the forefinger of the left hand; this separates them a very small space from each other, and each in its turn is pushed lengthwise to the right or to the left, according to the direction of the point.  This is the usual process, and in it every needle passes individually under the finger of the operator.  A small alteration expedites the process considerably:  the child puts on the forefinger of its right hand a small cloth cap or fingerstall, and rolling out of the heap from six to twelve needles, he keeps them down by the forefinger of the left hand, whilst he presses the forefinger of the right hand gently against their ends:  those which have the points towards the right hand stick into the fingerstall; and the child, removing the finger of the left hand, slightly raises the needles sticking into the cloth, and then pushes them towards the left side.  Those needles which had their eyes on the right hand do not stick into the finger cover, and are pushed to the heap on the right side before the repetition of this process.  By means of this simple contrivance each movement of the finger, from one side to the other, carries five or six needles to their proper heap; whereas, in the former method, frequently only one was moved, and rarely more than two or three were transported at one movement to their place.

13.  Various operations occur in the arts in which the assistance of an additional hand would be a great convenience to the workman, and in these cases tools or machines of the simplest structure come to our aid:  vices of different forms, in which the material to be wrought is firmly grasped by screws, are of this kind, and are used in almost every workshop; but a more striking example may be found in the trade of the nail-maker.

Some kinds of nails, such as those used for defending the soles of coarse shoes, called hobnails, require a particular form of the head, which is made by the stroke of a die.  The workman holds one end of the rod of iron out of which he forms the nails in his left hand; with his right hand he hammers the red-hot end of it into a point, and cutting the proper length almost off, bends it nearly at a right angle.  He puts this into a hole in a small stake-iron immediately under a hammer which is connected with a treadle, and has a die sunk in its surface corresponding to the intended form of the head; and having given one part of the form to the head with the small hammer in his hand, he moves the treadle with his foot, disengages the other hammer, and completes the figure of the head; the returning stroke produced by the movement of the treadle striking the finished nail out of the hole in which it was retained.  Without this substitution of his foot for another hand, the workman would, probably, be obliged to heat the nails twice over.