Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1874-10-24
Making Horseshoe Nails.

AAh6 hVlcC-CHOt NuIlsa
Horseshoe nails are made from iron
imported from Norway. 1t comes in
short bars, perhaps four feet long. It
is heated in q furnace till almost at
white heat, then rolled between two
huge iron or steel-faced rollers till it
resembles a strip of iron pie-crust
smooth on the bottom, but in pillows
or little waves on the upper surface.
After being rolled to the required thin
ness, the iron is by machinery cut into
pieces four or five inches square. These
HAT pieces or slips are then placed I'M
der a cutting die, which at every i'm
preston stamps out several nails, the
head OF each being from the thick and
the point from the thin end OF the slip.
These nails in the rough are then taken
to room where are at work a number
OF boys about ten years old, who sit at a
table with revolving rod about four
feet long and two inches in diameter,
before them, driven by machinery.
This rod is cut or grooved like an
augur, or a continuous screw. Into
the cut-away part the rough nails are
dropped, points down, by the boys.
The opening is just large enough to let
the nail in easily, the head of it keep
ing it from dropping through. As this
rod revolves it constantly works the
nails off to the right and into box
which catches them as they are worked
out, hut not till some steel hammers or
knuckles have managed to hit each nail
on its sharp end and properly point it,
so that it can be driven into the hoof of
the horse and be made to cut out be-
fore reaching the quick. One boy will
feed into this pointer six hundred
pounds of nails in ten hours. Once in
they are worked out-carried along by
the revolving screw.
From here they go into an iron drum
filled with sawdusG, and are churned
around right lively by machinery till
the dirt and grease is all cleansed from
the nails, when they are again placed
in drum, and rolled or ratified to-
gether till quite bright and smooth.
Then they are taken to another room
and piled on benches before number
Of little girls, from six to ten years old,
who, with nimble fingers, keep draw
ing toward them nail after nail, turning
them to see both sides that each nail is
perfect at the point. After this inspec.
ton by girls, the rapidity of whose
work is astonishing, the nails are ready
to be put in kegs, weighed, and sent to
market. They find market with black.
smiths or horse-shoers in all parts Of
the country, from Maine to California.
The scraps of iron left after the nails
have been stamped out, are by power.
full machinery packed into bundles not
so large as a four quart measure
heated, and rolled into bars from which
steel is eventually produced.
The machinery used in making these
nails is not exhibited to nail-makers
so, to confer favor on boys in black
smith shops, anxious to enter the bust
ness, we will tell how it is constructed
A powerful trip hammer, operated by
rotary motion, vibrating with centrlf
ugal force, subsidies the bewildered
metal before it is naturalized, and holds
it in place on a planular epoch, firml,
imbedded by suspension and coherent
gravitation. Attached to this epoch ar
numerous triangular dies and rectangu
lar hipsideezles, bifurcating from tn,
diametric core, and converging abou
the radient of the duplex elliptic, work
ing left handed eccentric rolling un
der came joint. This pressure brough
to bear directly upon the tripartit
nolhemus of the periphery, of cours
the power obtained IS equal to the re
duction of ore in the fue, and thus tn
point of the nail is squgeed at one turf
of the upsetting knuckle. All that nov
remains to be done is to inspect AM
find market. -Pomeroy's Democrat