NEE 
twisted the greatest part of tliem. The 
next process is the polishing them. To do 
this they take twelve or fifteen thousand 
needles, and range them in little heaps 
against each other on a piece of new buck- 
ram sprinkled witli emery-dust. The nee- 
dles thus disposed, emery-dust is thrown 
over them, which is again sprinkled with oil 
of olives; at last the whole is made up into 
a roll, well bound at both ends. This roll 
is then laid on a polishing-table, and over it 
a thick plank loader) with stone, which two 
men work backwards and forwards a day 
and a half, or two days, successively; by 
which means the roll thus continually agita- 
ted by the weight and motion of the plank 
over it, tlie needles witliinside being rubbed 
against each other with oil and emery, are 
insensibly polished. After polishing they 
are taken out, and the filth washed off them 
with hot water and soap ; they are then 
wiped in hot bran, a little moistened, placed 
with the needles in a round box, siispended 
in the air by a cord, which is kept stirring 
till the bran and needles be dry. The nee- 
dles thus wiped in two or thr^e different 
brans, are taken out and put in wooden 
vessels, to have the good separated from 
those whose points or eyes have been broke 
either in polishing or wiping : the points are 
then all turned the same way, and smoothed 
with an emery stone turned with a vvlieel. 
This operation finishes them, and tliere re- 
mains nothing but to make them into pack- 
ets of two hundred and fifty each. 
Needle, magnetical, in navigation, a 
needle touched with a loadstone, and sus- 
tained on a pivot or centre : on which play- 
ing at liberty, it directs itself to certain 
points in or under the horizon ; whence the 
magnetical needle is of two kinds, viz, ho- 
rizontal and inclinatory. 
Horizontal needles are those equally ba- 
lanced on each side the pivot that sustains 
them : and which, playing horizontally with 
their two extremes, point out the north and 
south points of the horizon. 
In the construction of the horizontal 
needle a piece of pure steel is provided, of 
a length not exceeding six inches, lest its 
weight impede its volubility, very tliin, to 
take its verticity the better, and not pierced 
with anjr holes, or the like, for ornament 
sake, which prevent the equable diffusion of 
the magnetic virtue. A perforation is then 
made in the middle of its length, and a 
brass-cap or head soldered on, wliose inner 
cavity is conical, so as to play fieely on a 
ftyle or pivot headed wfth a fine steel-point. 
NEG 
The north point of the needle in oiir hemi- 
sphere is made a little lighter than the 
southern; the touch always destroying the 
balance, if well adjusted before, and” ren- 
dering the north end heavier than the south 
and thus occasioning the needle to dip. 
The needle is not found to point precise- 
ly to the north except in very few places, 
but deviates from it more or less in different 
places, and that too at different times, 
which deviation is called its declination or 
variation from the meridian. 
Inclinatory or dipping-needle, a magneti- 
cal needle, so Imug, as that, instead of play- 
ing horizontally and pointing out north and 
south, one end dips or inclines to the hori- 
zon, and the other points to a certain de- 
gree of elevation above it. Or a dipping, 
needle may be defined to be a long straight 
piece of steel, eveiy way ppised on its cen- 
tre, and afterwards touched with a loadstone, 
but so contrived as not to play on the point 
of a pin, as does the common horizontal 
needle, but to swing in a vertical plane, 
about an axis parallel to the horizon ; and 
this to discover the exact tendency of the 
power of magnetism. See Magnetism, 
To find the longitude or latitude by the 
dipping-needle. If the lines of equal dip 
below the horizon be drawn on maps or 
sea cliarts from good observations, it will 
be easy, from the longitude known, to find 
the latitude, and from the latitude known 
to find the longitude, either at sea or laud. 
Suppose, for example, you were travelling 
or sailing along the jneridian of London, and 
found the angle of dip with a needle of one 
foot to be 75“, the chart will show that this 
meridian and the line of dip meet .in the 
latitude 53° 11', which is, therefore, the 
latitude sought. See Latitude. Or sup- 
pose you were travelling or sailing along the 
parallel of London, that js, in 51" 32' north 
latitude, and you find the angle of dip to be 
74°. 'The parallel and the line of this dip 
will meet in the map in 1° 46' of east lon- 
gitude fi om London, which is therefore the 
longitude sought. 
Needle sto«p, in minei-alogy, a species 
of the Zeolite tamily, found in Iceland and 
Britanny. Its common colour is a yellowish 
white. It occurs massive, and crystallized 
in rectangular four-sided acicnlar prisms, 
which are generally aggregated. It is dis- 
tiiiguished from the radiated zeolite, by be- 
ing" harder and more brittle, by its lustre 
being greater, and of the vitreous kind. 
NEGATIVE, in general, something that 
implies a negation. 'Ehus we say, negative 
