Metal pins are said to have been introduced into this country from France in the year 1543, previous to which ladies were accustomed to fasten their dresses by means of skewers of boxwood, ivory, or bone. For some time after their introduction pins must have been costly, for we find that they were acceptable New-Year's gifts to ladies, and that presents of money were made for buying pins; whence money set apart for the use of ladies received the name of pin-money. In the reign of Henry VIII. a law was passed that "no person should put to sale any pin, but only such as shall be double-headed, and have the heads soldered fast to the shanks of the pins, well smoothed, the shanks well sharpen, the points well and round filed, canted, and sharpened." The manufacture of pins was introduced into several towns of Great Britain by individuals who, in some cases, are called the inventors of the article. Pins must soon have been made and sold at a very cheap rate, to justify the common remark, "Not worth a pin," and equivalent expressions in some of our early writers, such as Tusser:

"His fetch is to flatter, to get what he can; His purpose once gotten, a pin for these than."

Pins are made of brass wire, which is furnished to the pin-maker in a thick, close form, and he reduces it to the proper gauge by drawing. The coil of wire thus produced is straightened by being interlaced and pulled between seven strong metal pegs, and thus made to describe a series of zig-zags, until the coil or twist is taken out of it. When a length of from 12 to 20 feet has been thus straightened, it is cut off, and when a number of these lengths have been collected, they are cut up into short lengths, each containing enough wire for about six pins. These lengths are pointed at each end on an iron cylinder or round head of steel, cut with a double row of teeth, which meet obliquely in the middle of the face. This is called a mill; and on the same axis with it is a smaller steel mill with finer teeth. The grinder points from fifty to eighty pin wires at one operation, forming the points first at the larger mill, and smoothing them on the finer-cut mill. By a peculiar action of the thumb and finger the grinder gives the required rotatory motion to the wires.

The dust given off during the pointing is injurious to health, and should be removed by careful ventilation. The pointed wires are next placed in a small box shorter than themselves, from which one end is removed, and the projecting portions are cut off by means of shears. The same operation being performed on the opposite ends, the intermediate lengths are returned to the pointer. The heads of the pointed portions are in some cases formed by jumping up a portion of the blunt end of the shaft. In Germany the heads have recently been formed in composition metal, cast after the manner of bullets, with a hole in the centre for the insertion of the shaft; but the older and more common method is to form the heads separately with a few coils of wire. In the latter method, a long, close spiral of wire is formed on a piece of stiff wire about 40 inches long, and of the exact thickness of the pin; this wire, called the mould, is attached to an ordinary spinning-wheel, and made to rotate rapidly, and the soft heading-wire being held to it, becomes closely coiled round it nearly from end to end. The coil thus formed is slipped off the mould, and is cut into heads by means of a small chisel, to which a quick chopping motion is given. The heads are next annealed by being raised to a red heat in an iron ladle. The shafts are headed by girls, who are seated with a number of pin-heads in their laps, and, taking up a shaft between the finger and thumb, pass it through the heads, and catch up one on the point; if more than one be taken up, it is removed by the fingers. The head is fastened by placing the shaft in a small steel die sunk to half the size of the head, while another die similarly sunk is allowed to drop upon it, the effect of which is to close the coil firmly upon the shaft. The upper die is suspended vertically in a frame, and can be raised by means of a treadle. Under the lower die is a small spring, which raises the pin out of the die as soon as the blow has been struck, and the upper die raised. A skilful workwoman will thus head 1500 pins in an hour. The next operation is yellowing, or scouring in a barrel containing wine lees, or a solution of tartar, and made to rotate for half an hour, the effect of which is to make the pins chemically clean. Then comes the whitening or tinning, for which purpose about 6 lbs. of pins are put into a copper pan, and upon them 7 or 8 lbs. of grain tin; then more pins, and upon them more tin; and so on in alternate layers until the copper is filled; water is added, the pan is set on the fire, and when hot, cream of tartar is sprinkled in, and the water is left to boil for an hour. The pins are next taken out, washed in water; and the process is repeated once or twice, until the pins are properly tinned. The pins are then polished in a rotating barrel containing warm bran; the bran is separated by winnowing; and the pins are collected in bowls for papering. The papers having been crimped with irons, the folds for one row are gathered up and placed between the jaws of a vice. A girl, with her lap full of pins, takes up a row by passing a pocket-comb among them, and resting the points in grooves in the vice, presses the heads forward with the thumb, which is covered with a leather guard. In this way the pins are quickly papered. Mourning-pins are blackened after the yellowing by being coated with a black varnish; but a neater and sharper mourning-pin is now made by means of steel wire tempered to a deep purple colour.

Pins are of various sizes, from the large blanket-pin 3 inches in length, to the smallest ribbon-pins, of which 300,000 weigh only 1 lb. Insect-pins, used by entomologists, are of finer wire than ordinary pins, and vary in length from 3 inches to a size smaller than ribbon pins. It has been calculated that ten tons of pins are made every week in England alone, requiring from fourteen to fifteen tons of brass wire.

Attempts have been made to produce pins by machinery, the most successful of which is by Mr Wright, patented in