lungs and brought on consumption frequently at middle age. But if the occupation was so fatal, the men earned extra wages by it, and measuring years by pounds and shillings, they seemed to estimate and prize the value of life by the amount of its earnings. So. I was told, they opposed the introduction of the Sheffield grinders' fan, which carried off the steel dust and made needle-pointing a more healthy employment, inasmuch as it did not pay for the extra risk of life it once involved. Labour could hardly be more minutely subdivided than in the production of the needle here. With all the introduction of machinery and improved methods, it still passes through seventy pairs of hands before it is fully ready for the market.
The lowest estimate of the production the needle trade of Redditch and adjoining villages given me by several manufacturers, will show what a business it has become. According to this estimate, 350 tons of cast steel and 450 tons of iron wire are used annually, from which one hundred millions of needles a week are produced for home and exportation! Every fortnight the Redditch men turn out a needle, "warranted not to cut in the eye," for every man, woman, and child on the globe. Nor has the demand been reduced by the very extensive use of the sewing machine. The quantity shipped to America, especially the
