Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1874-04-01
A Curious Pair of Jaws.

Don't you think it must be a curious
pair Of jaws that can bite of a chunk OF
cold iron as easily as you can bite stick
Of candy2
You can hardly believe it2 Wait till |
tell you.
One of the most interesting places |
ever visited was room hlled with these
monsters with the sharp steel jaws, called
nail machines. In the first place, the noise
made by several of these machines in one
room is something absolutely fearful. !
wanted to stuff my ears with cotton but |
thought that would not be very civil to my
guide, and after little got used to 1t, and
soon found myself so much interested that
really forgot the noise Some machines
nip of the tacks so fast that a stream Of
finished tacks runs down a tin tube into q
reservoir thousands 10 a minute. Listen
to the ticking of the clock, and reflect that
every time il ticks at least twenty tacks are
snapped off
But | must tell you how they do it,
First, the iron bar as it comes from the
iron works, is put between immense rollers,
which Hatten il out as nicely as cook can
roll out pie crust with rolling pin. The
bar of iron is thus made into q sheet, just
thick enough for the nails they want to
make 1t goes next to the Sitting machine
which makes no more fuss about Sitting it
into the proper widths for nails than your
scissors make about cutting paper. 1t isl
cut little longer than the nail is to be, be-
cause the heads are to be made.
When the strips Of iron are all ready, a
man takes one, aud slips the end into the
steel jaws told you Of. These jaws are
worked by steam power and instantly they
bite of a nail, while furious little ham
mer springs out suddenly, and with one
blow on the end of the bit Of iron hattens
it, and thus makes a head. If you want
TO know what blow that must be, take
piece Of iron and try to pound head on 1t
yourself
The instant the head is made, the jaws
open, and the nail drops out finished. or
course it is done much quicker than | have
been telling you, for machine can make
brads (which | needn't tell the boys are
small nails without heads) at the rate Of
three thousand a minute 1t is said that
" figures won't lie" and hope they won't
but must admit it is hard to believe that
story
After the tacks come out Of the machine,
they are blued," as it is called. 1t is
; done by heating them in an oven or on an
> iron plate. Then they 60 to the packing
room, where one girl can weigh aud put
into papers two thousand papers OF tacks III
day. That's another tough story, but my
|, guide assured me it was true.
How many kinds of nails can you name
= You will probably be surprised to hear tha
! two hundred kinds of nails are made in on'
} factory, beginning with spikes which weigt
r nearly half pound each, and ending will
j the tinest kind of tacks, not a quarter o
an inch long
Men didn't always have machines to maxi
nails for them, and of course they had t.
Z make them by hand. That was no sucl
: easy matter, and, in fact, they couldn't mad
" them of cold iron, but had to heat ever.
y one. In some parts Of England they ar
} very slow to get machinery, and the igno
rant people, thinking their trade is to b
y spoiled, will break up aud destroy any ma
= chiuery that is brought there. So the.
&c work at nail making as their grandfather
, did. Every man has little iorge-suc
y as you have seen in a blacksmith's shop
u you live in a village-and small anvil
= Every child is put to work to make nails q
y eight or nine years of age, because the
:, earn 80 little that every one Of iamll
" must help earn his bread. Of course thes