Today I visited the Bohin Needle Factory at Sainte-Sulplice-sur-Risle, Normandy. Many of their machines have been in operation for over two hundred years and are still working. As an operational factory which is open to the public for tours, they manufacture
many sewing supplies in addition to needles. The machines are quite beautiful and are real works of art. As they say, they don't make them like that any more. I suppose modern machines are more efficient but these have been paid for for at least a century,
which makes them able to compete with more modern competitors. They do sit idle much of the time, but I think that is because people do not sew as much as in previous years, not because of competition driving them out of business.
