The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-05-12
MILLIONS OF KEGS OR NAILS.
r.ST QUANTITIES PRODUCED IN
THIS COUNTRY YEARLY.

-Nbere Nails May still ne Precious.
.Wh,t becomes Of all the nailsf Well
aid the hardware man, that wouldnt
he 40 difficult a question to answer as you
night think, though we certainly do use
a lot OF nails; a lot OF nails.
81 haven't the figures for 1908 at hand,
80, ,here we're produced in this country
n 1905 Of cut nails 1857, $40 kegs. and OF
wire nails 10, 1854, s92 kegs, making q Total
nroduotIon for that year OF 17,2l2,44l kegs
- tho kegs each containing 100 pounds,
i2?I ?44, 100 pounds OF nails.
As to the number OF individual nAlls'
whv I don't believe we'd have time 10
count EN-, or not to-day; but getting pack
n rounds, i.22i PA, 100, and for the sake
~ easv figuring, counting the population
- The country at sO,OoO.o 900. we would find
dir home production Of nails for the year
ION, n have been at the rate Of about fifteen
nounds for every man. woman and child
n the country. You will bear in mind that
&c keep on turning out nails like that year
after year, and that the consumption Keeps
pace with the production.
Now suppose we should get down
from those million and billion figures q
little into figures a little more
IN such a basis you would find that our
nail production in 1905 amounted TO 0io'cz7
toms We export some nails. our present
e1portation amounting 10 about tO'OOo
tons a year. II our production now were
the same AZ in 1905, that would leave about
bm 600 tons as our annual home consump'
ton; but while l haven't the figures for
1ae nv me | don't doubt that our produc-
ton and consumption nave both kept paoe
with our increasing population, and figur-
ing on that basis and emitting fractions,
I should say that our present production
~ nails is at the rate Of about 640, 900 tons
annually, and so. deducting the 10000 toni
e1ported, our annual consumption would
rov be about COZ, 900 tons, which figures,
Imagine, would be found TO be substantially
correct.
taking 600 900 tons as the country's
present consumption, let us come down
A little closer still and do a little figuring
m the consum ption OF nails right nero
in our own home town. To get things
into round numbers let us put New York's
popuIation at say 1000, 900, which would
he one-twentieth Of the oountry's 80 900 900,
and putting it so and assuming that we
C0nH10p Oit-l utlVl Vi ~ SONhth -
nail consumption, we find that We use right
here In this city alone $4,000 tons OF nails
annually, or 600 900 kegs.
Nails are commonly shipped 300 kegs
to the car. Some cars hold more, but 300
kegs ia the usual carload. So OF such car
loads Ss take, here In New York, 1900 car
loads a year, or an average Of more h
Ave cars Of nails coming along daily and
day after day through the year. And
coming back to round numbers again,
for the correspondingly easy figuring, and
80 counting 300 working days IN the year
we find that we eat up here on our working
DAYS somewhere about 1000 kegs, or 100
tons Of nails a day; and, yes, even figured
in that Close manner, down to daily con-
sumption, it makes quite some nails, quito
some nails.
ALI You haven't bought a pound OF nails
yourself, you say, in twenty years? |
know, but i you were going to build a IS 900
house you d buy three or four kegs Of nails
or more right in a lump toput into that house;
and il you were building twenty such
and as many more still il you were putting
up buildings at half a million or a million
dollars apiece.
There are great builders who would
think nothing OF ordering q couple OF thou
sand kegs OF nails just for current use,
anu OTQeTb lot SO,DuU Ut OU wv hckb " hulIb
from great dealers or distributors would
be nothing remarkable. And, though you
may never buy a pound Of nails yourself,
yet you get our share Of the nails made
In some way just the same; they are in the
house you live in or In your furniture OF
other belongings. put there by the people
who made them. You get your fifteen
pounds a year all right, or more, for we
can hardly use or own anything without
having the use Of or owning some nails.
'Por while building construction lie what
We might naturally think OF first, any way,
when we thought OF the uses Of nails. yet
the moment We come to dwell upon il we
realize that nails are put 10 well nigh in
Vulnerable uses. Nails are made In almost
endless variety. and there are few things
OF more common use. We can scarcely look
In any direction anywhere in any civilized
country, indoors or out. without the eyes
resting on something In whose construction
nails are used; and when we come 10 realize
thai fact the nail figures may seem a little
less stupendous.
Still, we might think, here the nails
keep coming by the million OF kegs yearly
and every year; and don't enormous guam
titles Of them 20 into more or less per-
inanent construction where they don't
have to be replaced every yearf They
do, they do; but with the growth Of the
an enormous amount OF new construction
calling for more nails; and enormous guam
Titles OF nails are annually required for
temporary constructions Of various kinds
and for the millions and millions OF boxes
and barrels. for instance, used for ship
ring purposes, and they sooner or later are
destroyed OF course the minute you come
10 think OF 1t you realize that many thou
sands OF tons OF nails nave but this one brief
Use, TO be then bent or broken, scattered
and lost. In some places whore many nails
are used the bent and broken nails may
he swept up for iron scrap, but the bulk Of
such nails simply goes 10 waste.
Enormous quantities OF nails are
required in the replacing OF innumerabls
other things Of a more or less destructive
character, from which, whom they are
WON out or broken, the nails are never
recovered.
why, it would require q lot OF nails
are dropped and never used at all. Nails
are cheap row and time IL valuable. In
old times. when nails cost three or four
times what they do now. people were care
nj a. their nails and they used TO save
their bent nails and s~traighten them out
and lay them away for future use.
nail in ire dirt would be likely TO lei il lie
there rn,her than look for II, and take
another out Of his pocket to drive. The oar
renter who dropped half q dozen or a dozen
nails from a scaholding wouldn't 20 down
the ladder to look for them. In various
similar ways many new nails are lost with
new nails are required TO replace them.
But there are parts OF the world In which
dropped nails are still picked up and where
q bent nail o be preserved and caro-
fully Strengthened. Such a place would
he one remote from civilization and c~iviliEa-
tons facilities for transportation, where
pEcEad -