NAILS, MANUFACTURE OF

( Clou , Fr.; Nagel , Germ.) The forging of nails was till of late years a handicraft operation, and therefore belonged to a book of trades, rather than to a dictionary of arts. But several combinations of machinery have been recently employed, under the protection of patents, for making these useful implements, with little or no aid of the human hand; and these deserve to be noticed, on account both of their ingenuity and importance. As nails are objects of prodigious consumption in building their block-houses, the citizens of the United States very early turned their mechanical genius to good account in the construction of various machines for making them. So long since as the year 1810, it appears, from the report of the secretary of their treasury, that they po e ed a machine which performed the cutting and heading at one operation, with such rapidity that it could turn out upwards of 100 nails per minute. “Twenty years ago,” says the secretary of the state of Ma achusetts, in that report, “some men, then unknown, and then in obscurity, began by cutting slices out of old hoops, and, by a common vice griping these pieces, headed them with several strokes of the hammer. By progre ive improvements, slitting-mills were built, and the shears and the heading tools were perfected; yet much labour and expense were requisite to make nails. In a little time Jacob Perkins, Jonathan Ellis, and a few others, put into execution the thought of cutting and of heading nails by water power; but, being more intent upon their machinery than upon their pecuniary affairs, they were unable to prosecute the busine . At different times other men have spent fortunes in improvements, and it may be said with truth that more than one million of dollars has been expended; but at length these joint efforts are crowned with complete succe , and we are now able to manufacture, at about one-third of the expense that wrought nails can be manufactured for, nails which are superior to them for at least three-fourths of the purposes to which nails are applied, and for most of those purposes they are full as good. The machines made use of by Odiorne, those invented by Jonathan Ellis, and a few others, present very fine specimens of American genius. “To northern carpenters, it is well known that in almost all instances it is unnece ary to bore a hole before driving a cut nail; all that is requisite is, to place the cutting edge of the nail acro the grain of the wood; it is also true, that cut nails will hold better in the wood. These qualities are, in some rough building works, worth twenty per cent. of the value of the article, which is equal to the whole expense of manufacturing. For sheathing and drawing, cut nails are full as good as wrought nails; only in one respect are the best wrought nails a little superior to cut nails, and that is where it is nece ary they should be clenched. The manufacture of cut nails was born in our country, and has advanced, within its bosom, through all the various stages of infancy to manhood; and no doubt we shall soon be able, by receiving proper encouragement, to render them superior to wrought nails in every particular. “The principal busine of rolling and slitting-mills, is rolling nail plates; they also serve to make nail rods, hoops, tires, sheet iron, and sheet copper. In this State we have not le than twelve. “These mills could roll and slit 7000 tons of iron a year; they now, it is presumed, roll and slit each year about 3500 tons, 2400 tons of which, probably, are cut up into nails and brads, of such a quality that they are good substitutes for hammered nails, and, in fact, have the preference with most people, for the following reasons; viz., on account of the sharp corner and true taper with which cut nails are formed; they may be driven into harder wood without bending or breaking, or hazard of splitting the wood, by which the labour of boring is saved, the nail one way being of the same breadth or thickne from head to point.” Since the year 1820, the following patents have been obtained in England for making nails; many of them of American origin :— Alexander Law , September, 1821, for nails and bolts for ships’ fastenings, made in a twisted form, by hand labour. Glascott and Mitchell , December, 1823, for ship nails with rounded heads, by hand labour. Wilks and Ecroyd , November, 1825, for an engine for cutting wedge-form pieces from plates. Ledsom and Jones , December 11, 1827, for machinery for cutting brads and sprigs from plates; it does not form heads. The first nail apparatus to which I shall particularly advert, is due to Dr. Church; it was patented in his absence by his correspondent, Mr. Thomas Tyndall, of Birmingham, in December, 1827. It consists of two parts; the first is a mode of forming nails, and the shafts of screws, by pinching or pre ing ignited rods of iron between indented rollers; the second produces the threads on the shafts of the screws previously pre ed. The metallic rods, by being pa ed between a pair of rollers, are rudely shaped, and then cut asunder between a pair of shears; after which they are pointed and headed, or otherwise brought to their finished forms, by the agency of dies placed