The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1891-02-17
a WIRE NAIL PLANT.
.. 3. Hastings in Salem To
Begin Work.
THE ROANOKE TINES BUREAU,
81. HOTEI, LUCERNE. SALEM, VA


J. B. Hastings, of Parkcrsburg, w
Va, is in Salem and through the in
strumentality of Prof. j. r. Crabtree he
has decided to locate at Salem wire
nail mandatory. Tho plant will be
located on the land of the South Salem
Land Company, of which Prof. Crabtree
is president. A company has been or
ganized in Salem with capital of $780,
600, and work on the building will be-
gin at once. Mr.. Hastings said to a
TIMES reporter: eve expect to be turn
and specifications have already been
given out"
MIR. Hastings showed the reporter the
architectural designs for the building.
1t will be of brick, the main room TWEEN
ty-four feet high, thanked by shed
room, with roofs sloping from tie main
roof, and the height of tho outside
walls of these rooms being ten feet.
The building will be sOx20O feet.
eve will employ hundred hands. :"
said Mr.. Hastings, land all of them
will be skilled laborers.
''We will put in fifty machines in
time, and will manufacture everything
in our line from n six-inch spike to
Jack, DcS1OcS TlVtVS.
Here Mr.. Hastings exhibited great
quantity of the wire nails he manufac-
turcd on his machines. There were long
six inch spikes, smaller nails of all
kinds, finishing nails and small tacks.
Among the numerous kinds was nail
for fastening the hoops upon barrels.
"Do you see these little pieces" said
Mr.. Hastings, picking up small tri-
angular scrap cut from the ends of
nail. "Well, these pieces usually are
thrown away but have an invention by
which they are rolled out into GLACIERS
points for fastening the panes of glass
in the window frames. These GLACIERS
points sell for cents a pound, so you
can see we save great deal by utilizing
them.
eve will use in our mandatory the
triple wire nail machines of the Cole &c
Hastings make" This machine is an
invention of Mr.. Hastings, and has been
perfected by him from time to time un-
til now it is apparently perfect To the
reporter it does not seem that it can be
improved upon.
BY this invention three nails are
turned out in one revolution, whereas
the ordinary nail machines only turn
out one nail in two revolutions. The
capacity of one of these machines is a
ton of nails per diem. The manufac-
tory for the machines has recently been
completed at Parkersburg, and the first
machines turned out will be sent to the
Wire Nail Works at Salem. However,
Mr.. Hastings has already received an
order from Scotland for them.
Salem always gets the cream, and will
be the first city in the United States to
turn out wire nails by new process,
which is necessarily bound to revolu-
tionize the manufacture of these nails.
Mr. Hastings is thoroughly convinced
of the future of Southwest Virginia, as
is evidenced by the fact that he has
chosen this section in preference to
Pennsylvania, from which State he has
received tempting offers to locate.
"Why, we can make iron down here
four dollars ton cheaper than in Penn
sylvania. AT Pittsburg there is not
sign of any mineral At Wheeling they
get their ore from the lakes and their
limestone from Ohio. Here you have
the iron at your very doors, with every
thing at hand necessary for manipulate
ing it."
Mr.. Hastings is confident that the
greatest work of his life is a chemical
process of turning molten iron into
steel in few minutes. BY the present
process it takes very much longer.