1. Nail-making constitutes an extensive branch of the iron business,
as vast quantities of nails are annually required by all civilized
communities. They are divided into two classes, the names of which
indicate the particular manner in which they are manufactured; viz.,
_wrought nails_ and _cut nails_.
2. The former are usually forged on the anvil, and when a finished
head is required, as is commonly the case, it is hammered on the
larger end, after it has been inserted into a hole of an instrument
formed for the purpose. Workmen by practice acquire surprising
dispatch in this business; and this circumstance has prevented the
general introduction of the machines which have been invented for
making nails of this description. Wrought nails can be easily
distinguished from cut nails, by the indentations of the hammer which
have been left upon them.
3. In making cut nails, the iron is first brought into bars between
grooved rollers. The size of the bars is varied in conformity with
that of the proposed nails. These bars are again heated, and passed
between smooth rollers, which soon spread them into thin strips of
suitable width and thickness. These strips, having been cut into
pieces two or three feet in length, are heated to a red heat in a
furnace, to be immediately converted into nails, when designed for
those of a large size. For small nails, the iron does not require
heating.
4. The end of the plate is presented to the machine by the workman,
who turns the material over, first one way and then the other; and at
each turn a nail is produced. The machine has a rapid reciprocating
motion, and cuts off, at every stroke, a wedge-like piece of iron,
constituting a nail without a head. This is immediately caught near
the head, and compressed between _gripes_; and, at the same time, a
force is applied to a die at the end, which spreads the iron
sufficiently to form the head. From one to two hundred can be thus
formed in a minute. This fact accounts for the low rate at which cut
nails are now sold, which, on an average, is not more than two cents
per pound above that of bar iron.
5. On account of the greater expense of manufacturing wrought nails,
they are sold much higher. It is said that nine-tenths of all the
nails of this kind, used in the United States, are imported from
Europe. We thus depend upon foreign countries for these and many other
articles, because they can be imported cheaper than we can make them;
and this circumstance arises chiefly from the difference in the price
of labor.
6. The first machine for making cut nails was invented in
Massachusetts about the year 1816, by a Mr. Odion, and soon afterwards
another was contrived, by a Mr. Reed, of the same state. Other
machines, for the same purpose, have likewise been constructed by
different persons, but those by Odion and Reed are most commonly used.
Before these machines were introduced, the strips of iron just
described, were cut into wedgelike pieces by an instrument which acted
on the principle of the shears; and these were afterwards headed, one
by one, with a hammer in a vice. The fact, that the manufacture of
this kind of nails originated in our country, is worthy of
recollection.
7. In 1841, Walter Hunt, of New-York, invented a double reciprocating
nail engine, which is owned by the New-York Patent Nail Company. This
machine works with surprising rapidity, it being capable of cutting
five or six hundred ten-penny nails in a minute. One hand can tend
three engines, as he has nothing more to do than to place the heated
plate in a perpendicular position in the machine.
8. This manufacture includes, also, that of tacks and spikes; but
since, in the production of these, the same general methods are
pursued, they need no particular notice. The different sizes of tacks
are distinguished by a method which indicates the number per ounce; as
two, three, or four hundred per ounce. Spikes are designated by their
length in inches, and nails by the terms, two-penny, three-penny,
four-penny, ten-penny, and so on up to sixty-penny.
[Illustration: CUTLER.]