Compass needle

“ If the needle behaves queerly, maybe you are holding it too near your gun, or some metal object in your belt or pocket may be attracting it. All objects of iron or steel become magnetized to a certain extent and will attract the needle if brought too near. But aside from such outside influence, and that of wear, the compass is a perfectly reliable instrument. ”

“ If a light, small sensitive compass needle be placed on 312a table, it will be found that a small piece of iron like a nail may be pushed so near to it that the needle assumes a position of extremely unstable equilibrium. ”

“ The outer edge of the card is divided into thirty-two points, as shown in the engraving, called points of the compass. The needle is a slender bar of hardened steel, having a hollow agate cup in the centre, which moves upon the point of a pivot made of brass.
VARIATION OF THE NEEDLE.
The magnetic needle does not point exactly north and south, but the north pole of the needle takes a direction to the west of the true north. It is constantly changing, and varies at different parts of the earth, and at different times of the day. ”

“ Bid him hold the N of the compass towards the north. "Then, with the compass in your hand, turn towards the east, and you will see a remarkable thing. The little needle moves, too, but moves quite by itself in just the other direction. Turn to the west, and again the needle moves in the opposite direction to that in which you move. However little you turn, a little quiver of the needle follows your movement. And you look at it, wondering how the little thing could perceive you had moved, when you hardly knew it yourself. Walk straight on in any direction, and the needle is fairly steady ”

“ Should one wish to lay a fairly accurate course, have both hands at liberty, hold the compass in both hands at half arm’s length from body with elbows resting against your sides so as to bring the compass in direct line with the center of your body. To settle the needle quickly tip the compass until the end of the needle touches the glass to check the vibrations. ”

“ To test a needle, try to break it; if it resist, and then break clean in two, the steel is good; if it bend without breaking, or break without any resistance, it is bad. Never use a bent needle, it makes ugly and irregular stitches, and see that the eye, whether round or egg-shaped, be well-drilled, that it may not fray or cut the thread. Long or half-long needles are the best for white work, long ones for dress-making, and longer ones still, with long eyes, for darning. ”

“ Position of the hands (fig. 2) .—The stuff, fastened to a cushion, must be held with the left hand, which should neither rest on the table, nor on the cushion, the needle must be held between the thumb and forefinger, of the right hand, and the middle finger, armed with the thimble, pushes the needle far enough through the stuff, for the other fingers to take hold of it and draw it out; the thread then comes to lie between the fourth and fifth fingers in the form of a loop, which must be tightened gradually to avoid its knotting. ”

“ The clusters must all consist of an even number of threads. The upper and the lower band of open-work is to be copied from fig. 58, the centre one, from fig. 57. Divide the threads of the perpendicular clusters in two; insert the needle, from left to right, underneath half the second cluster, turn the needle’s eye, by a second movement, from left to right, and take up the second part of the first cluster, drawing it under, and at the same time, in front of the first half of the second cluster. Be careful not to draw your thread too tightly. ”

“ The needle should always be a little thicker than the thread, to make an easy passage for it through the stuff.
To keep needles from rusting, strew a little stone alum in the packets, and workers whose hands are apt to get damp, should have a small box of it handy, to powder their fingers with. Blackened needles can be made quite bright again by drawing them through an emery cushion. ”

“ The loops that are to be connected must lie exactly opposite to each other. Enter your threaded needle upwards from below through the first disengaged upper loop, and slip it off the knitting needle, then enter the needle, downwards from above through the first lower loop, and upwards from below through the next, and draw out just enough thread to make the new loop the same size as the old ones. ”

“ From the thimble being cut slightly slanting at the top, it follows that the inside where the two ends meet is a little shorter than the outside.
The thread is drawn through in a loop to the front of the work by means of the hook, whilst it is held at the back in the left hand, and when the needle is put downwards through the stuff, laid round it. The needle in its downward and upward passage, should be kept in the notch in the thimble and the stuff pressed down with the thimble, as the needle is drawn up to the surface of the work, fig. ”

