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WIRE NAIL MAKING IN AMERICA 
 
 BY 
 
 FRANK SOLON LUNEY 
 
 \ 
 
 B. S. University of Illinois, 1907 
 
 THESIS 
 
 Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the 
 
 Degree of 
 
 MECHANICAL ENGINEER 
 
 IN 
 
 THE GRADUATE SCHOOL 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 
 1921 
 

 
\^z\ 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 
 THE GRADUATE SCHOOL 
 
 May 16 _19®1_ 
 
 I HEREBY RECOMMEND THAT THE THESIS PREPARED BY 
 
 Frank Solon Luney 
 
 entitled Wi re Nail Mak ing in Ame rica 
 
 BE ACCEPTED AS FULFILLING THIS PART OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE 
 
 PROFESSIONAL DEGREE OF 
 
 Mechanical Engineer 
 
 Head of Department of Me c ha nical Engine ering 
 
 4 if : 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2016 
 
 https://archive.org/details/wirenailmakinginOOIune 
 
TABLE OF COHTEHTS 
 
 I. EARLY HISTORY OF HAIL MAKING 
 
 (aKHand Making of Hails 1 
 
 ( b Y Material for Making Hails 5 
 
 (c) Hail Industry in England 5 
 
 (d) Hail Industry in Colonial America 7 
 
 (e) Economic Value of the nail Industry 
 
 to the Colonies 8 
 
 (f) Output of One nailer 9 
 
 (g) Type of hammers Used by j*ail wake rs 9 
 
 (h) Physical Energy Required to i-^ake wails .... lu 
 
 II. THE WIRE MIL 
 
 (a4 History of the Wire Hail 12 
 
 \\sY Early Methods of Making 13 
 
 (c) Its Introduction into America 14 
 
 (d) Its Reception by the Trade 15 
 
 (e) Ascendancy Over the Cut Hail 16 
 
 ( f } standard Sizes of Common Wire Hails 19 
 
 (gvKKind of Steel Used 20 
 
 III. EARLY HAIL MAKING MACHINES 
 
 (a) The Slitting Mill 22 
 
 (b) Plate Hail Machine 23 
 
 (c) French Wire Hail Machine 25 
 
 (d) German Wire Hail Machine . 26 
 
 ( e'Y Fundamental Features of All Wire Hail 
 
 Machines ..... 27 
 
 IV. AMERICA! WIRE HAIL MACHIHES 
 
 (a) Early American Inventions 29 
 
 (b) Trend of Inventions 30 
 
 (c)Later Types of Hail Machines 33 
 
 (d) Performance of Various Machines 34 
 
 (e) Operating Difficulties Encountered 36 
 
 (f) Material Best Adapted for Principal 
 
 Machine Parts 36 
 
 V. AMERICA! WIRE HAIL INDUSTRY 
 
 (a) First Wire Hail Factory 39 
 
 (b) Growth of the Hail Business 59 
 
 (c) Economic Value in Its Relation to 
 
 Wire Business 40 
 
 (d) The Hail Combine and Its Influence 42 
 
. 
 
 
 
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ii 
 
 - TABLE OF CONTENTS - CONT’D 
 
 VI. 
 
 VII. 
 
 THE MANUFACTURE OF COMMON WIRE ]*AILS 
 
 (a) The Operating Organization of anail Mill . . 
 
 (b) Trade Demands for Common nails 
 
 (c) Ordinary Range of nail machine Sizes . . . . 
 
 fd) Hind of Wire Used 
 
 ( ej Economic Arrangement of machines and Drives. 
 
 (f) Tonnage as a Basis of Wage Payment 
 
 (g) Advantage of Constant Speed . 
 
 (h) Power Requirement of ±»ail «iachines 
 
 (i') Trucking of Commodities 
 
 . 47 
 . 48 
 . 49 
 . 49 
 . 50 
 . 50 
 . 51 
 
 CLEANING AND POLISHING x^AILS 
 (a) Importance of Cleaning and Polishing nails . . 52 
 
 (b) Nail Tumblers 53 
 
 (c) Polishing Material 54 
 
 (d) Time Required to Clean 55 
 
 (e) Preventing Bent Nails in Cleaning 55 
 
 PACKING AND STORING NAILS 
 
 (a) Usual Nail Package 57 
 
 (b) Parallel Packing of Nails 58 
 
 (c) Packing Machinery 59 
 
 (d) Storage of Nail Kegs 59 
 
 (e) The Storage of Nails 60 
 
 IX/ NAIL LIES 
 
 (a) Kind of Steel Best Adapted 62 
 
 (b) Hardening and Tempering 63 
 
 (c) Economic Utilization of Tool Steel Die 
 
 Scrap 63 
 
 (d) Machinery Required 63 
 
 X. DESIGN AND DESCRIPTION OF TYPICAL NAIL MILL 
 
 (a) Statement of Problem ..... 65 
 
 (b) Outline of Design 66 
 
 (c) Selection of Nail Machines 67 
 
 (d) Building 68 
 
 (e) Nail Machine Drives 73 
 
 (f) Cleaning and Packing Building 74 
 
 (g) Tumbler Drives 75 
 
 (h) Sawdust Storage 76 
 
 (i) Nail Warehouse 77 
 
V 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 - TAEIE OF COBTEUTS - COBOL' D. 
 
 LIST OF TABLES 
 
 TABLE I Standard sizes of Common Wire nails . . 19 
 
 II Range of "Brooklyn" Machine oizes ... 47 
 
 III Bange of "Universal" Machine Sizes . . 47 
 
 IV Bange of "national" Machine Sizes ... 48 
 
 V Bange of "Byers on-Glader " 1 . 3 . chine 
 
 Sizes 48 
 
 LIST OF DRAWINGS 
 
 PLATE I General Plan of Bail Department .... 78 
 
 II Detail Plan of section of Bail Mill . . 79 
 
 III Detail Plan of section of nail Mill . . 80 
 
 IV Sectional Elevation of Bail Mill 
 
 and Warehouse 81 
 
 V Plan of Cleaning and Packing 
 
 Department 82 
 
 VI Typical Sectional Elevation of 
 
 Cleaning Building 83 
 
 LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS 
 
 FIGURE I no. 2 "National" Hail Machine 84 
 
 II ^national" Hail Forming Mechanism ... 85 
 
 III "Rational" Cut Levers 86 
 
 IV "national" Radius Links 87 
 
 V "Ryerson-Glader" nail Machine 88 
 

 
 
 
 
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WIRE MIL MAKIJSG IE AMERICA 
 
 I. EARLY HISTORY OR MIL MAKIiSG . 
 
 (a) HARD MAEIiiG OR MAILo. At just what time 
 nails were first used, ia an unrecorded event in history, 
 altho it is a well known fact that their use dates back 
 to very early times. Historic evidence of the use of 
 nails is strewn all along the pathway of civilization, 
 mute testimony in the museums of modern times to Man’s 
 climb from the days of ancient history to those of 
 modern civilization. 
 
 When Man started using wood for construction 
 purposes, it was necessary for him to invent a method of 
 fastening the wood in his structure. The first fastening 
 was a wooden pin, from which in time was evolved the 
 modern nail. The evolution, romantic as it was, has 
 long since become history - some of which is recorded, but 
 most of which is not. Perhaps, because a nail has always 
 been such a common article and so familiar to everyone, 
 the historians passed it by unthinkingly. 
 
 The term "nail" calls to mind a strip of metal, 
 rather pointed at one end and with possibly a head on the 
 other end, used for the purpose of fastening pieces of 
 material together, the fastening being accomplished 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
by driving the atrip into the material. The use of 
 nails suggests their making and it is with this feature 
 that we are principally concerned. 
 
 Back: of all worth while things, there is usually 
 an incentive for the producing and developing of them. 
 
 In the majority of cases, this incentive can be traced, 
 directly or indirectly, to commerce in which the article 
 in question forms a means of barter and exchange, ouch 
 is the case with nails. The demand for nails, developing 
 as a. consequence of their adaptability as a building 
 material, was the incentive for their making; and, as 
 time went on and the demand increased to the extent where 
 their making furnished a living for the maker, nail making 
 became a trade. 
 
 And so it is that the art of making nails is one 
 of the oldest trades known to mankind. The art is so 
 old, in fact, that its origin is unknown. However, its 
 antiquity may be safely charged with four figures, because 
 nails are frequently mentioned in the Old Testament of 
 the Bible as being made of gold, silver, brass and iron. 
 
 The art, as a whole, attracted a cosmopolitan 
 following, because nails were used and made in varying 
 quantities by every civilized country on earth to meet 
 the needs of the builders and their artisans. 
 
 In the olden days, before machines were used, 
 all nails were hand made of metal and it is natural to 
 suppose that nail making in very early times was handi- 
 
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capped by the non-production of suitable metals. Later 
 on as the demand for nails increased , their making was, 
 no doubt, a considerable spur to the increased smelting 
 of more suitable metals, notably iron. That particu- 
 lar attention was paid to the trade in nail stock is 
 evidenced by the fact that rods of suitable shape for 
 nail making were furnished by the iron manufacturers 
 and known as nail rods. These rods formed an important 
 branch of the early iron industry. 
 
 As time went on and the European Continent became 
 more settled, nail making became permanently establish- 
 ed. Increased ship building added materially to the 
 trading in nails. The demand was supplied principally 
 by England, Belguim, Sweden, and Holland and to a lessor 
 degree by the other countries. The demand for nails 
 grew and the trade grew accordingly, but still the 
 method of production remained crude. It must be re- 
 membered that this was before the days of any except the 
 most simple sort of machinery. 
 
