NEEDLE, a very common little instrument or uten-
sil made of steel, pointed at one end, and pierced at the other, used in sewing, embroidery, tapestry, &c.
Needles make a very considerable article in commerce, though there is scarce any commodity cheaper, the consumption of them being almost incredible.—The sizes are from N° 1, the largest, to N° 25, the smallest. In the manufacture of needles, German and Hungarian steel is of most repute.
In the making of them, the first thing is to pass the steel through a coal fire, and under a hammer, to bring it out of its square figure into a cylindrical one. This done, it is drawn through a large hole of a wire-drawing iron, and returned into the fire, and drawn through a second hole of the iron smaller than the first; and thus successively from hole to hole, till it has acquired the degree of fineness required for that species of needles; observing every time it is to be drawn, that it be greased over with lard, to render it more manageable. The steel, thus reduced to a fine wire, is cut in pieces of the length of the needles intended. These pieces are flattened at one end on the anvil, in order to form the head and eye: they are then put into the fire to soften them farther; and thence taken out and pierced at each extreme of the flat part on the anvil, by force of a puncheon of well-tempered steel, and laid on a leaden block to bring out, with another puncheon, the little piece of steel remaining in the eye. The corners are then filed off the square of the heads, and a little cavity filed on each side of the flat of the head; this done, the point is formed with a file, and the whole filed over: they are then laid to heat red hot on a long narrow iron, crooked at one end, in a charcoal fire; and when taken out thence, are thrown into a basin of cold water to harden. On this operation a good deal depends; too much heat burns them, and too little leaves them soft; the medium is learned by experience. When they are thus hardened, they are laid in an iron shovel, on a fire more or less brisk in proportion to the thickness of the needles; taking care to move them from time to time. This serves to temper them, and take off their brittleness; great care here too must be taken of the degree of heat. They are then straightened one after another with the hammer, the coldness of the water used in hardening them, having twisted the greatest part of them.
The next process is the polishing them. To do this, they take 12,000 or 15,000 needles, and range them in little heaps against each other on a piece of new buckram sprinkled with emery dust. The needles 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 loaded with stones, which two men work backwards and forwards a day and a half, or two days, successively; by which means the roll thus continually agitated by the weight and motion of the plank over it, the needles within side 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, suspended in the air by a cord, which is kept stirring till the bran and needles be dry. The needles thus wiped in two or three different brans,
Needle. are taken out and put in wooden vessels, to have the good separated from those whose points or eyes have been broken either in polishing or wiping; the points are then all turned the same way, and smoothed with an emery stone turned with a wheel. This operation finishes them, and there remains nothing but to make them into packets of 250 each. Needles were first made in England by a native of India, in 1545, but the art was lost at his death; it was, however, recovered by Christopher Greening in 1560, who was settled with his three children, Elizabeth John, and Thomas, by Mr Damar, ancestor of the present Lord Milton, at Long Crendon in Bucks, where the manufactory has been carried on from that time to the present day.