The age-herald., 1898-11-02
 PROGRESS OF WIRE
 NAIL INDUSTRY United States Threatens to OutStrip
 Great Britain. THE COMPARATIVE FIGURES Birmingham Will Take a POFaaOSt Posi- 
Birmingham Will Take a Foremost Posi-
 tiOn in tho Trade.
BUILDING OF A WIRE NAIL MILL
Will Come With the Completion of the Ensley Steel Plant Contracts Signed and Only Minor Details to
 Be Arranged.

There is no longer any uouDt put that there will be Dig steel rod and wire nail mill at Ensley City to consume the product of the steel mill now being erected at that place by the Alabama Steel and Shipbuild- ing company. Prominent ofncials of this mill have stated that the wire nail mill Is a certainty, all of the contracts having been signed, and all that is to be done before work commences on the erection of the plant is the arrangement of a few minor details.
 The steel rod and wire nail industry is now one of the most important steel indus tries in the United States, and with the cheap steel and big capacity which the Ems ley mill will have, it will be big surprise if Birmingham does not in the near future rank as the most important center in the world for the manufacture of these and similar products.
 In this connection number of facts and figures which have been recently compiled by the government bureau of statistics, in Washington, will be of great interest. A copy of these statistics has just been re- ceived in Birmingham.
 United States Threatens England
 This compilation is the result of recent publication in the British Iron and Coal Trades Review, which says that 'it is clear that, the United States threatens Europe with a serious competition in the nail trade despite the fact that it is highly finished product and involves the employment of a large amount of skilled labor
 This compilation shows that the exporta- tion of wire nails from the United States has grown from 1,547 ,O78 pounds In the fiscal year 1888 to 22,SS4,099 pounds in the fiscal year of 1898. The growth, which has been phenomenal ever since the beginning, has been especially so in the last two or three years. In 1895 the exportations were A. s67 ,267 pounds; in 1896, 8O31 .927 pounds, thus practically doubling in one year; and in 1898. 22.S94, ,O99 pounds, showing a similar gain in the last two years, the exports of 1898 being more than five times those of 1885
 The universal demand for this product of American workmen is shown by the fact that our wire nails go to every grand di- vision of the globe, and to practically every country. Germany, France, Bel gfum, Netherlands, the United Kingdom Canada, Central America, the West h. dies, all the South American states China, Japan. Asiatic Russia, British Australasia, French Oceanica, British and Portu- guese Africa; in fact, it is difficult to find a spot among the civilized and semi-cvil- ized people of the globe where this recent product of American invention and Amer ican labor does not now find a place. To the Danish West Indies the exports last year were 4,SSO pounds; to Peru, 25,9S5 pounds; to Argentina 26s, ,942 pounds; to China, 9,632 pounds; to British Africa, 49,- ona 459 pounds; to Japan, 4.372292 pounds, the exports to Japan being larger than to any other country, and forming in the fiscal year 1897 nearly one-half of the total ex- ports of this article.
 Growth of the Industry
 The growth of the nail-making industry in the United States has been remarkable and within the past few years the growth in the exports of this production has been equally noteworthy. Alexander Hamilton in his report as secretary of the treasury in 1791, called attention to the fact that the United States already in a great measure supply themselves with nails and spikes The nails and spikes referred to by him were all made by hand, many of them in chimney corners. It was not until near the end of the first quarter of the present cen- tury that any considerable quantity of nails was made with the nail-cutting machines, and not until 1883 that Bessemer steel was used for cut nails. Wire nails began to make their appearance in 1882, and by 1883 were being substituted for cut nails, and in few years not only gained in popular ity, but by reason of a very great reduction in price took the place largely of the iron and steel cut nails of which the production had been so great prior to the development of the wire nail industry.
 The following table. giving the production of cut and wire nails in the United States from 1892 to 1897, shows the gain in popular favor which wire nails are making:
 Cut Nails. Wire Nails
 (Pounds.) (Pounds.) 1892 ................ 450.781 300 All, ,952 4D0 1893 .................. 804 S93, 300 509, ,594 800 1894 ................. 242506.000 56S, ,1SO, 100 1895 .................. 2129s9. 400 5S4,140. 300 1896 ................. 161 5S7 900 Al, ,9S6 ,0o9 1S47 .. 210 f7a 900 S99 724. BOO