 All nails then produced were forged by hand by an 
 artisan known as a "nailer". He worked before a hearth 
 invariably located in his own home where all members of 
 his family, both male and female, big and little, took 
 an active part in the forging. Sometimes two or more 
 nailers shared the same hearth to save coal, but this was 
 the exception rather than the rule. 
 
 The growth of the nailers trade very early made 
 
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necessary an attempt to standardize the nail sizes as 
 an aid in handling the nails and nail stock commercially. 
 The styles of the nails were designated by terms defin- 
 ing their use such as "deck',' "flooring" etc. Each style 
 varied in thickness and length. The thickness was des- 
 ignated as "fine", "barbed" and "strong", while the 
 length was given in inches and the weight in pounds per 
 one thousand nails. Commercially they were designated 
 in size by prefixing a numeral to the term "penny". 
 
 This latter term is a corruption of "pun" for pound and, 
 during the days of hand forged nails, it indicated the 
 weight in pounds of one thousand nails of a given size. 
 For example, the term "Eight Penny Hails" indicated that 
 one thousand nails of that particular size weighed eight 
 pounds. The nomenclature of this method of indicating 
 nail sizes has been retained somewhat and is used gen- 
 erally to the present day. However, the significance, 
 so far as indicating the weight of any definite number 
 of either wire or cut nails is concerned, has been en- 
 tirely lost. 
 
 The statement made by some writers that the term 
 "penny" refered to the pennyweight of each nail of a 
 given size is without any foundation of facts to support 
 it and the first explanation is the one generally con- 
 ceded to be correct . 
 
 The trade was familiar with over three thousand 
 different sizes and shapes of nails. 
 
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(b) MATERIAL FOR MAK.IUG EAIL3. Wrought iron 
 was the material which was generally used by the nailers 
 for making the hand-forged nails of old. Until 1855, 
 when the Bessemer process of making steel was invented, 
 wrought iron was the only kind of malleable ferrous 
 metal known, except the better grades designated as 
 "blister" and 'fcrucible " steels. The latter two were a 
 result of continued refining of wrought iron from which 
 the cinder was eliminated, after which the carbon was 
 incorporated. As far as common, malleable stock was 
 concerned, wrought iron alone was known and held a 
 place similar to the low carbon steel of today. 
 
 The wrought iron nail stock was supplied from 
 the mills in the form of bars, called nail rods. These 
 rods were sold in bundles and could be procured in 
 various cross-section dimensions, according to the size 
 of the nail to be made. This fact alone saved the nailers 
 a great deal of work, which otherwise would have been 
 required to forge the nails from larger stock. 
 
 (c) BAIL IBDU3TRY IB EBGLABD. In England, 
 Birmingham was the center of the nail industry, Just as it 
 was the center of the iron industry. By the middle of the 
 Eighteenth Century, hearths of the nailers were scattered 
 for miles along the roads of the entire countryside 
 around Birmingham and one could not travel far in any 
 direction from the city out of reach of the sound 
 
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of the nailers' hammers. 
 
 The nails were made under the domestic system 
 of industry and, for this reason, living and working 
 conditions among the nailers were very unsatisfactory. 
 The employment was controlled by nail roasters, who sup- 
 plied the nailers with the nail rods and paid for the 
 work done. The wages paid were very low, purposely 
 kept so, in fact, by the nail masters. It was necessary 
 for entire families, from the father and mother down to 
 the small children (both boys and girls), to engage in 
 the forging of the nails, for which they would receive 
 only enough for bare subsistence. Both women and 
 children, the entire family in fact, worked long hours 
 in filthy smithies - located, sometimes, in a shed 
 attached to the dwelling, but, in the majority of cases, 
 in their veiy homes. 
 
 At one time, 60,000 people were so employed 
 under the nail masters in the Birmingham district alone, 
 for whom 200 tons of nail rods were required each week. 
 
 Because of the difficulty in obtaining the nail 
 rods, other than through the nail master, it was neces- 
 sary for the nailer to live near a producing' center 
 where he was always sure of his supply of rods and also 
 sure of a market for his product. There were a few 
 nailers' hearths scattered promiscuously around the 
 
 country, but these cared only for a small local demand 
 for various sized nails which would not support a regula 
 
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nail maker’s business. 
 
 As late as 1886 the hand forging of nails in Eng- 
 land was still an extensive industry, altho it had passed 
 the turning point of its importance and was doomed to ex- 
 tinction by the adoption of machine made mils. The 
 industry had lost some of the domestic atmosphere by the 
 nailers having been grouped in shops to some extent, 
 altho not universally, and women were still employed in 
 the industry just as their ancesters had been for the 
 past £00 years. 
 
 (d) MIL INDUSTRY Iii COLOEIAL AMERICA. The 
 custom of nail making in colonial America was about the 
 same as that in England, but was carried on in a very 
 limited manner. The nailer operated his hearth in his 
 home, located close to the seaport, where his nail stock 
 was most easily obtained. The iron producing centers 
 were very small and fewer in number than in England. 
 
 In colonial days most of the nails used and all 
 of the nail stock were imported from the European coun- 
 tries, principally England or at any rate under the di- 
 rection of the English Crown. 
 
 In the year 1731 there wa3 officially reported to 
 be "One slitting mill and one manufacture for nails" in 
 Massachusetts. In 1750 there were only four slitting 
 mills in the same colony. All of these mills led a 
 rather uncertain existence on account of the English 
 jurisdiction over the iron production in reference to 
 
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the manufacture of nails. It was not until during the 
 first quarter of the Nineteenth Century that the iron 
 industry in America was in any but the most primitive 
 condition. 
 
 Before the American Revolutionary War, England 
 had imposed such restrictions on the manufacture of 
 iron that very few furnaces withstood the heavy taxes 
 imposed on them and their success was looked upon with 
 disfavor by the English iron masters. Luring the war 
 and immediately thereafter, the manufacture of iron 
 was undertaken most earnestly and it thrived henceforth. 
 Slitting mills and nail shops were started generally 
 throughout the States. 
 
 (e) ECONOMIC VALUE OF THE NAIL INDUSTRY TO THE 
 COLONIES. In the very early days of the 4merican 
 Colonies, it is doubtful if any nails were made at all 
 on this side of the Atlantic. There were no iron works 
 of any consequence so all the material would have had 
 to be imported for the work. Just when nails were first 
 forged in America is not known, but, in the latter days 
 of the Colonies just previous to the Revolutio nary War, 
 it is known that considerable iron was turned into nails 
 by hand - not with a view of exporting any, but for 
 Colonial consumption only. 
 
 As to the economic value of nail making to the 
 Colonies, the trade may have furnished a livelihood for 
 a few individuals; but, as far as the Colonies themselves 
 
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were concerned, it waa nil and was made so by the con- 
 ditions imposed by England at the instance of the English 
 nail master. 
 
 After the Revolutionary War, the chimney corner 
 industry of nail making was undertaken by the farmers in 
 order to have work for the long winter evenings; but, in 
 1795, it received a set-back on account of the advent of 
 machine made nails. After this time, American hand-forged 
 nails, always a scarce article, were a thing of the past. 
 
 In England, the hand-forged nails thrived for a hundred 
 years longer until they were finally driven out of there 
 by the machine made nail, which came into favor sometime 
 between 1985 and 1990. 
 
 (f) OUTPUT OF 0I3E 1AILER. Very little is recorded 
 which gives an idea of the daily output of a single nail 
 maker. A story is related of an English nailer, presumedly 
 operating a hearth near Birmingham, England, who made a 
 wager that he could forge 17,000 twenty-penny (20) wrought 
 iron nail3 per week, for two consecutive weeks, working 
 ten hours a day. It is stated that he easily won the 
 wager. He had produced 680 pounds of nails in 140 hours, 
 or about five pounds per hour. A modern nail machine on 
 20d nails will produce about 325 pounds of nails per 
 hour, or a gain of 320 pounds per hour over hand forging. 
 
 (g) TYPE OF HAMPER U3ED BY HAILERS. The nailers 
 used a special hammer with a peculiarly shaped head for 
 
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making hand wrought nails. The face on one end of the 
 head was slightly beveled toward the handle and this was 
 used to taper the nail shank as the nail rod was held on 
 the anvil. The other end of the hammer head was cylin- 
 drical, of the usual ball face, and was used to form the 
 head in the counterbore of the nailer's plate. The hammer 
 head weighed about two pounds. 
 
 (h) PHYSICAL EfiERGY REQUIRED TO MAKE MILS. In 
 making each nail, the nailer performed a cycle of operations 
 about as follows. The nail rod was first heated in the 
 forge, and, to do this, the nailer had to operate his own 
 bellows: after being heated, the nail rod was transferred 
 to the anvil, where the end was drawn down to the proper 
 taper with a few sharp blows of the hammer: the required 
 length of rod was now cut off to gage on a chisel, held on 
 the anvil, and then, if still hot enough, the cut and 
 tapered piece of nail rod was dropped point first into 
 a "bore" or tapered hole in the anvil, leaving an amount 
 projecting beyond the bore: this heated and projecting 
 end of the rod was now hammered into the proper shaped 
 counterbore, thereby forming the head of the nail# the 
 finished nail was now driven out of the bore and the 
 cycle of operations repeated. Raised or ornamental 
 heads were formed with an Oliver. 
 
 It has been estimated by one writer that to make 
 one 20d nail, required a total of about twenty- five 
 
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strokes of a two pound hammer raised to an average 
 height of three feet per stroke. To make one thousand 
 nails at that rate would require an expenditure of energy- 
 equal to 150,000 foot-pounds of work extended over a 
 period of time equal to about eight hours, while a mod- 
 ern 20d nail machine would require an expenditure of 
 915,000 foot-pounds of work, but would complete the one 
 thousand nails in about six minutes. 
 

