Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 July 1889 — How They Make Th mbles. [ARTICLE]

How They Make Th mbles.

The way thimbles are made in England and in this country is simple enough. Dies of the different sizes are msed, into which the metal, whether gold, silver, or steel, is pressed. The 'hole punching, finishing, polishing and tempering are done afterward. Celluloid and rubber are molded.' The best thimbles are made in France, where the process is more thorough. Strange tas it may seem, the French consider 'durability in their gold thimbles as the first, requisite. The first step in the tmaking of a Paris gold thimble is the cutting into a disk of the dpsired size a ‘thin piece of sheet iron. This is brought to a red placed over a graduated hole in an iron bench and hammered down into it with a punch. This hole is the form of the thimble. The iron takes its shape and is removed from the hole. The littlo indentations to keep the needle from slipping are made in it and all other finishing strokes of the perfect thimble put on lit The ifon is them made Into steerl by a process peculiar to the French thimble maker, and is tempered, polished and brought to a deep blue color. A thin sheet of gold is their pressed intc the interior of the thimble apd fastened there by a mandril. Gold leaf is attached to the outside by great pressure, the edges of the leaf being sited in and held by small grooves at the base ol tiie thimble. The article is then read; for use. The gold will last for years. The steel never out and the gold can be retffffiy replaced <at any time. Nowhere else in the world are •gold thimbles made in that way.— Chambers’s Journal.