2. The wire having been reduced to the required size, is cut into pieces long enough to make six pins. These pieces are brought to a point at each end by holding them, a handful at a time, on a grindstone. This part of the operation is performed with great rapidity, as a boy twelve years of age can sharpen 16,000 in an hour. When the wires have been thus pointed, the length of a pin is taken off at each end, by another hand. The grinding and cutting off are repeated, until the whole length has been used up. 3. The next operation is that of forming the heads, or, as the pin-makers term it, _head-spinning_. This is done with a _spinning-wheel_, by which one piece of wire is wound upon another, the former, by this means, being formed into a spiral coil similar to that of the springs formerly used in elastic suspenders. The coiled wire is cut into suitable portions with the shears, every two turns of it being designed for one head. These heads are fastened to the _lengths_ by means of a hammer, which is put in motion with the foot, while the hands are employed in taking up, adjusting, and placing the parts upon the anvil. 4. The pins are now finished, as to their form; but still they are merely brass. To give them the requisite whiteness, they are thrown into a copper vessel, containing a solution of tin and the lees of wine. After a while, the tin leaves the liquid, and fastens on the pins, which, when taken out, assume a white appearance. They are next polished by agitating them with a quantity of bran in a vessel moved in a rotary manner. The bran is separated from them, as chaff is separated from wheat. 5. Pins are also made of iron wire, and colored black by a varnish composed of linseed oil and lamp-black. This kind is designed for persons in mourning. Pins are likewise made with a head at each end, to be used by females in adjusting the hair for the night, without the danger of pricking. Several machines have been invented for this manufacture, one of which makes a solid head from the body of the pin itself; but the method just described still continues to be the prevailing one. 6. Pins are made of various sizes. The smallest are called minikins, the next, short whites. The larger kinds are numbered from three to twenty, each size increasing one half from three to five, one from five to fourteen, and two from fourteen to twenty. They are put up in papers, according to their numbers, as we usually see them, or in papers containing all sizes. In the latter case, they are sold by weight. 7. It is difficult, or even impossible, to trace the origin of this useful little article. It is probable, however, that it was invented in France, in the fifteenth century. One of the prohibitions of a statute, relating to the pin-makers of Paris of the sixteenth century, forbid any manufacturer to open more than one shop for the sale of his wares, except on new-year's day, and on the day previous.