 
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II. THE WIRE MIL. 
 
 (a) HI3T0EY OF THE WIRE HAIL. Like that of its 
 fore-runner, the wrought nail, the origin of the wire nail 
 is clothed in obscurity to a considerable degree. France 
 is, without doubt, the birthplace of the wire nail, and, 
 because of its birthplace, it was originally known as 
 the "French" nail. As such, it is occasionally referred 
 to even now. 
 
 As early as 1750, nails were made by hand in 
 France from cylindrical wire and in this way differed from 
 the original hand wrought nail, which was made from a 
 square or rectangular wrought iron rod. The wire nail had 
 a straight shank, while the wrought nail was tapering. 
 
 The w'ire used in the making of the French nails was wrought 
 iron, or some othei metal, but not the steel with which 
 we of today are so familiar. The art of making wire by 
 hammering metal into long, cylindrical rods had long been 
 known, for samples of brass wire have been found in the 
 pyramids of Egypt. The Germans started to draw wire 
 about the Fourteenth Century. Ho attempt was made to 
 adapt the drawing of wire to any other commercial enter- 
 prise, so the art remained dormant. It is not sur- 
 prising that some wire did get into France, even though 
 no attempt was made on the part of Germany to export it. 
 
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For a considerable space of timeFrance was the 
 sole producer of wire nails, but they were made of very 
 light wire and only for home consumption. Bo attempt 
 was made to commercialize this nail altho Belgium and 
 later Germany started the manufacture of wire nails, but 
 on a very small scale and by hand at that. 
 
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 (b) EARLY METHODS OF MAXIBG. The method employ- 
 ed to make wire nails by hand was much more simple than 
 that used to make hand forged nails. The wire was first 
 cut into the required lengths, and then one end of each 
 was pointed on an anvil. The pointed piece of wire was 
 then clamped in a vise with a portion of the unsharpened 
 end projecting above the vise jaws, which, under a few 
 3harp blows of a hammer, formed the head of the nail. 
 
 The simplicity of the wire nail is due entirely to its 
 having a straight shank instead of a tapered one like 
 that of the forged nail. 
 
 Difficulty was encountered in the making of these 
 by hand and this difficulty continued long after mach- 
 ines were employed. It was due to the fact that the 
 available wire did not readily respond to the attempt to 
 form the head, but the remedy came after, the manufacture 
 of 3teel became more flexible as a result of a better 
 understanding of the chemistry of steel making. The 
 failure 0 f the Bessemer process of steel making to 
 measure up to the expectations of the inventor was due to 
 this same lack of knowledge. This fact delayed the de- 
 
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velopment of the steel industry several years and, con- 
 sequently, delayed the development of the wire nail 
 industry. 
 
 (c) ITS INTRODUCTION INTO AMERICA. In the 
 middle of the Nineteenth Century, William Eassel, Sr. 
 and Thomas Norton of New York were engaged in the business 
 of building machinery. About 1851 or 1852, they built a 
 machine to manufacture dowel and hinge pins from wire, 
 thus being the first in America to make wire nails. This 
 business of wire hinge pins did not prosper, so, in 1857, 
 Mr. Eassel bought the plant. The machines were shortly put 
 to use in the manufacture of French wire nails of small 
 size to supply the needs of a German picture-frame maker, 
 who could not import enough wire nails to supply his 
 shop. He preferred the wire nails because they did not 
 split the wood, from which the frames were made; hence, 
 the arrangement with Hassel for the manufacture of nails. 
 
 Because of the difficulty of obtaining satisfac- 
 tory wire, the business lagged though it continued until 
 about 1877. Hassel either lacked aggressiveness or did 
 not realize the possibilities of wire nails; at any rate, 
 no attempt was ma.de to increase their use by him. 
 
 In 1875, Father Gobble, a Catholic priest, came 
 from Germany to Covington, Ky. , and there, associated 
 with Michael Baaches, started the Covington Wire Nail 
 Works for the manufacture of wire nails. Covington was 
 
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chosen, because at that time it was an important iron 
 producing- center. This effort, limited as it now seems, 
 was the first concerted attempt to introduce wire nails 
 into America for general use. The next year, the company 
 exhibited at the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia, 
 which did much to familiarize the American Public with 
 the possibilities of wire nails. 
 
 The Covington factory, after a time, was a success 
 and is still making nails, although the name and the 
 geographical location have been changed several times. 
 
 Thus, the wire nail was introduced into America from Europe, 
 but the Americans were slow to adopt it generally. 
 
 (d) ITS RECEPTION BY THE TRADE. The trade dealing 
 in nails did not welcome the newcomer in the field of 
 commerce and from no quarter did the manufacturers of 
 wire nails in Covington receive any encouragement whatever. 
 They early realized that they had encountered, and must 
 overcome, a prejudice against the smooth shank of the 
 wire nail. Every one was used to the more rough edge of 
 the cut nail, which, by this time, had superseded the 
 hand-forged nail, in America at least. For the purpose 
 of overcoming this prejudice against the wire nail because 
 of its smooth shank, barbed nails were first made and they 
 succeeded, in a remarkable degree, in overcoming the ob- 
 jections. The nails weie barbed then, as now, by running 
 the wire - before the nail was made - between two marred 
 grooved rollers, which simply roughed the wire. 
 
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Barbing the wire increased the holding power 
 considerably over the aroooth shank and formed a stepping 
 stone for the successful application of the wire nail 
 in America. 
 
 (e) AoCEilDAilCY OVER THE CUT ilAIL. The ha nd - 
 forged nail of the Eighteenth Century was superseded in 
 the early half of the next century by the advent of a 
 nail cut, by machine, from wrought iron plate. By 1840, 
 both forged and cut nails were commonly used, but in 
 America the machine nail always took the lead. After 
 the advent of the first nail machines, their product, 
 the cut nail, held first place until the last quarter 
 of the nineteenth Century when the wire nail began to 
 make its presence felt. In 1888, plate cut nails first 
 noticed the inroads being made in their business by the 
 wire nails. In this year, one-fifth of the total nail 
 output was of wire. By the year 1895, three-quarters 
 of the total output of nails was of wire. 
 
 For same time the use of the latter type of nail 
 was regarded as harboring trouble for the user. There 
 are still a few adherents to this belief, but their 
 numbers are fast dwindling. The use of the wire nail 
 in engineering enterprises and in commerce is one of 
 undisputed importance. 
 
 Because it is made of wire and because, in the 
 process of making wire, the rods are pickled in a solution 
 
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of dilute sulphuric acid to remove the scale, the 
 objection has been raised that the wire nail will not 
 weather, but will be eaten off by the acid. This assump- 
 tion is not just right . 
 
 As a preliminary operation in the manufacture of 
 wire, the rods, after they come from the rolling mill, 
 are pickled in a sulphuric acid bath to remove the scale. 
 From the acid, they are plunged into a bath of clear 
 water to stop the action and remove the acid from the 
 rods. From this water bath, the rods are placed on a 
 rack to "sull". The sull is a dark green oxide which 
 forms on the warm and damp, but clean, iron surface of 
 the reds. After sulling sufficiently in a fine spray 
 of water, the rods are immersed in a hot, milky, lime 
 water bath; then, with the sull and lime still adheriug 
 to their surface, the rods are placed in a dry house to 
 bake at a temperature ranging from to 300 to 400 degrees 
 Fahrenheit. After this, the rods are ready to draw. 
 
 The sail and lime coating, along with either a heavy 
 grease or hard soap through which the rods pass previously 
 to entering the drawing die, forms a lubricant which 
 remains on the wire for several drafts. A better material, 
 for a. lime substitute, has never been found, but the lime 
 so used must be free from grit . If the baking in the 
 dryhouse is done at too low a temperature, the wire 
 will be "acid brittle" and break too often to permit 
 economical drawing. Then, the wire must be rebaked. 
 
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XI 
 
 It is the baking, and not the lime as is generally sup- 
 posed, that kills the acid. We are assured of v/ire nails 
 being made of acid-killed wire if for no other reason than 
 that no v/ire can be drawn successfully, from which the 
 acid has not been eliminated by baking. 
 
 Polished steel wire nails, the ones usually en- 
 countered, do rust rapidly v/hen exposed to damp air. The 
 rusting occurs, not because acid is used in the manufacture 
 of the wire but because the nails are of steel. Common 
 soft steel is characterised by excessive rusting under 
 some conditions, which is not true of wrought iron. 
 
 The Bessemer process of steel manufacture, invented 
 in 1855, increased the output of steel wire, which, on 
 account of its being cheaper, gradually crowded the wrought 
 iron off the market. The greatest impetus came in 1878, 
 v/hen the Bessemer process was still further rerfeeted by 
 the Thomas-Gilcrist method of using a basic lining' - 
 thereby producing the basic Bessemer steel. 
 
 This latter invention was brought out three years 
 after the establishment of the manufacture of wire nails 
 in America, so, naturally, the manufacture of wire nails 
 increased with the increase in production of Bessener 
 steel wire. 
 
 The Thomas-Gilcrist or basic Bessemer process of 
 steel purification is not applicable to the general run 
 of iron ores found in the United States. For that 
 reason, it has been discarded in this country for the 
 acid Bessemer process and the basic open hearth pro- 
 
 ■ Mr) 
 
. 
 
 , 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 , 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
cess, both admirably adapted to the American ores. 
 
 (f) STANDARD SIZES OF COiiMOU WIRE MILS. The 
 manufacturers and users of wire nails have long since 
 agreed to certain standard dimensions of wire nails and 
 the following table gives the sizes standard for common 
 nails only. The various styles of wire nails have been 
 standardized in like manner. The weights given in the 
 table are those used by the largest manufacturers of 
 wire nail3, but are subject to slight variation , unavoid- 
 able thru the adjustment of the machines. The variation 
 will not amount to over l/4 of 1$. 
 