in a revolving cylinder. The several parts of the mechanism are worked by toothed wheels, cams, and levers. The second part of Dr. Church’s invention consists of a mechanism for cutting the threads of screws to any degree of obliquity or form. [35] [35] For further details, see Newton’s Journal, 2nd series, vol. iii. p. 184. Mr. L. W. Wright’s (American) apparatus should have been mentioned before the preceding, as the patent for it was sealed in March of the same year; though an amended patent was obtained in September, 1828. Its object was to form metal screws for wood. I have seen the machinery, but consider it much too complex to be described in the present work. Mr. Edward Hancorne, of Skinner street, London, nail manufacturer, obtained a patent in October, 1828 for a nail-making machine, of which a brief description may give my readers a conception of this kind of manufacture. Its principles are similar to those of Dr. Church’s more elaborate apparatus. IMG:4147767755307473660_illo0876.png:Nail making machine The rods or bars having been prepared in the usual way, either by rolling or hammering, or by cutting from sheets or plates of iron, called slitting, are then to be made redhot, and in that state pa ed through the following machine, whereby they are at once cut into suitable lengths, pre ed into wedge forms for pointing at the one end, and stamped at the other end to produce the head. A longitudinal view of the machine is shown in fig. 749. A strong iron frame-work, of which one side is shown at a a , supports the whole of the mechanism. b is a table capable of sliding to and fro horizontally. Upon this table are the clamps, which lay hold of the sides of the rod as it advances; as also the shears which cut the rod into nail lengths. These clamps or holders consist of a fixed piece and a movable piece; the latter being brought into action by a lever. The rod or bar of iron shown at c , having been made redhot, is introduced into the machine by sliding it forward upon the table b , when the table is in its most advanced position; rotatory motion is then given to the crank shaft d , by means of a band pa ing round the rigger pulley e , which causes the table b to be drawn back by the crank rod f : and as the table recedes, the horizontal lever is acted upon, which closes the clamps. By these means the clamps take fast hold of the sides of the heated rod, and draw it forward, when the movable chap of the shears, also acted upon by a lever, slides laterally, and cuts off the end of the rod held by the clamps: the piece thus separated is destined to form one nail. Suppose that the nail placed at g , having been thus brought into the machine and cut off, is held between clamps, which pre it sideways (these clamps are not visible in this view); in this state it is ready to be headed and pointed. The header is a steel die h , which is to be pre ed up against the end of the nail by a cam i , upon the crank-shaft; which cam, at this period of the operation, acts against the end of a rod k , forming a continuation of the die h , and forces up the die, thus compre ing the metal into the shape of a nail-head. The pointing is performed by two rolling snail pieces or spirals l , l . These pieces are somewhat broader than the breadth of the nail; they turn upon axles in the side frames. As the table b advances, the racks m , on the edge of this table, take into the toothed segments n , n , upon the axles of the spirals, and cause them to turn round. These spirals pinch the nail at first close under its head with very little force; but as they turn round, the longer radius of the spiral comes into operation upon the nail, so as to pre its substance very strongly, and squeeze it into a wedge form. Thus the nail is completed, and is immediately discharged from the clamps or holders. The carriage is then again by the rotation of the crank-shaft, which brings another portion of the rod c forward, cuts it off, and then forms it into a nail. Richard Pro er , July, 1831, for making tacks for ornamental furniture, by soldering or wedging the spike into the head. This also is the invention of Dr. Church. Dr. William Church , February, 1832, for improvements in machinery for making nails. These consist, first, in apparatus for forming rods, bars, or plates of iron, or other metals; secondly, in apparatus for converting the rods, ., into nails; thirdly, in improvements upon Pro er’s patent. The machinery consists in laminating rollers, and compre ing dies. The method of forming the rods from which the nails are to be made, is very advantageous. It consists in pa ing the bar or plate iron through pre ing rollers, which have indentations upon the peripheries of one or both of them, so as to form the bar or plate into the required shape for the rods, which may be afterwards separated into rods of any desired breadth, by common slitting rollers. The principal object of rolling the rods into these wedge forms, is to measure out a quantity of metal duly proportioned to the required thickne or strength of the nail in its several parts; which quantity corresponds to the indentations of the rollers. Thomas John Fuller , February 27, 1834, for an improved apparatus for making