WHERE DO NEEDLES GO?

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 225, 22 September 1928, Page 7 (Supplement)

WHERE DO NEEDLES GO?

MYSTERY OF MILLIONS. CARELESSNESS. Britain produces thousands of millions of needles every year and supplies nearly every country in the world. A question which has puzzled many people is where all the needles go to. British needles are of splendid quality. They do not wear out or break easily. Their lifetime, an expert stated, should be reckoned in years, and not in months. But if the needles do not meet with what may be called a natural death, what does happen to them? The answer to the riddle was suggested by a member of a London firm of needle manufacturers, who said: - The needle is the victim of carelessness more than any other* article in common household use. It is often required merely for small jobs, such as sewing on buttons, and the temptation to leave it lying about till the next job turns up is very strong. I expect there are dozens of needles lying about in every house in Britain. Behind wainscot, stuck in walls, inside pin-cushions, in cracks in walls or floor, and especially in* furniture such as armchairs there are almost invariably a good number of needles. Needles are temporarily mislaid. A new packet is bought, and the house gradually has concealed somewhere enough needles to supply a whole row of houses. To. give a man a needle for any purpose is almost as good as throwing it away, for few men will trouble to return it to a place of safety. Women are nearly as careless, .and with,the vogue of needlework reviving this means a general incre».Be both in the number of needles of all kinds bought—and lost.