 TABLE 1. 
 
 MIL 
 
 HEAD 
 
 LEHGTH 
 
 WIRE 
 
 APPROX. 
 
 WEIGHT 
 
 SIZE 
 
 LIAM. 
 
 IECHES 
 
 GAGE 
 
 M0.1 LB 
 
 PER 1000 
 
 2d 
 
 5/32 
 
 1 
 
 15 
 
 876 
 
 1.15 
 
 3d 
 
 3/16 
 
 1-1/4 
 
 14 
 
 568 
 
 1.3 
 
 4d 
 
 1/4 
 
 1-1/2 
 
 12-1/2 
 
 316 
 
 3.3 
 
 5d 
 
 1/4 
 
 1-3/4 
 
 12-1/2 
 
 271 
 
 3.7 
 
 6d 
 
 
 2 
 
 11-1/2 
 
 181 
 
 5.5 
 
 7d 
 
 
 2-1/4 
 
 11-1/2 
 
 161 
 
 6.2 
 
 8d 
 
 9/32 
 
 2-1/2 
 
 10-1/4 
 
 106 
 
 9.4 
 
 9d 
 
 9/32 
 
 2-3/4 
 
 10-1/4 
 
 96 
 
 10.4 
 
 lOd 
 
 5/16 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 69 
 
 14.5 
 
 12d 
 
 5/16 
 
 3-1/4 
 
 9 
 
 63 
 
 15.9 
 
 16d 
 
 11/32 
 
 3-1/2 
 
 8 
 
 49 
 
 20.5 
 
 20d 
 
 13/32 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 31 
 
 32.3 
 
 30d 
 
 7/16 
 
 4-1/2 
 
 5 
 
 24 
 
 41.6 
 
 40d 
 
 15/32 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 18 
 
 55 • 6 
 
 50d 
 
 1/2 
 
 5-1/2 
 
 3 
 
 14 
 
 71.5 
 
 60d 
 
 17/32 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 11 
 
 91.0 
 
 The wire gage referred to is the one now known 
 as the "Steel Wire Gage "( formerly known as the "Washbarn 
 and Moen Gage") and in this country generally used by 
 all steel manufacturers tho under various names. Upon 
 
 ( 19 ) 
 

 - 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
the recommendation of the Bureau of Standards, Washington, 
 D.C., a number of the important steel wire makers and 
 consumers agreed to the designation of this gage as the 
 "Steel Wire Gage". Thus it has official sanction, but no 
 legal standing by any act of Congress. 
 
 (g) KIUD OF STEEL USED. When wire nails were 
 first being made by hand, the only ferrous metal wire 
 known was that made of wrought iron. This continued to 
 be the case for some time after the advent of wire nail 
 machines in this countiy, which was also about the time 
 of the Thoraas-Gilcrist improvement in the manufacture 
 of Bessemer steel. This improvement gave such an impetus 
 to the manufacture of mild steel that wrought iron could 
 not long compete in price and w as soon to disappear so 
 far as the manufacture of wire was concerned. 
 
 Shortly after 1880, several manufacturers were in 
 the business of making wire nails. They early realized 
 the change that was about to take place by substituting 
 steel wire for wrought iron wire for makihg nails. But 
 the decided preference for wrought iron wire, adhered to 
 not alone by their customers but their own nail makers 
 as well, was hard for the manufacturers to overcome 
 because of the difficulty encountered in making the 
 nail head with Bessemer steel. Swedes iron seems to have 
 been the favorite with all. The H. P. Uail Company of 
 Cleveland, Ohio, which is at present (1921) one of the 
 largest nail mills in the United States, was the first 
 
 ( 20 ) 
 
' 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
to succeed in using Bessemer steel wire for nails. Their 
 example was soon followed by all the other manufacturers 
 of wire nails - not from choice, but from necessity. 
 
 The first United Btates decennial census to show 
 a decrease in the wrought iron manufactured was that of 
 1890, thirty- five years after Bessemer's invention. 
 
 Wire nails are no?/ made, for the most part, of 
 Bessemer steel wire, unless the nails are to conform to 
 some special requirement of the user which cannot be 
 complied with by using Bessemer stock} such, for example, 
 as the heads of l/2" and 5/8" in diameter formed on 
 roofing nails. In forming these large heads, the Bessemer 
 steel splits around the circumference of the heads. 
 
 These specifications usually require the use of some 
 slightly better grade of steel. Either the basic open 
 hearth or the duplex steel is used. The duplex steel 
 refers to a combination of the acid Bessemer and the 
 basic open hearth processes. The advantage of the duplex 
 process of steel manufacture lies in the increased tonnage 
 which it pro duces, in a given time, over that of the 
 open hearth process. The product is similar to and 
 equal in quality to the steel produced by the open hearth 
 process alone. 
 
 ( 21 ) 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 > 
 
 . ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
III. EARLY MIL MAKING MACHINES. 
 
 
 (a) THE SLITTING MILL. When nail rods were 
 first produced, from which hand forged nails were made, 
 they were hammered to size by water power. In 1617, 
 
 Sir L. Bulmer of England devised a machine for cutting 
 nail rods, but, aside from devising a simple mechanism, 
 he did nothing more with it. In 1784, Henry Cort of Eng- 
 land was granted a patent fora rollii£ mill for producing 
 bars in grooved rollers. This method was slow and the 
 practice, except for the finest grades of nails, was dis- 
 carded for the cheaper method of the slitting mill. In 
 this mill, wrought iron plate (already rolled to the re- 
 quired thickness) was introduced between gangs of op- 
 posing rolls, consisting of hard crucible steel discs, so 
 spaced on two parallel power driven shafts that the result 
 ing slit bars would be of the sizes required by the 
 nailers. Thesd bars from the slitting mill bore the 
 characteristic rough sheared edge which was so much de- 
 sired by the nailers, on account of the popular belief 
 that the holding power of a nail was thus considerably 
 increased . 
 
 The slitting mill is a subject to which there is 
 attached considerable uncertainty as to its origin, altho 
 generally considered as having originated in one of two 
 countries - either Holland or Sweden. From there 
 
 U£ i 
 
■ 
 
 ( 
 
 * 
 
the idea was brought to England by an English mechanic 
 by the name of Foley, who purposely visited the foreign 
 iron works where slitting mills were in successful 
 operation. There he gained admission to the works by 
 posing as a wandering musician. Ee obtained the coveted 
 information regarding the slitting mill and returned to 
 England, where he put the idea into practice. His 
 stolen secret, whether of Dutch or owedish origin, was 
 the means of increasing to a very considerable degree 
 the production of nail making material - not alone in 
 England, but in the United otates as well. 
 
 (b) PLATE MIL MACHINE. The invention of nail 
 making- machines, as well as their successful evolution, 
 is due to American ingenuity and in no country has the 
 development of the nail machine kept pace with that of 
 the American builders. 
 
 Very little hand forging- of nails was ever 
 carried on in this country. For this, we have England 
 to thank, altho her attitude in the matter of Colonial 
 nail making was not prompted by beneficent intentions. 
 Eefore the Revolutionary War, England would allow only 
 a small amount of nails to be made on this side of the 
 Atlantic - all because of the short-sightedness of the 
 English nail masters, who prevailed upon the government 
 to place such unjust restrictions upon the business 
 that it never had so much as a good start in any of 
 the Colonies. 
 
 ( 23 ) 
 

 
 
 , 
 
 , 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 , 
 
 
 
 
 
 - , ■ ' * 
 
Immediately after the Revolut ionary War, a great 
 number of hand forged nail shops opened up and the 
 American inventor started to build machines to take the 
 
 \ 
 
 drudgery out of hand nail making- Notable among the 
 inventions patented in the early days is that of Jacob 
 Perkins, shortly before 1795- While it was not a success 
 in all particulars, it made the hand forging of nails 
 by the Massachusetts farmers an unprofitable undertaking. 
 
 On March £3, 1795, a patent was issued to 
 Josiah Pierson of new York on what was the first really 
 successful machine so far invented. This style of 
 machine was in use at least until 1830. 
 
 Nearly all of the early patents were issued to 
 residents o f Massachusetts and Connecticut, which states, 
 for some time to come, were to be the center of the nail 
 industry. 
 
 The characteristic feature of the old, hand 
 forged nails was the long and comparat ively tapering 
 shank and it is to be expected that this main feature 
 would obtain in the product of the first machines to 
 make cut nails. Ouch was the case. 
 
 The first inventor to obtain an American patent 
 on a nail machine was Ezekiel Reed of Bridgewater, Mass., 
 in 1786. A little later, in 1790, an English patent for 
 a cut nail machine was issued to an English inventor 
 by the name of Jlohn Clifford. These two machines were 
 fundamentally alike. The nail stock used was wrought 
 
 ( 24 ) 
 

 . 
 
 
 
 r 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
iron plate, furnished by the rolling mills in sheets cut 
 about one foot long and of a width corresponding to the 
 length of the nail to be cut. The taper of the longer 
 nails was obtained by rolling the plates to a wedge-shaped 
 section. The taper of the smaller nails was obtained by 
 cutting the plate obliquely and turning it over each time 
 a nail was cut . 
 
 The nail stock was heated to a very dull red, 
 then fed by hand into the machine. The nail was first 
 sheared off and the blank dropped into a gripper, which 
 held the nail fast until a heading die advanced and 
 formed the head. The finished nail was dropped down a 
 chute and the cycle repeated. 
 
 Machines of this type were in operation as late 
 as 1360 in the plant of the East Jersey Iron Manufacturing 
 Company, Boonton, n.J. 
 