“ The cotton should always be cut, as it is weakened by breaking.
Knotting the thread into the needle (fig. 1) .—When the thread becomes inconveniently short, and you do not want take a fresh one, it may be knotted into the needle, thus: bring it round the forefinger close to the needle, cross it on the inside next to the finger, hold the crossed threads fast, with the thumb draw the needle out through the loop thus formed, and tighten the loop round both ends. ”

“ I think everybody needs a little needling now and then."
Bilford nodded. "I know you agree with him. You're a bigger needler than he is, any day."
"Me?" Roysland looked surprised.
"Yes, you. Eckisster's needling is effective in a limited way, but yours is not only effective, but efficient. You ask the kind of questions that make people think instead of the kind that make people mad. Where Eckisster jabs in all directions and people jump, you use your needle with the deftness and precision of a physician using a hypodermic. Eckisster doesn't know what he wants and he doesn't know how to get it. ”

“ The needle, too, is a feature seldom absent from the man’s neck and girdle, being a sharp-pointed bit of iron or brass with which they pierce the skins and fasten them together with threads of bark; these needles are fitted into a wooden case, which the more fanciful decorate with bands of brass wire. ”

“ I have not, in my own practice, ventured to use needles of greater length than one inch, and one inch and a half; and the instrument which I use is an ingenious adaptation of a common sewing needle to an ivory handle, constructed by Mr. Edward Jukes, Surgeon Accoucheur to the Westminster Medical Institution (see plate, fig. 1 and 2.)
Dr. Haime, and I believe the French surgeons who practice acupuncturation, use this long needle (three inches) and Mr. Demours, who appears to be a man of considerable mechanical genius, has lately invented a new apparatus for this purpose. ”

“ Work an inch without shaping, then divide the st, putting half on to one needle for the heel, taking care that the decreasings made come in the centre of the needle.
The Heel.
Make an extra stitch, so that you have an odd number on the needle (you should then have 29 st) , and knit and purl a row alternately (always slipping the first st) until you have worked the same number of rows as you have st on the needle, ending with a purl row. ”

“ Then the loop between each two needles is caught by the hand and hooked over the opposite knob, so that each needle carries really two threads. Now the needles are carried back to their first position, and, in so doing, they draw the threads, which slip off the knobs through the edges of the fabric. A little push forward again brings the sharp rear edges of the needle-eye against the threads, cutting them all at once. ”

“ Stroking gathers (fig. 19) .—When you have run in your gathering thread, draw it up tight, and make it fast round the finger of your left hand, and then stroke down the gathers with a strong needle, so that they lie evenly side by side, pushing each gather, in stroking it, under your left thumb, whilst you support the stuff at the back with your other fingers. ”

“ Beads come in all sizes from the tiny ones that are no bigger than a top of a pin to the large ones the size of a marble. Sometimes you can get odd-shaped beads, flat on one side and curved on the other. A string that is pretty enough to wear on state occasions can be made of heart-shaped and round beads.
The regular bead needle is very fine and long. [279] It is better when stringing a single strand to double the thread. Use linen thread No. 100 or 150. Thread the needle with a piece of thread eight inches longer than double the length of the necklace. ”

“ The Operation of Acupuncturation described.
The first step necessary to the performance of this operation, is the selection of a proper apparatus. It is not requisite, however, that our needles be either of gold or silver, as those of the Japonese are; although it is true that the flexibility of these metals prevents the risque of their breaking; but I have not heard of, or seen, any instance of such an accident with the steel needle, which is the material employed in European practice. ”

“ Those which exist are of bronze. Probably the majority were of steel, and of these none have survived. I give a photograph of a three-cornered needle from my collection (Pl. XVII, fig. 4) . It is imperfect at the point. It measures 7·2 cm. in length, and the sides are each 2 mm. in breadth. It is important to emphasize the fact that only needles with cutting edges are to be looked on as surgical, because it is not unusual to find needles, which are round and of large calibre, described as surgical, although they are quite unfitted for surgical work. Such is the one figured by Vulpes (op. cit.) ”

