The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1906-01-24
] Gun AND WIRE ills
METHODS By WHICH THEY ARE
TURNED OUT lNyAsT ouASIiTl Es.
The wire Nail Process Is simple Ahd
Almost wholly Automatic, Whiie
the cut Nail Process Is Less Auto
matte ana Much Harder.

the Cut Nail Process Is Less Auto
matfe ana Much Harder.
The making Of nails Is one Of TIE
Oldest American, as It Is one of the,
Oldest English, industries, hut In Great
Britain the greater part Of the prodpeti
has been hand work, In America ma
chine work. 6
OF modern nails, the wire or French
nails and the common cut nails are
4 made In quantities which far exceed
all other kinds. The wire nails have.
increased enormously in general use
during recent years, but there are stll
many purposes for which cut nails are
preferred.
The process of making wire rails g
exceedingly simple and almost wholly
automatic. A large reel or spool Of
wire Of a size equal to that Of the
shank Of the nail TO be made feeds
forward at each revolution Of the ma-
chine a piece Of wire equal to the
length Of the nail and a fraction Of an
1 .a
inch more.
This is seized firmly by clamps,
which stralghten while they bold 1t,
and at the same time pair Of jaws
SO cut the wire as to leave sharp
point to the nail.
Before the clamps let go their bold
a hammer, the face of which Is a die.
strikes the other end Of the wire
sharp blow, which forms the head.
The clamps have corrugated sur
faces. not merely to hold the nail more
securely, but to impress upon It a
series Of ridges and depressions, which
make it harder to draw out when
once driven home. !.
The making of cut nails Is less auto
matte and much harder. ANY one who
has seen a nallmaker at work VIII un-
derstand the aptness Of the old expires
sion. to 'swork like a mailer" The ironE
for cut nails is first rolled into sheets,
the thickness OF which is equal to thel
thickness Of the nail. 1t. Is then CUT
into plates as wide as the nall Is long
and Of such length as man can han
die conveniently, say from fifteen TO
twenty inches.
The nail cutting machine Is a heavy.
compact piece of mechanism, not much
larger than sewing machine, before
which the nailmaker sits on a stool
| II consists OF but little more than
pair of shears, strong enough TO cut
iron three-elghths Of an inch thick, and
q heading hammer.
Any ono who will examine d cut nan
will find that the shank tapers, not on
all four sides from the head, as lie may
have supposed, but on two sldes, only.
The other two sides are parallel. It's
the neglect to notice this fact which
leads so many persons to start q nall
into wood in q way which splits It +
From small furnace near the ma
chine the nallmaker draws a plate
] which has come to a dull red heat.
| Holding this by means Of plnchers he
feeds the edge farthest from hlmto the
Jaws Of the machine. AS they descend
thew shear a taperlng strip from the
edge. This is seized by clamps, which;
hold It Just long enough for the head-
ing hammer to strike the blow which
forms the head and then drop It,
Now, II the mailer were simply
to push the plate forward again the
taperlng character Of the strip which
is sliced on would destroy the rectan-
gular shape Of the plate, and the nails
would neither bo OF n length nor have
square heads and points. To obyiates
this difficulty the plato must be turned
over between every two nails that are
cut so that the head Of the nail viii
come alternately from one side OF the
plate md from the other,
This-and It Is the principal part OF
the naier's works. done with a slime
nile turn of the wrist, and the plate =
fed forward as before. As the ma
chimes run at considerable speed, and
the "aop" must be accurately timed
in order that the end Of the plate may
meet the shears at the right moment
and in the right place, the diGcrlty
and the tlresome nature Of d nall
makers work may be imagined. Some
idea Of 1t may be had by holding the
thick end Of shingIe IN a pair OF
tongs and attempting SO to turn II I
with a single motion Of the wrist that
Alternate sides will lie uppermost on q 7
table. &,
A good nailmaker will make from
two to four Gops-that is, will cut from
two to four nalls-a second, the smaller
nails, OF course, being made more
rapidly than the larger ones. As the
plate grows cool 1t is returned to the
oven to be relocated, and another plate
takes It's place,
A nnllmaker's hands and arms al
ways show the character Of bis work
By the tremendous development Office
tain special muscles and by callouse
which become as hard as horn.
The common names Of nails slxpen-
ny, cightpenny, tenpenuy, and 90 forth
Gare believed to be corrupdons ot sl1 I
hound, eight pound and ten pound
names given in England to denote the I
weight Of one thousand Of a given kind [
OF nails. sixpenny and eIghtpsnny /
was an easy step from "sixpun' " and.
nelghtpun'."-E Edward Wllliston 1Eentz