A needle is a long, slender, object with a pointed tip, usually made of metal.
- The first needles were used in
sewing,
and were often made of bone or wood.
A needle for hand sewing has a hole
at the non-pointed end to carry thread
or cord through the fabric after the
pointed end pierces it. Hand sewing
needles have different names depending
on their purpose, such as sharps, betweens,
ballpoint,
embroidery,
leather,
beading, chenille, upholstery, and tapestry.
- A sewing machine uses an eye-pointed metal needle (with a hole near the pointed tip).
- A hollow needle can be used to inject or extract liquids: see hypodermic needle and syringe.
- Both primitive and modern needles can be used in the process of tattooing the skin: see tattoo gun.
- A needle can be used as an indicator on a mechanical dial used for reporting or measurement.
- A needle (or more properly, a stylus) is mounted in the arm of a phonograph to play back music recorded on a gramophone record (and historically, on phonograph cylinders).
- The long, slender, pointed leaves of some plants, particularly conifers, are often called needles by analogy with the primary meaning above. For details, see the article on Pinophyta.
You may want to also learn a little bit about "pins". The development of the pin closely paralleled that of its perforated counterpart, the needle. Archaeological evidence suggests that curved sewing pins have been used for over four thousand years. Originally, these were fashioned out of iron and bone by the Sumerians and were used to hold clothes together. Later, pins were also used to hold pages of books together by threading the needle through their top corner. Walter Hunt invented the safety pin by forming an eight-inch brass pin into a bent pin with a spring and guard.
