Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/217

NEEDLES ing is accomplished by laying the needles in heaps upon pieces of canvas, scattering them upon a quantity of soft soap, emery, and oil, and rolling them into bundles, which are close- ly wound with twine. Each bundle is from 2 to 3 ft. long and from 3 to 4 in. thick. These are placed in a scouring machine, which resem- bles a common mangle, and rolled backward and forward for 50 or 60 hours. The scouring and cleaning is continued for the best needles seven or eight days. When taken out of the canvas they are laid on tin plates, and a little girl is employed to place the heads all one way. This is done simply by wrapping a piece of wash leather around the fore finger, and press- ing it against one end of the pile of needles, thus catching all the points which lie in that direction. All the imperfect needles are then removed, the remainder are placed in rows upon metal plates with the eyes projecting over the edge, and a red-hot iron plate is brought sufficiently near to produce a dark blue film upon the heads, which indicates a proper temper. The very delicate operation of drilling, or removing the jagged portions from the interior of the eye, follows. This is performed by a woman who has before her a three-sided steel drill, revolving rapidly. Taking the needles in her hand and arranging them in the form of a fan, she brings them successively under the action of the drill, first on one side and then on the other, after bevel- ling off the sharp edge of the eye where it communicates with the groove, which is called counter-sinking. The drilling of the eye is a modern improvement, and requires a very steady hand. The points are finished upon a small rotating stone, and then polished on a wheel covered with buff leather, slightly coated with polishing paste. Lastly they are counted into quarters of hundreds, folded in colored papers, and labelled. For exportation these are made up into packets containing from 20,000 to 60,000 each. The processes above described apply only to the finer sorts of nee- dles. In the heavier kinds, such as harness, upholsterers', sail, mattress, and bookbinding needles, many of these operations are omitted. The French needles are generally made of iron wire which is converted in the course of the process by cementation into steel. The man- ufacture by this method is less difficult, but the needles are decidedly inferior to the English. NEEDLES, The, a cluster of five pyramidal rocks in the English channel, lying off the W. extremity of the isle of Wight. They are com- posed of thick strata of chalk alternating with very thin strata of black flint. The waves are continually producing changes in their form, and only three of the pyramids now stand prominently out of the water. In 1764 the principal one, which was 120 ft. high, fell down, and almost entirely disappeared. NEEF, or Neefs, Pieter, the elder, a painter of the Flemish school, born in Antwerp about 1570, died in 1651. He was a pupil of Hendrik NEES VON ESENBECK 209 Steenwyck the elder, and like him was distin- guished for his excellence in perspective and architectural views. He painted principally the interiors of churches and temples. Many of these views are represented by torchlight. As he was deficient in the designing of fig- ures, he often employed the Francks, Van Thulden, Jan Breughel, or Teniers to paint them ; and his pictures decorated by the two last are very valuable. NEELE, Henry, an English author, born in London, Jan. 29, 1798, committed suicide in a fit of insanity, Feb. 7, 1828. He was the son of an engraver in the Strand, and in early life was articled to an attorney. He published "Odes and other Poems" (1817), "Dramatic and Miscellaneous Poetry" (1823), and "Ro- mance of English History " (1827). In 1827 he delivered a series of lectures on English poe- try from Chaucer to Cowper, which were pub- lished after his death, under the title of " Lit- erary Remains;" and a volume of "Tales" and other miscellaneous pieces in prose and verse was published in 1830. NEES VON ESENBECK, Christian Gottfried Daniel, a German botanist, born near Erbach in the Odenwald, Feb. 14, 1776, died in Breslau, March 16, 1858. He was educated at the gymnasium of Darmstadt and the university of Jena, and after practising for a time as a physician was appointed in 1818 professor of botany at Er- langen, and subsequently was elected president of the Leopoldine academy of naturalists. In the same year he was appointed professor of botany in Bonn, where, with the help of his brother and of Sinning, the gardener of the botanic garden, he was the means of founding a new institution for the science. In 1830 he went to Breslau as professor of botany and director of the botanic garden. Shortly before the political commotions of 1848 he became an active member of the newly formed Breslau religious association called ChristTcatholiken, whose aim was to utilize the working power of the congregation by organizing among them- selves associations for various benevolent pur- poses. In 1848 he went to Berlin, where he was active in the cause of democracy, and on his return founded at Breslau a society called the fraternity of laborers for the promotion of their education, domestic comfort, and business relations. The government ordered him to re- sign its presidency. He was soon afterward prosecuted for living with a woman without having been divorced from his third wife, and in 1851 he was suspended and in the follow- ing year deposed from his professorship. His prosecution was generally considered to be merely a pretext in order to interfere with his reformatory labors. He was also a believer in spiritualism, and some of his children were reported to be clairvoyants. For the support of his numerous family, he was obliged to sell his valuable library, and his herbarium, con- sisting of 80,000 specimens. One of the most distinguished of German botanists, he was hon-