How Fish-hooks are Made. 



47 



Pig. 13. Pig. 14. 



Pig. 15. 



Now the hook, which to this point is as soft as it can 

 well be made, must be hardened. Heavy sheet -iron 

 dishes are filled with soft hooks, thrust into an oven, and 

 brought to a cherry-red heat ; and when the contents 

 are at that temperature, they are " dumped " into a large 

 vessel of oil. The hooks, when withdrawn from the oil, 

 are as hard and brittle as glass, and they must, before 

 they will be fit for use, be drawn to a spring temper. 

 An iron frying-pan is partially filled with sand, placed 

 over a hole in an oven, the sand heated to a proper tem- 

 perature, the hooks introduced and stirred round in it, 

 until the requisite temper is reached. The hooks are 

 then removed and cooled off, and this step is complete. 

 Thus it will be seen how intimate is the connection be- 

 tween the frying-pan and the hook, throughout its career. 



