"Musical Pin Maker"

[Keith Sherwood]

Well, I've tried googling it, without results, so what exactly did a "Music Pin Maker" do or make in the 19thC.  My guess that they might have made the pins for those barrel organs or music machines.  Probably hopelessly off beam…
keith

[stanmapstone]

 "Music Pin Maker"  is not listed but there are;
Pinner (barrel organs); inserts, with pliers and pressing machine worked by treadle, steel pins in positions marked by music marker, on revolving cylinder or roller of barrel organ
Key and action maker (barrel organs); tempers small steel points by heating on gas apparatus; drills by hand specified holes in wooden levers; inserts and adjusts steel pins in levers, taking care to make them even.... "A Dictionary of Occupational Terms"

Stan

[Keith Sherwood]

Hi again, Stan,
That's very precise, and I'm glad to say that I didn't make a fool of myself with my initial suggestion…!
Regards, Keith
p.s. Were many people employed, trained to be skilled in this trade/craft?  In other words, I suppose I'm trying to ask if this was rather an unusual occupation or not.  There are two people with the SANDERS name in the PIGOT's Gloucestershire Trade Directory of 1830 who are listed as "Pin Makers"

[stanmapstone]

There is another occupation Pin maker (piano); cuts steel rod with hack or machine saw in making wrest pins for pianos; turns it in a lathe and shapes in a shaping machine; drills hole and finishes with file.

Stan

[stanmapstone]

There are two people with the SANDERS name in the PIGOT's Gloucestershire Trade Directory of 1830 who are listed as "Pin Makers"

There are eleven different categories of "pin maker" listed in "A Dictionary of Occupational Terms" but I would think they are just makers of ordinary pins.

Stan

[Keith Sherwood]

Stan,
Thanks for clarifying things even further.  My COCKER family in Hathersage in Derbyshire fashioned steel into wire for pianos from the late 18thC onwards,  but steel sewing needles was their speciality - they even exhibited at the 1851 Great Exhibition...
Keith