it is easy 

 to see that it must necessarily deviate somewhat from the straight 

 line. This straightness must be rigorously given to the wire before 



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the needle-making is commenced ; and the mode by which it is 

 effected is one of the most remarkable in the whole manufacture. 



