Chambers's Elementary Science Readers Part 11

1. The next thing that the children saw was a grindstone turning round very, very fast.

2. A man put the bits of wire into a thing which was fixed just over the grindstone, and both ends were quickly rubbed sharp.

3. 'Now you see the points of the needles,' said the man, as the wire came out again.

'But there are no heads yet!' said Harry.

'And no eyes!' said Dora.

'Well, come along to the stamping-room,' said their uncle.

4. In this room they found a block of stone that had iron on the top of it. Over it hung a heavy hammer. A man who stood there took one of the wires, put it on the block, and made the hammer come down upon it.

5. The moment the hammer went up again the wire fell into a pan, and the children were allowed to look at it.

6. Still there were no eyes or heads! All that could be seen were two little dents, one on each side of the middle of the wire.

7. 'But, look again!' said uncle. 'Don't you see a tiny dot in each dent? That is where the eye is going to be.'

8. In the next room they found a great number of boys at work.

'Oh, uncle,' said Harry, 'do you think I could come here and help to make needles?'

'You would soon be tired of it,' said his uncle, laughing.

9. They went up to one of the boys, and watched him for some time. He took some wires that had come from the stamping-room, and laid them on a piece of iron, but held the two ends in his hands.

10. Then a heavy thing with two hard, sharp, steel points under it came down on the middle part of the wires, and made two holes just where the dots had been.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

'Now we see the eyes, at last!' cried Dora.

NEEDLES.

PART 3.

thread'-ing to-geth'-er tooth'-comb smooth rough edg'-es nee'-dle thought ov'-en sec'-ond steam'-ing e-nough'

break'-ing bench ham'-mer straight

1. They went on into another room. Here there were boys again! And what were the boys doing? They were threading the wires together.

2. When they were all strung together, they looked like a long tooth-comb. The heads were in the middle, and the points lay on either side.

3. The boys took them to some of the workmen, and these men made the middle part quite smooth. Rough edges had been left along the tiny dents, and had to be rubbed down.

4. When this was done, a man made a line along the middle of the 'comb,'

and then gently bent it backwards and forwards till it broke right in the middle.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

5. Harry and Dora were glad to see this. Each bit of wire looked like a needle now. It had a head of its own, and an eye, and a point.

6. The next thing was to make the needles hard. Dora and Harry thought they looked quite hard already, but they did not know.

7. How were they hardened? They were first laid on iron plates and put into a kind of oven.

'This is the second baking they have had,' said Harry.

They were kept in till they were white-hot.

8. When the needles came out, they were put into cold water! What a hissing and steaming they made! But they had to lie there till they were quite cool.

9. Then they were taken out and dried. The man said they were hard enough now, but something else must be done to them to make them able to bend well without breaking.

10. They were put on an iron plate over a fire, and gently moved about.

Some of them curled up, and had to be taken off.

11. They were given to a woman, who was sitting on a bench with a little hammer in her hand and a small steel block in front of her. She laid a curly needle on the block, and hammered it till it was straight, and then another, and another.

NEEDLES.

PART 4.

clean'-ing piece can'-vas soap oil em'-er-y pow'-der bun'-dle man'-gle a-fraid'

brok'-en sec'-ond Fri'-day points hun'-gry laugh'-ing

1. The cleaning of the needles came next.

2. A great many were laid side by side on a piece of canvas, and covered with paste.

'What is the paste made of?' Harry wanted to know.

'Soft soap, my lad,' said the workman, 'and oil, and emery-powder.'

3. He rolled them all up in the canvas, tied string round the bundle, and put it between the rollers of a thing that looked like a mangle.

4. Dora and Harry opened their eyes wide. 'Think of needles being mangled! This will be something to tell mother!'

5. When the bundle was unrolled, they were afraid that the needles would be broken. But they were all right, and they were taken out and washed in warm soap-suds.