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Remarkable Ductility and Extensibility of Gold: Needles

We must not forget to present to the reader some curious particulars respecting the manufacture of respecting the manufacture of NEEDLES.-Needles make a very considerable article in commerce, though there is scarcely any commodity cheaper, the consumption of them being almost incredible. The sizes are from No. 1, the largest, to No. 25, the smallest . In the manufacture of needles, German and Hungarian steel are 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 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 i NEEDLES. 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 flatted at one end 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 bason 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 of 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 being 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 withinside 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 are dry. The needles thus wiped in two or three different brans, 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.

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 Dr. 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.

CURIOSITIES RESPECTING SHOES. - Among the Jews, shoes were made of leather, linen, rush, or wood; those of soldiers were sometimes of brass or iron. They were tied with thongs, which passed under the soles of the feet. To put off their shoes, was an act of veneration; it was also a sign of mourning and humiliation: to bear one's shoes, or to untie the latchets of them, was considered as the meanest service, as appears in the Baptist's declaration of his own inferiority to Christ. Among the Greeks, shoes of various kinds were used.

Sandals were worn by women of distinction. The Lacedemonians wore red shoes. The Grecian shoes generally reached to the middle of the leg. The Romans used two kinds of shoes: the calceus, which covered the whole foot, somewhat like our shoes, and was tied above with latchets or strings; and the solea, or slipper, which covered only the sole of the foot, and was fastened with leathern thongs. The calceus was always worn along with the toga, when a person went abroad: slippers were put on during a journey, and at feasts, but it was reckoned effeminate to appear in public with them. Black shoes were worn by the citizens of ordinary rank, and white ones by the women. Red shoes were sometimes worn by the ladies, and purple ones by the coxcombs of the other sex. Red shoes were put on by the chief magistrates of Rome, on days of ceremony and triumphs. The shoes of senators, patricians, and their children, had a crescent upon them, which served for a buckle; these were called calcei lunati. Slaves wore no shoes; hence they were called cretori, from their dusty feet. Phocion also, and Cato Uticensis, went without shoes. The toes of the Roman shoes were turned up in the point; hence they were called calcei rostrati, repandi, &c.

In the ninth and tenth centuries, the greatest princes of Europe wore wooden shoes, or the upper part of leather, and the sole of wood. In the reign of William Rufus, a great beau, Robert, surnamed The Horned, used shoes with long sharp points, stuffed with tow, and twisted like a ram's horn. It is said, the clergy being highly offended, declaimed against the long-pointed shoes with great vehemence. The points, however, continued to increase, till, in the reign of Richard II. they were of so enormous a length, that they were tied to knees with chains, sometimes of gold, sometimes of silver