| Show manufacture OF PENS AND PINS 1 mr babbage in a an work published in 1832 1833 tells how ten persons had to work seven hours and a half in norderto order to produce a pound of pins now nearly everything is dono done by a machine and hand labor is employed only in guiding this machine an almost semi intelli gent thing of iron and steel a machine with innumerable cranks and levers rams and hammers and a cylinder toothed file like receives from a horizontal drum the end of a biank aliana of brass wire pulls pulis sufficient for a pin into its voracious maw t and swallows it the work of dis goes on a clackin clicking 0 and rapping sound is heard the previously straight str tight bit of wire reappears with a head and drops down nto a slit hilt the head uppermost tho tila point downwards to be against a revolving steel roller the surface of which is toothed the friction of the roller causes the pins to rotate while the end of the thel wire w is being sharpened and converted into a point the pin now made is forced out and drops into a receptacle prepared for it a perfect pin to be cleansed by bolling boiling ing in a solution on of tartar and made w white te and silver like by being boiled in in a solution of tartar and tin and after papering to be selected the boiling whitening and selection being the only operations in which human la labor bor or intelligence is required in the making of a pin 11 pens in the present stage of manufacturing art require a greater share of hand abor labor than pins at birmingham a hundred and twenty million pens are made each year by machinery guided by four hundred women and a hundred men the steel is procured from sheffield it is first cut up into narrow strips and is carefully pickled by immersion in diluted sulphuric acid and then reduced to the proper th thickness lekness by being passed th through rou t i h metal metai rolls in this condition it ift is f lt lit to be made into pens and aud for this purpose it is passed into the hands lia lla lids of a girl who with a punch fitted into the screw of alland ailand a hand press and a corresponding bed speedily cuts out the blank the next process namely that of perforating tre tte in the tho small hole which terminates th the c slit alit and rena reva removing ovIng any superfluous steel likely to interfere with the elasticity ti of the pen is also dono done by a female the incipient pens are now in a condition to have their makers name and any ornamental device stamped upon them for this purpose they are annealed in large quantities in a muffle and after being cooled they are placed under a large stamp in which is held the device to be impressed cut in steel the hammer of the stamp falls and the marking and ornamentation are complete up to this stage the future pen is a flat piece of steel it is t hen then transferred to another female who by means of a P press and die makes it concave if it is to be a nib and forms the tube if it is to be a barrel pen hardening follows by this process a number of pens are put antoan into an iron box which is placed in a muffle when the whole is of a uniform red heat they are plunged into oil and then the superfluous oil is removed removed by agitation in a revolving cylinder at this stage the pen is as brittle as glass but the te tempering lu which follows imparts elasticity after that the pens are again placed in in a revolving cylinder with pounded crucible sand or some other cutting substance the abrasion of which by the revolution odthe of the cylinder speedily discloses the natural colour bolour of the steel next follows the grinding of the nib by submitting it to the emery wheel the pen is then in a condition to be slit the slitting being the most peculiar of the many processes of steel ent eat pen nen en making A chisel or wedge with a flat side is fixed to the bed of a press and the descending screw has a corresponding chisel or cutter attached to it which passes down and is most accurately cura tely fitted the pen is laid on the lower chisel the screw is made to come down and with it the upper chisel by emch the slit is made and the pen I 1 completed the last stage is the colour bolour ing brown or blue this ig iss done by placing the bright steel pens in a revolving vol voi iron cylinder under which is a charcoal stove until the desired colour bolour is arrived at the final brilliancy is imparted by immersing them in gum lac dissolved dissolve din in naptha |