 (c) FREMCH. WIRE BAIL MACHINE. The first wire 
 nail machine to be imported into this country came from 
 France about the year 1875. It was imported by the 
 American Wire L Screw Sail Company, Covington, Ey. This 
 company had started the same year to make wire nails by 
 hand. A few machines had been made in this country for 
 the manufacture of wire nails before this time. 
 
 In this French machine, the head of the nail was 
 formed by a heading die, carried on a crosshead or hammer. 
 The crosshead was actuated £y a long, flat, vertical wood 
 leaf spring, the top end of which was secured in the 
 
 (£ 5 ) 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 1 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 . . 
 
ceiling, while the bottom end projected down into the 
 machine and engaged the crosshead. A cam on the main 
 shaft of the machine sprung the wood board, the release 
 of which produced the blow of the heading hammer which 
 formed the nail head. The wire was then fed into the 
 machine the proper length, cut off and pointed in the 
 same operation. A number of this spring board type of 
 wire nail machines are still in operation in the United 
 States. All types of w r ire nail machines mate noise, 
 but, of all types, the French spring board machines are 
 the noisiest. 
 
 (d) GERMAN WIRE MIL MACHINE. In the German 
 nail machine, the wood spring is present also, as it is 
 in nearly all the early European models. The wire is fed 
 into the machine int ermittingly from a coil. The nail 
 head is formed by a heading die carried in a crosshead, 
 the latter being operated by a spring. The heading blow 
 is quite as sharp as it is on the French machine and just 
 as effective. One nail is made for each revolution of 
 the machine. This type of machine is no more desirable 
 from an operating standpoint than the cumbersome French 
 machine . 
 
 Several types of machines of German invention are 
 still seen in operation in American nail mills and their 
 good features have been adopted considerably in other nail 
 machines. The spring type of machine is used now to 
 a great extent for making large headed nails, although 
 
- • - ■• • • 
 
 
 
 , . 
 
 , 
 
 , 
 
 i n. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
the "national" machine will make nails with heads just 
 as heavy. 
 
 (e) FUNDAMENTAL FEATURES OF ALL WIRE NAIL 
 MACHINES. In a general way, all wire noil making machines, 
 while of widely varying types and with parts variously 
 arranged, are primarily of one class - a combined power 
 hammer and shear. The hammer forms the head on one end 
 of the nail, after which the shearing operation points 
 the other end, making one complete nail for each revolu- 
 tion of the machine. 
 
 The wire, from which the nails are made, is 
 gripped by some device on the reciprocating feed table 
 of the machine and fed into this machine the proper dis- 
 tance by advancing the feed table. The wire first passes 
 between a pair of opposing dies, each having a barbed 
 groove along the centerline of the contact faces. These 
 are the pinch dies. The wire next passes between two more 
 opposing dies, ground "V" shaped on their contact edges. 
 These are the cutting dies. 
 
 At the instant the feed table stops, the cutting 
 dies meet, cut the wire and immediately re-open. In 
 the meantime, the pinch dies with the barbed grooves 
 grip the wire back of the cutting dies, leaving, however, 
 sufficient wire protruding to form the head of the nail. 
 This is done by the blow on the end of the wire from the 
 now advancing hammer. The head is formed in the counter- 
 bore of the pinch dies, which act as the anvil. 
 
 (£ 7 ) 
 

 
 ' 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 9^1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 r ■ 4. IH 
 
During the heading operation the feed table re- 
 cedes to get a new grip on the incoming wire, which, 
 when released by the pinch dies and with the nail head on 
 the end, is moved along by the feed table the desired nail 
 length. The nail is now ready to be cutoff and pointed 
 by one operation of the cutting dies, oee Figure II. 
 
 The method of making wire nails has been stand- 
 ardized to a considerable extent. Hail sizes, both in 
 gage of wire and length of nail, have been made uniform 
 or practically so by the nail manufacturers, and the 
 builders of nail machines have standardized their 
 machines to correspond to these nail sizes. 
 
 ( 28 ) 
 

 
 
 - 
 
 . 
 
 
 
IV. AJIiERI CAiS WIRE nAII i£ACHIHIE3. 
 
 ( aJ EARLY AMERICAN INVENTIONS. Wire nails had 
 been manufactured in New York at ©dd times to fill 
 special orders since 1Q57. In 1875 their manufacture 
 was permanently started in the United States at Covington, 
 Ky. The field thus opened up for machinery to make wire 
 nails was not at all attractive to inventors for at least 
 seven years more, according to the records of the patent 
 office. It must be remembered, in this connection, that 
 the trade in cut nails was not vigorously crowded by the 
 wire nails until about 1888 on account of the difficulty 
 of obtaining wire to suitably form the nail heads. 
 
 Altho several firms were in the wire nail business 
 as early as 1880, the machines used were few in number 
 and all imported. In 1882, a patent was issued to 
 William Taylor covering a wire nail machine - the first 
 wire nail machine to be mentioned in the United .States’ 
 patent office records. All other nail machine patents 
 had been issued covering machines to make nails from 
 nail plate or from nail rods, but wire nails were not 
 considered. The claims in the Taylor patent did not 
 
 cover an entirely new machine, but rather improvements 
 
 ( 29 ) 
 
. 
 
 
 , 
 
 . 
 
 - 
 
 . 
 
to be used singly, or in combination, on existing types of 
 machines. This can be said of moat of the patents that 
 have been taken out on wire nail ma chines. The nail to be 
 manufactured was comparatively new in this country, but 
 the machines that could be used for its manufacture were 
 adapted from the existing types, used to make nails from 
 nail rods and for v/hich patents had already been issued. 
 There is no line of demarkation where the patents on nail 
 machines are distinctively for wire nails, but, in the 
 Taylor patent and in those issued thereafter, there is 
 that careful wording to claim both the cut and wire nail 
 corcbinat io n. 
 
 (b) TRESD OF IIVEISTIOKS. The Taylor patent 
 claimed a reciprocating feed table, in combination with a 
 chisel grip, to advance the wire or nail rod into the machine 
 and a. set of marred rolls to barb the wire during the return 
 stroke of the feed table - made while the wire was being 
 held in the pinch dies during the heading operation. This 
 combination is in extended use today. 
 
 This patent also claims a heading die backed by 
 four compression springs in combination with a cam on the 
 main shaft to compress the springs, the release of which 
 formed the nail head. This feature was not a success, but 
 it is interesting to note that the spring device of forming 
 the head on nails was still in use at the time this patent 
 was issued, having had its origin in France where the single 
 leaf wood spring was used, fastened to the ceiling. The 
 American adaptation of this was a vertical steel leaf spring 
 
 - - Lgfll 
 

 
 f 
 
 •. 01 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 . 4 
 
 . 
 
fastened to the floor. This feature was copied by the 
 Germans . 
 
 In 1884, a patent was issued to George lu. Cooper 
 for a wire nail machine. He claimed an adjustable die, 
 ground "V" shaped, to pinch off the wire and to form the 
 point of the nail at the same time. This feature is in 
 use today on practically all machines making wire nails. 
 His machine is notable in that he had discarded the spring 
 to form the head and claimed, mounted on a rockshaft below 
 the machine bed, a header which was actuated by a pitman 
 from the main shaft. This header was not a success in 
 itself, but it paved the way for improvements to come 
 later. 
 
 Shortly after the Cooper patent, one was issued 
 to 3. Loring who claimed a toggle joint heading mechanism 
 actuated by a pitman from the main shaft of the machine. 
 Modifications of this header were patented in the early 
 nineties by Michael Baaehes, some of whose machines are 
 still in use. 
 
 In 1885, a patent was issued to William Hassel, 
 a son of the first American manufacturer of wire nails, 
 covering a nail machine having the heading die carried 
 on a crosshead which was operated by a pitman, direct - 
 connected to a crank formed on the main shaft of the 
 machine. This was the most successful machine so far 
 devised and a great many were built in sizes ranging to 
 make nails from 2d to 60d. The machines were made by 
 
 ( 51 ) 
 

 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 <• 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ... . 
 
M. k. Smith of Brooklyn, B. Y., and were known ad the 
 "Brooklyn” nail machine. The direct-connected crosahead 
 permitted increased speeds. The pinch and cutting dies 
 were operated, as in previous machines, on levers actuated 
 by cams mounted on the main shaft. The "Brooklyn" machine 
 is a common sight in wire nail mills of today. 
 
 In 1892, a patent was issued to A. Alexander 
 covering a nail machine in which gears were substituted 
 for the cams, which operated the cut levers on most of the 
 previously patented designs. This machine was a "double 
 header"; that is, two sets of heading and cutting dies 
 were used making two nails at a time, in place of the 
 usual one. The design was not good. Provision for ad- 
 justing the dies, which is a necessary feature of every 
 good nail machine, was lacking. The machine was fairly 
 well received and a number were built, some of which are 
 still in use. They are known as the "Alexander" machine. 
 
 A few years later, the National Machinery Company, 
 Tiffin, Ohio, developed what was then known as the "Tiffin" 
 nail machine - now called the "National". The distinguish- 
 ing feature of this machine was the elimination of gears 
 and cams to operate the cut levers. Besides the main crank 
 to do the heading, two extra cranks are turned in the main 
 shaft from which, by means of radius links connecting to 
 the cut levers, the cutting dies are actuated. The pinch 
 
 lever was, and is in the later machines, operated from a 
 single cam. These machines are still manufactured by the 
 
 (32) 
 
■ 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 N 
 
 , 
 
 . 
 
 , 
 
 - 
 
 f 
 
same company, in sizes ranging to cut from 2d to 60d 
 nails . 
 
