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diameter; and it is extremely difficult to make suchholes, and still more to preserve them in their originaldimensions.
(171) 2. Straightening the Wire. The coil ofwire now passes into the hands of a woman, assistedby a boy or girl. A few nails, or iron pins, not quitein a line, are fixed into one end of a wooden tableabout twenty feet in length; the end of the wire ispassed alternately between these nails, and is thenpulled to the other end of the table. The objectof this process is to straighten the wire, which hadacquired an uniform curvature in the small coils intowhich it had been wound. The length thus straight-ened is cut off, and the remainder of the coil is drawninto similar lengths. About seven nails or pinsare employed in straightening the wire, and theiradjustment is a matter of some nicety. It seems,that by passing the wire between the first three nailsor pins, a bend is produced in an opposite directionto that which the wire had in the coil; this bend, bypassing the next two nails, is reduced to another oflarger curvature in the first direction, and so on tillthe curvature is at last so large that it may be con-founded with a straight line.
(172.) 3. Pointing. A man next takes about threehundred of these straightened pieces in a parcel, andputting them into a gauge, cuts off from one end, bymeans of a pair of shears, moved by his foot, a portionequal in length to rather more than six pins. Hecontinues this operation until the entire parcel is re-duced into similar pieces. The next step is to sharpenthe ends; for this purpose the operator sits beforea steel mill, which is kept rapidly revolving; and