Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
|
See also:PIN (a doublet with " See also:pen " from See also:Lat. pinna, See also:feather, See also:pinnacle, which is said to contain the same See also:root as irirvs, See also:pine See also:tree, and properly to mean a See also:sharp point or end)
, a small peg or See also:bolt of See also:metal or See also:wood, not necessarily pointed, employed as a fastening to connect together different parts of an See also:article, as a stop to limit the See also:motion of some moving piece in a See also:machine, as a support on which a small See also:wheel may turn, &c., but most commonly a small metal spike, used for fastening portions of fabrics together, having one end pointed and at the other a bulbed See also:head, or some other arrangement for preventing the spike from passing entirely through the See also:cloth or other material with which it is employed
.
In one See also:form or another pins of this last See also:kind are of the highest 'antiquity, the earliest form doubtless being a natural See also:thorn
.
Pins of See also:bronze, and bronze brooches in which the See also:pin is the essential feature, are of See also:common occurrence among the remains of the bronze See also:age
.
The See also:ordinary domestic pin had become in the 15th See also:century an article of sufficient importance in See also:England to See also:warrant legislative See also:notice, as in 1483 the importation of pins was prohibited by See also:statute
.
In 1540 See also:Queen See also:Catherine received pins from See also:France, and again in 1543 an See also:act was passed providing that " no See also:person shall put to See also:sale any pinnes but only such as shall be See also:double headed, and have the heads soldered fast to the shank of the pinnes, well smoothed, the shank well shapen, the points well and See also:round filed, canted and sharpened." At that See also:time pins of See also:good quality were made of See also:brass; but a large proportion of those against which the legislative enactment was directed were made of See also:iron See also:wire blanched and passed as brass pins
.
To a large extent the See also:supply of pins in England was received from France till about 1626, in which See also:year the manufacture was introduced into See also:Gloucestershire by See also:
See also:Wright, had in 1824 secured in England a patent for a machine to make solid-headed pins, which established the industry on its See also:present basis
.
The old form of pin consisted of a shank with a See also:separate head of See also:fine wire See also:twisted round and secured to it
.
Fine wire for heads was first See also:wound on a See also:lathe round a See also:spit the exact circumference of the pin shanks to be headed
.
In this way a See also:long elastic See also:spiral was produced which had next to be cut into heads, each consisting of two See also:complete turns of the spiral
.
These heads were softened by See also:annealing and made into a heap for the heading boy, whose See also:duty was to thrust a number of shanks into the heap and let as many as might be See also:fit themselves with heads
.
Such shanks as came out thus headed were passed to the header, who with a falling See also:block and See also:die arrangement compressed together shank and head of such a number as his die-block was fitted for
.
All the other operations of straightening the wire, cutting, pointing, &c., were separately performed, and these numerous details connected with the See also:production of a common pin were seized on by See also:Adam See also: In a See also:modern pin-making machine wire of suitable See also:gauge See also:running off a See also:reel is drawn in and straightened by passing between straightening pins or studs set in a table . When a pin length has entered it is caught by lateral jaws, beyond which enough of the end projects to form a pin-head . Against this end a steel See also:punch advances and compresses the metal by a die arrangement into the form of a head . The pin length is immediately cut off and the headed piece drops into a slit sufficiently wide to pass the wire through but retain the head . The pins are consequently suspended by the head while their projecting extremities are held against a revolving cutter, by which they are pointed . They are next cleaned by being boiled in weak See also:beer, and then arranged in a See also:copper See also:pan in layers alternating with layers of grained See also:tin . The contents of the pan are covered with See also:water over which a quantity of See also:argol (bitartrate of potash) is sprinkled, and after boiling for several See also:hours the brass pins are coated with a thin See also:deposit of tin, which gives them their silvery See also:appearance . They are then washed in clean water, and dried and polished by being revolved in a See also:barrel, mixed with dry See also:bran or fine sawdust, from which they are winnowed finished pins . A large proportion of the pins sold are See also:stuck into See also:paper by an automatic machine not less ingenious than the pin-making machine itself . See also:Mourning pins are made of iron wire, finished by immersing in See also:black See also:japan and drying in a See also:stove . A considerable variety of pins, including the ingeniously coiled, See also:bent and twisted nursery safety pin, ladies' hairpins, &c., are also made by automatic machinery . The sizes of ordinary pins range from the 32-in. stout blanket pin down to the finest slender gilt pin used by entomologists, 4500 of which weigh about an See also:ounce .
|
|
|
[back] PIMENTO |
[next] RUY DE PINA (1440-1521) |
There are no comments yet for this article.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.
Links to articles and home page are encouraged.