 When the "National" nail machines were first put 
 on the market, they represented the best designed machines 
 for making wire nails. They have stood the test of time 
 and proved that they may be fully depended upon. Thus, a 
 more detailed description of their operation is justified. 
 
 Figure I shows the complete ".National" nail machine 
 Jffo* 2, the size used to make lOd nails. The same general 
 design is followed in all machines of this make. The wire 
 is fed from a coil (not shown) at the right side of the 
 photograph and advances between the straightening rolls on 
 the feed table, traveling toward the left. Figure II 
 clearly shows the wire, the nail head formed, protruding 
 beyond the pinch dies and ready to be cut off by the 
 pincher like action of the cutter dies. Figure III shows 
 a view of the pivotal point of the cut levers, taken from 
 the side opposite that shown in Figure II. The relation 
 between the upper and lower cut levers is clearly shown, 
 as is also the method of securing the cutter die holders. 
 
 The ease of adjustment of all dies is also shown. Figure IV 
 shows the connection of the cut levers to the cutter cranks 
 on the main shaft by means of the bronze radius links in 
 the immediate foreground. 
 
 (c) LATER TYPES OF SAIL MACHINES. Within the last 
 few years, two wire nail machines have been developed; one 
 known as the "Universal" and the other as the "Ryerson- 
 
 ( 33 ) 
 
. 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 . 
 
 * 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
Glader", named in the order of their appearance on the 
 market . 
 
 The "Universal" machine is built by Sleeper & 
 
 Hartley, Inc., Worcester, Mass., and was first offered to 
 the machinery trade in several sizes in the year 1917. 
 
 The machine contains no cams, operates a single crank, and 
 points and heads at the same time on two different nail 
 blanks held in a carrier. 
 
 The "Ryerso n-Glader" machine, shown on Figure V, 
 was designed by William Glader of Chicago and is distributed 
 by the Joseph T. Ryerson Company of Chicago. In form it 
 closely resembles the "Alexander" machine, except that it 
 is for making a single nail. This line of nail machines, 
 in several sizes, was put on the market in 1920. 
 
 These machines just enumerated, with a scattering 
 of foreign made machines, principally of German origin, 
 form the bulk of the machines used in the past and at present 
 in the majority of nail mills of this country. 
 
 (d) PERFORMANCE OF VARIOUS MACHINES. From the very 
 
 character of the work which a wire nail machine is called 
 
 upon to perform, one would almost say that speed was out 
 
 of the question because of the constant hammering of one 
 
 part against another while the machine is in operation. In 
 
 a nail mill, the nail machines are ordinarily expected to 
 
 operate at 98 fo efficiency expressed on the basis of the 
 actual output 
 
 ratio of theoretical output. A nail machine which will not 
 do that well is not worth running. Machines are made which 
 
 ( 34 ) 
 
. 'vjf' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 c 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 t 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 , 
 
 
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 f 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
will do it and in purchasing equipment for nail mills 
 this point should be considered. 
 
 During one revolution of a nail machine 
 shaft, there are three points of maximum strain. These 
 are 
 
 1st. The Pinching Operation 
 
 2d. The Heading Operation 
 
 -5d. The Cutting Operation 
 
 and all of these are in the nature of a shock to the 
 machine parts. 
 
 The radius link connections used in the 
 "national" to actuate the cut levers make these machines 
 direct connected and easily adjusted to compensate for 
 wear. In the case of machines using cams for cutting, 
 the wear is not easily taken up, and, unless it is, the 
 machine must run more slowly. 
 
 In the "national" machines, the main shafts 
 have three cranks turned in them, while most of the other 
 types have only one - that used for actuating the header. 
 In case the main shaft of a "national" breaks, the cost 
 of replacement is perhaps higher than that of any other 
 type; but, on the other hand, the "national" link con- 
 nection is less expensive to make than cams would be. 
 
 For the same sized nail, the "national" will withstand 
 a higher speed than many and will hold up longer than 
 most machines. 
 
 In this connection and in fairness to the 
 "Universal" and "Ryerso n-Glader" types, it can be stated 
 
 . 
 
 ( 35 ) 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . • 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
that since these machines have been on the market such 
 a relatively short time a comparison between them and 
 machines which have been in operation for several years 
 is impossible. 
 
 In machines having gears, the work of cutting the 
 nails always comes on the same few gear teeth which soon 
 results in excessive wear of these parts. 
 
 In general, it is true that the more simply a 
 nail machine can be constructed, the better. Parts on 
 all nail machines need replacing at times, and, in buying 
 new machines, those having parts most easily reproduced 
 should be given preference - all other things being equal. 
 
 (e) OPERATING DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED. The 
 ordinary nail machine has about six main parts that are 
 subject to strains causing wear or breakage and the re- 
 placement of these parts is an important item of expense 
 in a large nail mill. It is an amount that increases 
 rapidly, unless a close watch of the machines is kept to 
 discover, if possible, any weak part liable to result in 
 a break. 
 
 The parts that are subject to breaks from strain 
 are the bed, the cut and pinch levers, the shaft, the 
 flywheel and the feed table. A breakdown of the flywheel 
 is most dangerous to the operator and from a safety stand- 
 point should be carefully avoided. 
 
 (f) MATERIAL BEST ADAPTED FOR PRINCIPAL MACHINE 
 PART3. The beds of practically all types of nail machines 
 
 have been and still are being made of cast iron by the 
 
 ( 36 ) 
 

 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 " 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
builders. It is evident to the observer in a nail mill 
 that if the beds were made of steel casting not only would 
 the breaks there be reduced, but also the accompanying 
 breaks on other parts would be lessened. The item of first 
 cost enters here. If the point at issue is a new bed for 
 an existing machine, there can be no question of the ad- 
 visability of using steel casting; but, if the purchase 
 of considerable new equipment is contemplated, the item 
 of first cost of steel casting beds versus cast iron beds 
 must be weighed carefully against the probable repair 
 item. If initial cost does not have to be seriously con- 
 sidered, there is no doubt of the advisability of using 
 steel casting. 
 
 The shafts of nail machines break from being 
 crystallized, due to the continued shocks. From the 
 record kept in a large nail mill, it is learned that the 
 best steel to use on shafts is a 3-l/£ °/o nickel steel, 
 heat treated. Considerable use is being made now of low 
 nickel chrome steel, heat treated. The price is a little 
 lower than for nickel alone and the quality is said to be 
 about the same as the 3-1 /£fo nickel, but the results so 
 far do not Justify the change. In most case3, the 3-1 
 nickel steel shaft has the advantage of several years of 
 service in its favor. 
 
 The cut levers and the pinch levers of a 
 
 nail machine are parts having an oscillating motion and, 
 since they are levers with unequal arms, they are not 
 
 ( 37 ) 
 

 
 
 . 
 
 . 
 
 
 « 
 
 * 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
balanced. .The lighten they can be made, with equal as- 
 surance against breakage, the better. This argues for 
 steel casting, as indeed this is the material they should 
 be made of. 
 
 The feed table is a reciprocating piece in which 
 strength is important and this also should be made of 
 steel casting. 
 
 The fly wheel is subject to severe shocks, if 
 anything goes wrong with the adjustment of the pinch 
 dies while the machine is in operation. Nothing but 
 steel cast ingsho ill d be considered for this part. 
 
 ( 38 ) 
 

 
 . Ofljfl'i 
 
 
 . 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 " 
 
 
 
V. AMERICAN WIRE Li AIL IRDUSTRY. 
 
 (a) THE FIRST WIRE RAIL FACTORY. In the year 
 1875, Rev. Joseph Gobbles, a Catholic clergyman, came to 
 
 Covington, Ey., from Germany and started the manufacture 
 of wire nails by hand* Later in the same year, Father 
 Gobbles, associated with Mchael Baaches, imported a 
 French wire nail machine and in December of 1875 formed 
 a stock company under the name of The American Steel 
 Wire & Screw Rail Company. 
 
 It is interesting to follow the fortunes of this 
 first wire nail company and to learn that it still lives. 
 
 A few years after the stock company was formed, the name 
 was changed to The American Wire Rail Company. Later, the 
 works were moved to Anderson, Ind., where the company was 
 absorbed in 1898 by The American Steel & Wire Company. 
 
 This latter company is a subsidiary of the United States 
 Steel corporation and the nail mill at Anderson, Ind., is 
 still (1921) operated as part of the Anderson Works of 
 the American Steel A Wire Company. 
 
 (b) GRUWTH OF THE RAIL BUSIRESS. The wire nail 
 business in America received its first impetus in 1876, 
 due to the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia at which 
 
 the American Wire & Screw Rail Company, the infant wire 
 
 ( 39 ) 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 t • 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
nail manufacturers of Covington, Ky. , placed an exhibit 
 of their products and won the first prize over French, 
 
 German and Belgian competition. This presented the wire 
 nail to the American public in a most forcible manner and 
 aided the Covington factory considerably, altho America 
 was slow to adopt the wire nail for her needs. 
 
 By the year 1888, wire nails had obtained a strong 
 foothold in the trade so that for the first time the plate 
 nails felt the competition. One -fifth of the total tonnage 
 of nails produced that year was made of wire. Growing 
 steadily year by year, the wire nail business gained the 
 advantage, which it has never lost. In 1895, seventy-five 
 per cent of the total tonnage of nails produced was wire. 
 Shortly after this, the wire nail had practically the 
 entire field and the cut nail represented only a very small 
 fraction of the total tonnage produced. 
 
 The wire nail still holds the advantage gained in 
 the early nineties because of the lower cost of producing 
 nails from steel wire. This advantage in trade was gained 
 only by cutting the price of wire nails to the minimum and 
 they have sold as low as eighty to ninety cents, base, per 
 100# keg. 
 
