The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1893-02-11
A Talk About Nails.

You see, dear children, we are still talk
ing about some OF the little things that
are so useful in our everyday lives. Pro-
baby we do not use as many nails our
selves as we do pins and matches, but
just think how we are surrounded by
them on all sides, only they are one OF
the useful little things that must always
be out of sight. After a house is built
the painter goes around and covers all
the little holes where the nail heads show
before he begins to paint If we put
down n Garnet we must drive the tacks
in where they show least. Nevertheless
we could not get along very well without
tacks and nails. one night a few weeks
ago our barn burned down. and as soon
as the ashes were cool enough Tor me 10
walk around In, / was perfectly aston
jshed at the number OF. nails lying around,
hundreds Of them. Every vestige OF the
place was wiped away by the terrible
flames, but the little nails lay scattered
thick upon the ground seemingly as good
as ever. Years ago nails. like pins, were
all made by hand. In England, partlcu-
larly in the neighborhood of Birmingham,
IL was no unusual thing 10 see little
smithies scattefed thickly over the coun-
try. for some 5000 men. women and
children earned their living at making
nails, the fathers and brothers hammer
ing out the red hot iron into nails and the
children blowing the great bellows to
heat the forge. Nowadays our wonderful
American machinery has done away with
all that kind OF thing. though there are
slill some nail makers scattered through
ENGLAND There are nails which cannot
be made as well by machinery as by
hand.
In fact. all handmade nails are really
better than those made by machinery,
especially horseshoe nails. The machine
nails are cut from sheet of cold metal.
while those made by hand have more
firmness and elasticity, for although the
sheets Of metal have been welded and
compressed by great strain power. yet
nothing seems to produce as good an
effect upon the iron as the rapid. heavy
blows upon the red hot metal. But the
chine nails are cheaper and do very
WELL" so the old smithies and FORCES are
growing fewer every day. / have not told
you yet how nails are made, and II Is
so very simple an affair that / think the
smallest of you can understand 1t. Have
you ever visited a kitchen and seen cook
les or biscuit cut out with cutter, the
sharp edges cutting Clearly through the
dough in just the right shape. Well. the
big nail cutter comes down on the sheet
OF metal and cuts IT into little strips Just
the size of a nail, then they drop straight
into grips with the end sticking out
little Now. a big heading die comes
down and forms II into a head, IL is then
showed along 10 make room for another,
feeding itself at the rate of about 1000
sparables (small nails used by shoema-
kers) per minute. or the larger and better
headed nails at the rate of about seventy
to one hundred per minute. Do you Won
der children. that nails are comparatively
cheap nowadays? / must not take up any
more time to-day. but next week we will
talk about something that found Its way
into Europe as long ago as the sixteenth
century. Unlike some OF our friends, II
is with us as often In fair as rainy
weather and costs anywhere from TWEEN
ty-five cents to twenty-five dollars, and
Is OF every variety under the sun. Can
you guess children, what our next talk
will be about?