Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-01-20
How a Nail is Made.

here than in any other city in the world
and that hundreds Of thousands Of dollar.
are annually brought into the city by TIT
sales OF this article, the majority of then
have but a vague and unreliable idea a.
to how nails are made, and whether mucl
or little labor is required in their produc
ton. The description which We give i
applicable simply and solely to tie man
utacture in Wheeling. The ore OF which
a nail is made comes principally from tn.
Iron Mountain mines in Missouri, or thu
mines on the great lakes, especially Lake
Superior. Some little ore from the Low.
more mines nine miles from Covington
Va, is also used, The cost of the orc
ranges from 81 to IS per ton, and one and
one-half tons of ore make about one ton
OF iron. With each ton of iron ore are
mixed 5000 pounds of limestone. and
from five hundred to six hundred pounds
OF mill cinder.
This mill cinder is the refuse from the
boiling and heating furnaces, and is worth
about $3.50 y ton, though to furnaces that
use the cinder for nails it is worth much
more. The ore is taken into the furnace,
placed in hosting machine and carried
to height of So feet to the top of fur
mace. 1t is there put into sort of hop
per, which has bottom called bell, and
when the hopper is filled the bell is low
cred and the ore falls into the great melt
ing furnace beneath, where the temper
allure is from 1,40O to !, 800 degrees. The
gas which comes from this terrible heat
ing arrangement is carried off in pipes
and by a very simple and ingenious plan
is made to assist in heating furnace
thus saving an immense deal of fuel
sand molds, and the iron chills shaped
like a bar of pig iron that everyone is
familiar with, the pigs averaging 100 OF
more pounds each. When they are cold
they are carried out and dropped across
a breaker Of solid iron and broken into
two pieces.
The boiling furnace next comes into
play. The fragments OF pig iron, foot
and half long, are thrown into this fur
mace until they amount to 500 pounds
This is called "heat" and although the
first piece or two that are tossed in, are
entirely melted in fifteen minutes, it takes
from an hour to an hour and quarter
to complete the "hcat' which has to be
carefully stirred and kept in motion. The
pig-iron, if allowed to, will burn out a
furnacein a very short time. and to pre-
vent this, a superior ore which comes
from New York is pulvcrized, mixed with
water and daubed around on the interior
of the work and chills, and forms crust
that preserves the walls. The cheat is
taken out in balls weighing about 1875
pounds, which are put on little trucks
known as "buggies" and taken to the
"squeezer.' Before describing the latter
we should say that $500 weight of pig
iron, will make from 2,400 to $500 pounds
Of muck iron, which will produce about
nineteen kegs of nails.
The "squeezer is a cylinder with
a corrugated face, something like a
cog-whcel, which revolyes horizontally
within six inches of a concaye plate, with
similar ridges upon it. There is an open
ing on one side of the plate and when the
shapeless mass Of red hot iron is brought
from the furnace it is showed in between
the two. Thescog-like ridges grasp the
lump and force it around the squeezer
until it drops out at the opposite end
from which it entered, and is then bar
or bloom" sixteen inches long and six
in diameter, 1t then goes to the IS muck
roller" passing between two rollers like
clothes through wringing machine, and
is formed into bars four or five inches
wide and three fourth Of an inch thick
A powerful cutting machine, called the
tI YI,i,c}Y chaar, - oil fbacn into
of different lengths. The block is made
into piles and placed in the heating fur
mace, where they are welded together
A "pilc " is a number Of blocks varying
as to size-for instance, for ten-penny
nails the "pile wonld be fourteen inches
and three inches thick.
The "pile is then run through the
nail plate, just as thick as the nail which
is to be cut. These plates are cut into
narrow strips and go into the factory
From the forging department. we now &C
are busily at work and the machines
sound like vast number Of telegraph
instruments in full blast The nail ma
chine, but Of course isheavier and has
more complicated work upon it.
The feeder oman or boy who feeds the
machine) sits on a high stool and has in
Lis hands his feeding rod,' which is in
reality pair of powerful spring nippers
with handle like a broom. One end Of
the rod is held by forkcd crest" behinc
the feeder, and the other end holds the
strip of iron to be made into nails. 1.-THE
rest is slanted to the right hand side il
gives the nail sharp point, and when i
is turned to the left the nail is made
blunt. The man turns the rod every time
piece of iron is clipped of, so as to make
each nail have the same slant and tn,
same kind of point. Two knives, made
Of very hard steel cut the iron. The low
er one is called the bed-knife and is i'm
movable, but the upper one moves up ane
down every time a nail is cut.
Behind the movable knife is a gaug.
which is regulated by screw, and il
moved at will. When slip of iron i
pushed between the knives the gaug
will only allow it to enter far enough t
make the clipping for the nail and n,
more. The piece that is clipped is bel,
against the bed knife by spring at