square-pointed, and also flat-pointed nails. He claims as his invention, the application of vertical and horizontal hammers (mounted in his machine) combined for the purpose of tapering and forming the points of the nails; which, being made to act alternately, resemble hand work, and are therefore not so apt to injure the fibrous texture of the iron, he imagines, as the rolling machinery is. He finishes the points by rollers. Miles Berry , February 19, 1834, for machinery for forming metal into bolts, rivets, nails and other articles; being a communication from a foreigner residing abroad. He employs in his machine holding chaps, heading dies, toggle joints, cams, ., mechanisms apparently skilfully contrived, but too complex for admi ion under the article nail in this volume. William South wood Stocker , July, 1836. This is a machine apparently of American parentage, as it has the same set of features as the old American mechanisms of Perkins and Dyer, at the Britannia Nail works, Birmingham, and all the other American machines since described, for pre ing metal into the forms of nails, pins, screw-shafts, rivets, .; for example, it po e es pre ers or hammers for squeezing the rods of metal, and forming the shanks, which are all worked by a rotatory action; cutters for separating the appropriate lengths, and dies for forming the heads by compre ion, also actuated by revolving cams or cranks. Mr. Stocker intends, in fact, to effect the same sorts of operations by automatic mechanisms as are usually performed by the hands of a nail-maker with his hammer and anvil; viz., the shaping of a nail from a heated rod of iron, cutting it off at the proper length, and then compre ing the end of the metal into the form of the head. His machine may be said to consist of two parts, connected in the same frame; the one for shaping the shank of the nail, the other for cutting it off and heading it. The frame consists of a strong table to bear the machinery. Two pairs of hammers, formed as levers, the one pair made to approach each other by horizontal movements, the other pair by vertical movements, are the implements by which a portion at the end of a redhot rod of iron is beaten or pre ed into the wedge-like shape of the shaft of a nail. This having been done, and the rod being still hot, is withdrawn from the beaters, and placed in the other part of the machine, consisting of a pair of jaws like those of a vice, which pinch the shank of the nail and hold it fast. A cutter upon the side of a wheel now comes round, and, by acting as the moving chap of a pair of shears, cuts the nail off from the rod. The nail shank being still firmly held in the jaws of the vice, with a portion of its end projecting outwardly, the heading die is slidden laterally until it comes opposite to the end of the nail; the dye is then projected forward with great force, for the purpose of what is termed upsetting the metal at the projecting end of the nail, and thereby blocking out the head. A main shaft, driven by a band and rigger as usual, brings, as it revolves, a cam into operation upon a lever which carries a double inclined plane or wedge in its front or acting part. This wedge being by the rotatory cam projected forwards between the tails of one of the pairs of hammers, causes the faces of these hammers to approach each other, and to beat or pre the redhot iron introduced between them, so as to flatten it upon two opposite sides. The rotatory cam pa ing round, the wedge lever is relieved, when springs instantly throw back the hammers; another cam and wedge-lever now brings the second pair of hammers to act upon the other two sides of the nail in a similar way. This is repeated several times, until the end of the redhot iron rod, gradually advanced by the hands of the workman, has a umed the desired form, that is, has received the bevel and point of the intended nail. The rod is then withdrawn from between the hammers, and in its heated state is introduced between the jaws of the holders, for cutting off and finishing the nail. A bevel pinion upon the end of the main shaft, takes into and drives a wheel upon a transverse shaft, which carries a cam that works the lever of the holding jaws. The end of the rod being so held in the jaws or vice, a cutter at the side of a wheel upon the transverse shaft separates, as it revolves, the nail from the end of the rod, leaving the nail firmly held by the jaws. By means of a cam, the heading die is now slidden laterally opposite to the end of the nail in the holding jaws, and by another cam, upon the main shaft, the die is forced forward, which compre es the end of the nail, and spreads out the nail into the form of a head. As the main shaft continues to revolve, the cams pa away, and allow the spring to throw the jaws of the vice open, when the nails fall out; but to guard against the chance of a nail sticking in the jaws, a picker is provided, which pushes the nail out as soon as it is finished. In order to produce round shafts, as for screw blanks, bolts, or rivets, the faces of the hammers, and the dies for heading, must be made with suitable concavities. In 1835, 5,180, and in 1836, 5,580 tons of iron nails were exported from the United Kingdom.