 (c) ECONOMIC VALUE IB ITS RELATION TO WIRE BUSINESS.; 
 The manufacture of wire nails is closely related to and de- 
 pendent upon the manufacture of wire, which is raw nail 
 
 material. There is an economic reason for this rather 
 close relationship between wire drawing and nail making. 
 
 ( 40 ) 
 

 t • 
 
 ' 
 
 - 
 
 , 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 <■ 
 
 ■ 
 
 
In the process of drawing wire, a day's run will 
 result in the production of a small percentage of comparatively 
 short lengths of wire which have a limited sphere of usefulness 
 These short lengths ("shorts", as they are called in the wire 
 nail mill) would ordinarily be classified as scrap wire. 
 
 They occur through no fault in the manufacture of the steel 
 itself; hence, being good steel wire, they can be profitably 
 cut up into nails and sold at the market price of nails in- 
 stead of being disposed of at the market price of scrap wire. 
 
 For this reason, na.il making is at least a side line 
 of most wire drawing plants, where from one to ten wire nail 
 machines are kept busy cutting nails from the mill rejections 
 as an economical measure. 
 
 However, the extent of nail making is not dependent 
 upon wire mill rejections. Quite the contrary! The bulk 
 of wire nails is made from wire drawn for the specific pur- 
 pose of nail making. 
 
 The manufacture of wire nails, as an industry, 
 started in America in the year 1875 with the establishment 
 of the Covington factory. Very little capital was invested 
 because the nails were made by hand of wire produced in 
 Covington, but outside the nail factory. Up to 1880, about 
 twenty-five firms had engaged in the manufacture of nails. 
 
 By 1895, the wire drawing and wire nail making had become 
 centralized to the point where the wire nail market was con- 
 trolled by six to eight large companies producing nail wire 
 in their own drawing plants and rod mills. 
 

 
 
 , lit . "a 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 
 
(d) THE BAIL COMBIHE Alii I) ITS INFLUENCE. In Jane, 
 1895, the principal nail making companies in the United 
 States formed a combine called "The Wire Hail Association" 
 under the leadership of John H. Parks, who had gained con- 
 siderable experience in forming combines in the days when 
 monopolies, now considered illegal, were tolerated. The 
 nail firms directly responsible for the Association were 
 
 The American Wire Hail Co. 
 
 The Indiana Wire Fence Co. 
 
 The Consolidated Steel & Wire Co. 
 
 The Illinois Hail Co. 
 
 The Superior Barbed Wire Co. 
 
 The Judson Manufacturing Co. 
 
 The Brooklyn Wire Hail Co. 
 
 The members were equipped with their own rod and 
 wire mills to supply wire for nail manufacture. For his 
 work in organizing and managing the Association, Mr. larks 
 received one eent for each keg of nails made by tlx As- 
 sociation, which amount was paid by the members. In ad- 
 dition to this amount, the members were assessed to build 
 up a fund for the purchase of other mills and to provide 
 working capital. On the payment of money from this fund, 
 several companies, manufacturing nail making machines, 
 were known to break contracts they had made to sell 
 machines to nail makers outside the Association. This 
 high-handed method effectually curtailed expansion in the 
 nail making business outside the Association f o r a con- 
 siderable length of time. 
 
 ( 42 ) 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 mm mgm 
 
This Association was shortly followed by one 
 formed by the manufacturers of cut nails and another 
 by the Canadian manufacturers of nails. These three 
 succeeded in keeping all European nails out of the 
 country during the life of the Wire Hail Association, 
 with the exception of one cargo of Belgian nails said 
 to have been landed in Hew York. 
 
 In 1892, a list price of nails was published 
 using the 60d spikes as the base, with a graduated extra 
 price over base for the succeeding smaller sizes. For 
 2d nails, the extra was $1*60 above base. The base price 
 from 1892 to 1895 was below the cost price of raw material 
 for nails, not to mention the cost of manufacture and the 
 price of the keg. 
 
 However, through the efforts of the Association, 
 the base price and extras on nails were adjusted so that 
 each size nail was sold to pay for its own manufacture. 
 Prices quoted were all f.o.b. Pittsburgh, with freight 
 from Pittsburgh to destination added, regardless of the 
 
 place of production 
 
 holds good to 
 
 the present time. 
 
 ( 43 ) 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 , 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
VI. THE MANUFACTURE OF COMMON WIRE NAILS. 
 
 (a) THE OPERATING ORGANIZATION OF A NAIL MILL. 
 
 In addition to tbs executive department of the plant, 
 the nail department has an operating organization charged 
 with the proper and economical operation of the mill. 
 
 The operating head of the nail mill proper is the foreman. 
 His schedule of operation is sent from the general office 
 and is based upon a consideration of orders received and 
 the condition of the stock of finished nails on hand. 
 
 He is charged with turning out the required tonnage, 
 ordering the necessary material and keeping the employ- 
 ment department informed of the number of men required 
 to keep the mill operating to schedule. 
 
 In the nail mill, the total number of machines 
 is divided into groups called "sets", each set having 
 twelve to fourteen machines in direct charge of an 
 operator who is responsible for the operating adjustment 
 of the machines and the production of such nails as will 
 meet the standard specifications. Each operator has one 
 or more helpers, depending upon the tonnage of the set, 
 to handle the wire and put the finished nails into 
 trucks for transportation to the Cleaning Departmefct. 
 
 , 
 
 ( 44 ) 
 
■ •• — - • . . 
 
 
 
 « 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 . 
 
 « 
 
 
 
 
An inspector is employed, charged with the re- 
 jection of improperly made nails from whatever cause. 
 
 It is his duty to see that the nails have standard sized V 
 
 heads, correctly formed, that the nails are of proper 
 length and gage, and that the points are well made. 
 
 Upon his efficiency, depends largely the reputation of 
 the mill for good or poor nails. 
 
 A scale-man is official weigher of all nails 
 produced and a record is kept by him of the weight of 
 each size of nails made in each set. The weight is 
 taken just as the nails are entering the cleaning depart- 
 ment and this record forms the basis of payment to all 
 tonnage workers. 
 
 The cleaning and packing room is in charge of a 
 head packer, whose duty it is to see that the nails are 
 properly cleaned, to v/atch for bent nails and to see to 
 the proper packing and weighing of the nails. 
 
 The warehouse is in charge of a sub-foreman, who 
 sees that the kegs are properly stored or sent out on 
 orders and that the orders are correctly filled and 
 checked before shipment. 
 
 Repair work about the machines is made by a 
 special crev/ of men, directly responsible to the mill 
 foreman. Repair work about the mill drives is made by 
 the plant millwright . 
 
 The die room is in charge of a head die maker, 
 with the required helpers. Dies are issued to operators 
 by the head die maker only as they are needed. 
 
 ( 45 ) 
 

 
 
 . 
 
 . 
 
 - 
 
 . 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
This forms the skeleton of the usual operating- 
 organization of a nail mill and reference to Hates I 
 to V, inclusive, will aid in a clear understanding of 
 this organization* 
 
 (b) TRADE DEMANDS FOR COMMON BAILS. It is a 
 well known fact that, in the general run of nails sold, 
 there are certain sizes customarily used; while other 
 sizes, though standard, are used less frequently. The 
 demands follow the custom of builders in their use of 
 nails. The lumber used ordinarily increases in size 
 by 1” increments, while common nails are standard with 
 l/4" increments up to the 16d size and in l/2" increments 
 above that to the 60d size. The sizes most commonly 
 used are 4d , 6d, 8d, lOd, 20d, 40d, and 60d. The other 
 sizes are used, but not so generally. Nails are also 
 sometimes ordered as special of either larger or smaller 
 gage than that which is standard for a given length. 
 
 A great number of the nails exported have 
 checkered heads. This style of head is standard in 
 Europe. All the wire nails made by William haasel about 
 1857 had checkered heads, following the European custom. 
 The smooth head nail is a result of the American custom 
 of reducing costs wherever possible. In this case, the 
 crosshatching of the header dies was eliminated. Just 
 when the use of a smooth rather than a checkered head 
 became a custom in America is not known. 
 
 ( 46 ) 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 . 
 
 
 Ip 
 
 . 
 
 , 
 
 
 
(c) ORDINARY RARGE OF ji.AII ^JICHIrE SIZES. 
 
 The manufacturers of nail machines still follow more or 
 less closely the same range of sizes that has been in 
 vogue since the days of the first "Brooklyn” machine. 
 
 The standard sizes of common nails are given on page 19. 
 
 The following tables give the range of the four 
 principal makes of nail machines now being manufactured. 
 The operation of the machines is explained in Chapter IV. 
 In the tables, the wire range, in terms of the Steel Wire 
 Gage, is given in addition to the penny size of the 
 
 largest common nail which each ma chine is capable of 
 making. The horse power required to operate each machine 
 is also given. 
 
 TABLE II 
 
 "BROOKLYN " MACHI RES 
 
 Mfr ' s 
 Rumber 
 
 
 Wire 
 
 Range 
 
 Rail 
 Le ngth 
 
 r.p.m. 
 
 h .p . 
 
 • req . 
 
 Largest 
 Com. .wail 
 
 0 
 
 20 
 
 - 15 
 
 1/2 - 1" 
 
 370 
 
 !/ 2 
 
 2d 
 
 1 
 
 17 
 
 - 14 
 
 1/2 - 1-1/4 
 
 370 
 
 3/4 
 
 3d 
 
 £ 
 
 16 
 
 - 12-1/2 
 
 1/2 - 1-3/4 
 
 335 
 
 1 
 
 4d 
 
 3 
 
 13 
 
 - 11-1/2 
 
 3/4 - 2 
 
 285 
 
 1-3/4 
 
 6d 
 
 5-1/2 
 
 12- 
 
 ■1/2 - 9 
 
 3/4 - 3 
 
 230 
 
 2-1/2 
 
 lOd 
 
 4 
 
 10 
 
 - 6 
 
 1-4 
 
 160 
 
 3-1/2 
 
 20d 
 
 5 
 
 7 
 
 - 4 
 
 1-5 
 
 150 
 
 4 
 
 40d 
 
 Mfr ' s 
 number 
 
 
 TABLE III 
 
 "UNIVERSAL " MACHINES 
 
 Wire Rail 
 
 Range Length r.p.m. 
 
 h.p . 
 
 req . 
 