“ Sewing cotton No. 100 or 150 and a special needle are the only requirements for this work. The needles can be bought from any art needlework shop for five cents each. It is like a large-sized carpet needle with a small eye. A carpet needle can be substituted if it is not possible to obtain the regular needle in your locality. Tie one end of the thread to the eye of the needle. While practising this stitch it will be necessary to make guide lines. On each side of the design line make a row of dots an eighth of an inch apart. ”

“ If a lump of it were placed in Lily’s work-box, all her needles and scissors, and her keys, if she had any, would jump to it, and cling to it in a minute, just as you would jump into mother’s arms.”
“Oh, I wish that I had a lump as big as my head! I should like to see the poker and the tongs and the shovel all jumping!” exclaimed Eddy, full of merriment at the thought.
“And the odd thing is,” continued George, “that when iron is well rubbed with this loadstone, it seems as though it grew just like it, for it gets the very same curious property of attracting other bits of iron. ”

“ Take a needleful of the palest of the three shades of blue floss and run round the traced outline of the upper portion of one of the petals. Never begin with a knot, but run a few stitches into a part that will be covered afterwards; to fasten it firmly just take a back-stitch and do not cut off the end till you have worked a few more stitches; always begin and end a needleful on the ‘right side’ of the work so as to have no loose ends at the back. Then bring the needle up from behind to the surface near the centre of the petal ”

“ For the initial puncture in sensitive or inflamed tissue, it is proper to use a needle of the finest lumen so as to cause the least possible amount of pain. The ordinary needle, which comes with the usual hypodermic outfit, is about the proper length for the ordinary work already mentioned, but could be improved upon for anesthesia by being made a little finer in calibre. This length (three-quarters of an inch) will be frequently found insufficient to reach the deeper tissues and in the [Pg 239] removal of a more or less rounded growth, a longer needle must be selected at the start. ”

“ But contrary to the downward action of the others, the “Wiseman” needles make an upward thrust. They stand at about 1⁄16 of an inch apart, the one with the eye (which, as in all machines, is at the pointed end) carrying the cotton, and being placed in the same needle bar move simultaneously. The upward thrust when working sends the pair of them through the two overlapping strands of plait which are kept at the proper place by special “guides.” ”

“ Freeman and the author add to this by advocating the use of a somewhat blunt-pointed needle instead of the extremely sharply pointed knife-edged needles usually furnished with syringes intended for this purpose. ”

“ Now for suturing tissues, and more especially tissues of such toughness and thickness as the abdominal parietes, a round needle is absolutely of no use. A surgical needle not only requires to have cutting edges, as our three-cornered needles have, but these edges need to be in good condition to work well. ”

“ Positive electrode in the hand of the patient, negative pole to the needle holder. The needle is thrust through the growth on a plane with the skin and slightly above it. The current will at once produce a pale color in the mass and white froth will issue about the shaft of the needle. A comparatively greater amount of current is needed for this purpose than with the destruction of hairs. The operator must judge the amount and time required from experience.
The mass is punctured in stellate fashion to assure an even necrosis, as shown in Fig. 518.
[483]
Fig. ”

“ Then thread a needle with a hair by the root, and slip it in, 2 or 3 m/m. from the one edge and back again pointed towards you, through the other, so that, neither needle nor hair, are visible on either side. The stitches should be set slightly slanting and must be quite lost in the thickness of the cloth. The needle must always be put in, exactly at the place where it came out, and the hair not be too tightly drawn. ”

“ Turn the material back one-quarter inch and crease it down with your thumb-nail. A second fold is made the width of the hem. Take your measuring card and, placing the end of it on the double edge, see if your hem is exactly the width desired. Baste along the first folded edge to hold the material together for hemming (Figures 17 and 18) . Hold the edge to be hemmed toward you. Do not knot your thread. Insert the needle at the extreme right of the hem. Pull the needle through, leaving a [18] little end, as in over-handing, to be fastened down with the hemming itself. ”