These useful articles are made of steel wire, which may be *mill-drawn* or *hand-drawn*. The latter is preferred for the best needles, because, as in that case there is only one wire running at a time, the drawer can feel when the surface *rips* or *tears*, and can stop the process, so as to re-adjust the draw-plate and remove the damaged wire. In cleaning the wire after it has been softened, the scale is not removed by pickling in dilute sulphuric acid, but by the friction of rubbers smeared with emery and oil. The needle-maker obtains his wire in coils of various sizes and weights, and his first operation is to cut it into lengths, each of which is sufficient for two needles. The curved pieces thus cut from the coils are straightened by inclosing many thousand lengths within a couple of rings, and rubbing them with an iron instrument called a smooth file; the friction of the pieces of wire upon each other producing the intended effect. Before this operation the wires are sometimes softened by being raised to a red heat, and allowed to cool gradually. The next process is to point both ends of the wires, which is done on small grit-stones; the grinder holding a number of wires in his left hand, and by a peculiar motion of the right hand making them roll upon the stone, so as to produce an accurate point. This dry grinding loads the air with particles of grit and of steel, which, entering the lungs, produce a fatal disease, known as grinders' asthma. The remedy for this is to attach to each wheel a ventilating apparatus capable of carrying off the dust as fast as it is formed. After the wires have been pointed, the centre of each is stamped or flattened out, and a groove is sunk on each side, together with a small cavity for the eye, by means of dies. One of the dies is contained in a block of iron resting on wood, and the other is attached to the bottom of a hammer, so connected with a lever as to be worked by the foot of the stamper; by which means the centre of each wire is flattened out, and the shape of the two eyes given. If it were attempted to form the eyes at one punching, the wire would probably be torn. In the next operation, called eyeing, a couple of steel points or cutters are brought down to punch out the eye. The wires are now threaded by their eyes upon a couple of wires, and the bur formed by stamping out the blank eyes is filled off. The lengths are next divided, by bending the wires backwards and forwards between the two wire spits; and shape is given to the heads of each row of needles by grasping the points in a hand-vice, and filing the heads upon a raised piece of metal. The needles are now said to be headed or made, and this completes the processes known as soft work, from the soft state of the wire. Before the finishing processes known as bright work are entered on, the needles are straightened by rolling them on a flat steel plate with the convex face of a curved smooth steel file. The next process is hardening: the needles being raised to a red heat are suddenly quenched in cold water or oil, after which they are tempered by a more gentle heating on an iron plate, the proper temper being judged of by the formation of a blue film upon the surface. In this operation the needles become more or less distorted, and they are straightened by being tapped upon an anvil with a small hammer: this is called hard or hammer straightening. The needles are examined by rolling with the finger on a smooth plate of steel, and such as do not roll truly are corrected with the hammer. The needles are now made up with canvas, in bundles of from 40,000 to 50,000, with emery, oil, and soft soap, each bundle being about 2 feet in length, and 3 or 4 inches in diameter. These rolls are placed in a scouring machine, resembling an ordinary mangle, and the bundles being made to roll backwards and forwards during many hours, such an amount of friction is produced on the needles as to make them bright and smooth. After about eight hours' friction the bundles are taken out and re-made, with the addition of putty-powder and oil. For the best needles the scouring or cleaning and polishing is continued for seven or eight days. The heads of the needles are now softened by placing them in rows upon metal strips, with the eyes projecting over the edge, and bringing a red-hot plate sufficiently near to produce the deposit of a dark blue film on the heads. This indicates the proper temper for the next operation, which is the very delicate one of removing sharp or jagged portions from the interior of the eye. This is done by drilling, the drills being minute three-sided tools attached to a wheel, and revolving rapidly. The operator brings each eye up to the drill, first on one side and then on the other; first countersinking, as it is called, or converting the sharp edge of the eye, where it communicates with the groove, into a curved one; after which the drill is made to pass round the rest of the eye in such a way as to produce the kind of curve seen in the bow of a pair of scissors. The points are next finished upon a small revolving stone, after which they are polished on wheels of wood coated with buff leather and polishing paste. The needles are lastly counted into quarters of hundreds, folded up in papers, and labelled. Recently they have been sold in cases, containing several small tubes, each tube holding a different size of needle.

The needle-making district of England includes the villages of Redditch, Peckham, Beoley, Studley, Coughton, Alcester, Astwood Bank, Crabbs Cross, &c.; all of which lie near together. It should be noticed that the manufacture differs somewhat for the heavier kinds of needles, such as packing, sail, upholsterers', stay, mattress, book-binding, surgeons', harness, and collar needles; knitting, netting, tambour, and crochet needles; and meshes.

THE, a name given to five remarkable rocks lying immediately off the western extremity of the Isle of Wight, in N. Lat. 50° 39', and W. Long. 1° 34'. Their origin is attributable to the sea beating on the sharp cliffs which form the W. point of the island, and the same influence is gradually wasting them away; the largest of them, which was 120 feet in height, having been submerged in 1764. They are white, but black at their bases, and curiously streaked throughout with black strata of flints. A lighthouse standing on this extremity of the island rises 715 feet above the sea.