The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1886-01-25
WE Mo ~sIruATIoN.
A New phaS In the matter = The stSsl
Nall,


Nall.
Sore and HdriicEt REPORTER,
There are several facts regarding the
nail situation that have not yet been made
public, but which are both interesting aud
worthy Of attention. Agreat many OF the
nail mills in the Western district in which
iron nails were formerly manufactured
have been altered for the production OF
steel nails; but OF all the Western nail
mills there are only two-the Riverside
and Ballairc-that are equipped with CON
yerter machinery for the manufacture OF
steel nail plates whose capacity OF produc-
ton IA in excess Of their capacity OF Cou-
sumption into nails. Nail plates are also
made by the Edgar Thompson and the
Cambria works, in Pennsylvania, and the
Vulcan in st. Louis. Chess, Cook 4
Co., and Aug 4 Co., at Pittsburgh,
and the Calumet, near Chicago, land
possibly one or two others), have BesSe'
ner plants and manufacture nail plates,
but only for consumption in tho mills to
which they are attached. OF these mills
the Riverside, the BsllaiTB and Cambria
are in operation, but the Edgar Thompson
ia shut down, and there is strong probRbil-
ity that the Vulcan will also be closed
down ut All early day owing TO pending
labor troubles, This will leave as the
only sources Of supply in the West for
steel nail plates the Cambria, the River
side mud the BellAire. II is reported OF
| General POWell's mill, at Relleville, ILL.,,
that it will be very soon In condition to
manufacture steel nail plates, the product
probably being about l25 tons per day,
Of which it is thought some eighty tons
per day will 10 CONVERTED into nails in
that mill.
In view OF this state OF affairs 1t is peril.
nent to nsk, where ig the supply OF steel
nail plates to come from? II the Vulcan
IL closed the dependence will be upon thu
Cambria and tho cycess Of product over
consumption Of the Riverside, the Hellaire
and the Western Powells) mills. Adding
the amuIGt Of steel that will not be con
Verted into nails in these nail mills and
the entire product Of tho Cambria, which
is for sale. the result will be tho apparent
amount Of steel plO!es available to the
mills, amounting TO only some 600 tons
daily, equal to 10000 kegs OF nails,
while the mills that manufacture
their own plates will produce not
exceeding 5000 kegs, an aggregate OF
about $1,000 kegs Of nails per day, There
RrO u great many steel factories in the
West that are interested in this matter,
for there cannot ba enough plates made
To keep them all busy, and tina question
arises, "Who Ia 10 secure this materisl?"
uN,nyn ts not n mil will tbpk u,o,,lJ not Iiirn
10 answer this question favorably to itself,
for ii really looks as though within a very
low weeks there will be such g dearth Of
steel nail platea as TO compel the buspGn.
sion Of work in u great many Of these
mills.
Aud the situation 10 very similar as re-
CARDS the manufacture OF iron nails. OW.
ing to tho increasing popularity OF steel
nails, and the probability that II was a mat.
Ter ofshort time before they would entirely
supplant iron nails, manufacturers OF the
latter have been "going alow," their EVIL.
dent desire being to work up all the raw
material they had on hand while there
YVES possible sale for their product. They
have not been ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Of old
rails, or scrap, or oil pig iron, Tor CONVEX.
hlUu luLU PLATES uIlu Ahllbl Huu ltCtOTleb
arc now comparatively bare OF such ma.
teriRl. But tho price Of old rails has gone
up, and 80 has that OF scrap and pig-seV.
eral dollars q ton-and iron nail mllig,
even II they dosired TO do 30, arc not pre-.
pared 10 continue the output much longer.
When the'market price Of steel rails was
waB ten dollars or moro lower than It is to-
Bessemer mills were inclined to di.
vertiiy their product by making steel nail
plates, but now that steel nails are at q
premium, and moro money is to be made
by making them than nail plates, the
manufacture OF the latter is, or will be,
abandoned, and thus that source Of nail
material supply messurably restricted.
The Consumptive capacity OF the COIN
try 10 very large and 10 rapidly increasing.
The Gxlating labor troubles In nail mill
circles has contracted the usual output OF
nails, and while there isnot much demand
for tho article at this immediate time,
those on the market are being gradually
absorbed, and 1t Is more than probable
that when the spring trade fairly begins
there will DO a hungering and thirsting
for nails that all visible fountains OF sup
ply In tho West will DO inadequate to
11npCb