Mandy Top Ten Facts about Sewing Needles
The oldest needle with an eye is thought to be over 25,000 years old.
The first needles were made from bone, animal horn, thorns, fishbones and wood, later they were fashioned from bronze and eventually steel.
Spain inherited secrets of Islamic steel needle making and immigrants brought these skills to England.
A needle maker is known as a ‘Pointer’
Needles were considered a valuable item and often protected in special cases attached to woman’s belts.
To escape guild restrictions on machinery, needle makers moved north to Redditch where the industry has remained ever since. It had ample water supply from the red ditch which later named the town which also had the advantage of being close to the metalworkers and crafts of Birmingham.
Steel was heated into a cylinder and drawn through a die. The steel was cut into lengths and the end flattened and an eye was punched in.
The Forge Mill Needle Museum, Redditch, has a needle where the eye is so fine that you would need a magnifying glass to thread it. Today there are no threads fine enough today to pass through this needle.
Being a pointer was a hazardous occupation, if the grinding stone broke serious injury could occur. But the most serious threat was Pointer’s Rot, a pulmonary disease caused by the inhalation of stone and metal fragments.
A pointer’s life on average was 35 years, they resisted mechanization and dust extraction which would have reduced their wages!
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