512 A VISIT TO THE BItlTISn NEEDLE MILLS. 
indications whence he may account for the location of needle-making; 
he looks for a stream or canal, or something which may be to the manu- 
facturer in the relation of cause to effect ; but very little of the kind is 
seen. Needle-making is nearly all the result of manual dexterity, re- 
quiring little aid from water or steam power. There are, it is true, a 
few water wheels employed for pointing and scouring the needles, but 
Redditch presents no other facilities for this purpose than such as are 
presented by a thousand other places in the kingdom. In short, there 
seems to be no other moJe of accounting for the settlement of the needle- 
manufacture in this spot, than that which may bo urged in reference to 
watchmaking in Clerkemvell, or coach-making in Long Acre. A needle- 
maker we will suppose — say two centuries ago — settled at Redditch and 
gradually accumulated round him a body of workmen. A supply of 
skilled labour having been thus secured, another person set up in the 
same line. In time, the workmen's children learned the occupation 
carried on by their parents, and thus furnished an increased supply of 
labour, which in its turn, led to the establishment of other manu- 
facturing firms. By degrees so many needles Avere made at Redditch, 
that the village acquired a reputation throughout the length and breadth 
of the land for this branch of manufacture, and hence it became a positive 
advantage for a maker to be able say that his needles were " Redditch 
needles." This train of surmises may perhaps approach pretty nearly 
to the truth. 
Let us, however, leave conjecture and proceed to facts. There are 
in Redditch about half-a-dozen manufacturers who conduct the needle- 
manufacture on a large scale, and employ a considerable number of 
persons. Some work in factories built by and conducted under the 
superintendence of the master manufacturers'; while others work at 
their own homes. In no occupation, perhaps, is the division of labour more 
strictly carried out than in needle-making ; for the man who cuts the 
wire does not point, nor does the pointer make the eyes or polish the 
needles. Both within and without the factory the same system of 
division is kept up ; for a cottager who procures work from a needle- 
manufacturer does not undertake the making of a needle, but only one 
particular department, for which he is paid at certain recognised prices. 
Many of the workpeople live a few miles distant and come with their 
work at intervals of a few days, a plan which can be adopted without 
much inconvenience, since a considerable quantity of these little articles 
may be paeked in a small space. It is, we believe, estimated that the 
number of operatives in Redditch is about three thousand, and in the 
whole district of which Redditch is the centre, six or seven thousand, 
of whom a considerable number are females. 
The general name of " mills " is given to the needle-factories, each 
one having some distinctive name whereby it may be indicated. Thus 
the establishment which we have been obligingly permitted to visit, and 
