Thimble
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Thimble. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a metallic cap or sheath used to protect the end of the finger in sewing. Seamstresses use a thimble having a rounded end with numerous small pits or indentations. Those used by tailors are open at the end. The manufacture of thimbles is very simple. Coin silver is mostly used, generally silver dollars, which are melted, and cast into solid ingots. These are rolled into the required thickness, and cut by a stamp into disks of any required size. A solid metal bar the size of the inside of the intended thimble, moved by powerful machinery up and down in a bottomless mold of the size of the outside of the thimble, bends the circular disks into the thimble shape as fast as they can be placed under the de descending bar. The work of brightening, polishing, and decorating is done on a lathe. First the blank form is fitted with a rapidly revolving rod. A slight touch of a sharp chisel takes thin shavings from the end, another does the same on the side, and the third rounds off the rim. A round steel rod, dipped in oil and pressed on the surface, gives it a lustrous polish. Then a small revolving steel wheel, whose edge is a raised ornamental design held against the revolving blank, prints that design just outside the rim. A second wheel prints a different design around the center, while a third wheel, with sharp points, maks indentations on the lower half and end of the thimble. The inside is brightened and polished in a similar way, the thimble being held in a revolving mold. The completed thimbles are boiled in soapsuds to remove the oil, brushed up, and packed for the trade. Thimbles are said to have been found at Herculaneum, and long ago used by the Chinese.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a device for pushing through the needle without injury to the hand. The word is a perversion of thumb-bell. The German name is finger-hat. The Swedish name is finger-fort. The thimble was used first by the sailmaker. The English sailmaker still wears his thimble on his thumb, and calls it a thummel. The tailor wears his thimble usually on the end of the middle finger of the right hand. In the making, the metal--brass, steel, or silver--is rolled into thin sheets and cut into strips two inches wide. From these strips, round blanks the size of a silver quarter or half dollar, according to the size of the desired thimble, are cut. The blanks are fed to a machine that turns up the narrow rim found at the edge of the thimble. The blank, still flat, is next fed into a mill. A stamp, that is to say, a round-ended plunger, presses the flat metal into a hole and the finger-hat is shaped. Another machine impresses the dents designed to hold the head of the needle. Polishing and engraving or stamping in patterns are later processes. Silver requires to be hardened by the admixture of other metal. Gold thimbles are steel at heart, gilded with gold alloy. Thimbles are made sometimes of hardened India rubber or celluloid. The date of the lady's thimble is unknown. It was used certainly in the time of the English Stuarts.