﻿76 PICTOIUAL MISCELLANY. 



In the first place the wires are annealed. Around the walls of the 

 annealing shop we see a number of iron rings hung up, each from 

 three or four to six or seven inches in diameter, and a quarter or 

 half an inch in thickness. Two of these rings are placed upright 

 on their edges, at a little distance apart ; and within them are placed 

 many thousands of wires, which are kept in a group by resting on 

 the interior edges of the two rings. In this state they are placed on 

 a shelf in a small furnace, and there kept till red hot. On being 

 taken out, at glowing heat, they are placed on an iron plate, the 

 wires being horizontal, and the rings in which they are inserted 

 being vertical. The process of "rubbing" (the technical name for 

 the straightening to which we allude) then commences. The work- 

 man, as represented on the preceding page, takes a long piece of 

 iron or steel, perhaps an inch in width, and, inserting it between the 

 two rings, rubs the needles backwards and forwards, causing each 

 needle to roll over on its own axis, and also over and under those by 

 which it is surrounded. The noise emitted by this process is just 

 that of filing, but no filing takes place ; for the rubber is smooth, and 

 the sound arises from the rolling of one wire against another. The 

 rationale of the process is this : - -the action of one wire on another 

 brings them all to a perfectly straight form, because any convexity or 

 curvature in one wire would be pressed out by the close contact of 

 the adjoining ones. The heating of the wires facilitates this pro- 

 cess ; and the workman knows, by the change of sound, when all 

 the wires have been " rubbed " straight. By the facility of the mov- 

 ing of the rings on the bench, the facility of movement among the 

 wires in the rings, and the peculiar mode in which the workman 

 applies his tools, every individual wire is in turn brought in contact 

 with the rubber. 



Our needles have now assumed the form of perfectly straight 

 pieces of wire, say a little more than three inches in length, blunt at 

 both ends, and dulled at the surface by exposure to the fire. Each 

 of these j ieces is to make two needles, the two ends constituting the 

 points ; and both points are made before the piece of wire is divided 

 into two. The pointing immediately succeeds the rubbing and con- 

 sists in grinding down each end of the wire till it is perfectly sharp. 

 This is the part of needle-making which has attracted more attention 