 Largest 
 Com .Rail 
 
 1 
 
 22 
 
 - 18 
 
 1/4 - 1" 
 
 500 
 
 1/2 
 
 2d 
 
 2 
 
 20 
 
 - 14 
 
 3/8 - 2 
 
 400 
 
 3/4 
 
 3d 
 
 3 
 
 16 
 
 - 9 
 
 1/2-3 
 
 300 
 
 1-1/4 
 
 lOd 
 
 4 
 
 12 
 
 - 6 
 
 3/4 - 4-1/2 
 
 250 
 
 3 
 
 20d 
 
 ( 47 ) 
 

 
 
 
TABLE IV. 
 
 
 "EAT I ORAL 
 
 " MACH IKES 
 
 
 
 
 Mf r ' s 
 
 Wire 
 
 
 Kail 
 
 
 h.p. 
 
 Largest 
 
 K umber 
 
 Range 
 
 
 Length 
 
 r.p. 
 
 m. req. 
 
 Com .iiai 
 
 5 
 
 22 - 15 
 
 l/4 
 
 - 1" 
 
 500 
 
 1/2 
 
 3d 
 
 4 
 
 16 - 12 - 1/2 
 
 !/2 
 
 - 1-1/2 
 
 400 
 
 3/4 
 
 4d 
 
 3 
 
 14 - 11-1/2 
 
 
 - 2 
 
 375 
 
 1-1/2 
 
 6d 
 
 £ 
 
 13-9 
 
 l/2 
 
 - 3 
 
 275 
 
 2 
 
 lOd 
 
 1 - 1/2 
 
 10-5 
 
 1/2 
 
 - 4-1/2 
 
 200 
 
 4 
 
 30d 
 
 0 
 
 6-0 
 
 1 
 
 - 9 
 
 175 
 
 6 
 
 60d 
 
 00 
 
 4 - 000 
 
 2 
 
 - 12, 
 
 150 
 
 10 
 
 Bpikes 
 
 TABLE V. 
 
 "RYERBOE-GLALER" MACHINES 
 
 Mfr ’ s 
 
 
 Wire 
 
 
 Kail 
 
 r .p .m. 
 
 h.p . 
 
 La rgest 
 
 Kumber 
 
 
 Range 
 
 
 Length 
 
 
 req . 
 
 Com. Kail 
 
 00 
 
 
 20 
 
 !/ 4 
 
 - 3/4" 
 
 500 
 
 3/4 
 
 
 0 
 
 
 15 
 
 !/2 
 
 - 1-1/4 
 
 400 
 
 1 
 
 3d 
 
 1 
 
 15 
 
 - 11-1/2 
 
 i/2 
 
 - 2 
 
 350 
 
 2 
 
 6d 
 
 2 
 
 12- 
 
 ■1/2 - 9 
 
 l/2 
 
 - 3-1/4 
 
 300 
 
 3 
 
 lOd 
 
 3 
 
 10 
 
 - 5 
 
 3/4 
 
 - 4-3/4 
 
 200 
 
 5 
 
 30d 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 - 2 
 
 1 
 
 - 6 
 
 175 
 
 7-1/2 
 
 60d 
 
 (d) KIEL OF WIRE USED. All the wire nails used 
 today are made of what is known as "hard drawn" steel wire. 
 The usual run of nails is made of Bessemer steel, but, on 
 special orders, nails can be made of basic open hearth 
 steel. In any event, both kinds of steel used are of the 
 low carbon stock. 
 
 In drawing wire, the stock gets harder each suc- 
 ceeding draft until for low carbon stock the wire must be 
 annealed and re-cleaned before the smaller sizes can be 
 drawn. In drav/ing nail stock, the aim is to get the 
 final draft made before annealing is necessayy so that the 
 finished nail will possess the requisite stiffness. 
 
 ( 48 ) 
 

 
 - 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 _ _ 
 
 
 _ 
 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 
' ■ . . .. . ■ . -a ■ i -. 1 
 
 In making nails having large sized heads, it is 
 necessary to use wire made of open hearth steel, because 
 the Bessemer steel shows a tendency to split when the wide 
 heads are formed. 
 
 (e) ECONOMIC ARRANGEMENT OF DRIVES &. MACHINES . 
 
 The extent of operation of a nail mill will depend upon 
 orders received from the trade. If the orders were always 
 of such size that the entire output of the mill would be 
 required to fill them, the arrangement of the drive would 
 be simply a matter of obtaining a power unit large enough 
 to drive the entire mill. However, experience shows that 
 orders are not received in such convenient amounts and 
 there are times when only a small part of the mill will 
 need to operate. 
 
 To meet this condition, a flexible arrangement 
 of drives and machines must be provided; that is, the 
 machines must be grouped in such a way that several dif- 
 ferent sizes oan be operated at one time and still have 
 only a part of the mill running. This will give a small 
 tonnage, but a varied output. 
 
 (f) TONNAGE AS A BASIS OF WAGE PAYMENT. The 
 tonnage output of any nail machine depends upon the kind 
 of nail being made. A glance at the preceding tables of 
 this chapter shows a wide variation in the length of nail 
 which can be cut and the gage of wire which can be used 
 on any of these machines. For this reason, the weight of 
 the output of one of two machines of the same size in one 
 set might easily treble that of the other, even though 
 
 ( 49 ) 
 

 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 Wm 
 
 . 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
the number of nails cut per minute was the same on 
 both machines. 
 
 Hence, the payment of operators on a tonnage 
 basis would be out of the question. The method used is 
 this. The pay is figured on the actual number of nails 
 made per hour, instead of the weight, although the 
 weight of the output is used as a basis of determining 
 the number of nails made. (See column headed "Approximate 
 number per pound" in Table I . ) This gives a basis of 
 payment which is unvarying as regards the 100$ production 
 on any machine, or kind of machine, for a day’s run. 
 
 (g) ADVANTAGE OF COAST AST SPEED. From the 
 foregoing, it is obvious that all machines, of each 
 separate style about the mill, must operate at the same 
 speed. Otherwise, of two operators making the same size 
 of nail, the one having the higher speed machine will 
 constantly earn more than the other operator. This would 
 be a cause of discontent and should be avoided by a care- 
 ful supervision of the speeds. 
 
 (h) POWER RE ^UIREiAEnTo OF aAIL MACHINES. All 
 nail machines are equipped with fly wheels and, once 
 started, the belt load remains practically the same for 
 indefinite periods. Repeated tests with a motor, equipped 
 to drive individual machines and measure the power con- 
 sumption, proves that the horse power requirement of nail 
 machines, as shown in Tables II to V, inclusive, is very 
 near correct. A slight variation will take place, as 
 
 ( 50 ) 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
between a barbed or a smooth shank nail; but the horse 
 power required, as shown, is close for the average output 
 of any size machine. 
 
 (i) TRUCKING OF COMMODITIES. The nails, as they 
 are made, drop into a steel "tote box" under the machine 
 and from there are dumped into steel hopper trucks which 
 hold about 1500#, each. These trucks are hauled by elec- 
 tric storage battery tractor to the elevator, which takes 
 them to the second floor of the cleaning department where 
 each truck load is weighed. The trucks here are bandied 
 by man power, because of the short haul from the elevator 
 to the tumbler and the necessity of dumping the nails 
 when the proper tumbler is reached. 
 
 The wire from the wire mill is hauled into the 
 nail mill by electric storage battery tractors. 
 
 ( 51 ) 
 

 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
1 
 
 VII. CLEAiilEG AiiiD POLIoHIMJ MILS. 
 
 (a) IiLPORTAIiCE OF CLEAaIJuG &. P0LI3HIEG MILS. 
 
 In the process of wire drawing, the wire acquires a thin 
 coating of heavy grease - a coating which is very desirable 
 from the standpoint of the nail maker, but which would be 
 most undesirable from the standpoint of the customer if it 
 were allowed to remain on the nails. This coating of 
 grease on the wire acts as a lubricant for the cutting dies 
 in the nail machine, and, for that reason, is decidedly ad- 
 vantageous to the nail maker. The nail wire could be pro- 
 duced in the wire mill without the grease coating by draw- 
 ing bright wire, at a very slight advance in cost, but, 
 since nothing is to be gained and considerable would be 
 l03t by its elimination, the coating continues to be a 
 requirement of the nail maker. 
 
 In the nail machine , during the process of heading 
 and pointing, slightly burred edges are acquired by the 
 nails about the head and at the point. If the nails were 
 sold without first removing these burred edges, it would 
 be impossible to handle the nails as a carpenter must do 
 without lacerating the hands. 
 
 The first waste of steel in making wire nails 
 occurs in the process of pointing, at which time the waste 
 
 ( 52 ) 
 

 
 
 
 
 , 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 - ■ 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 , 
 
 
 
 
 
1 
 
 or scrap called "whiskers" is produced. These are small, 
 diamond shaped pieces of steel cut from the wire when the 
 nail is pointed. The "whiskers" drop into a receptacle 
 under the machine with the nails, but during the process 
 of tumbling the nails and "whiskers" are separated. 
 
 For the purpose of removing the grease first 
 mentioned and to rid the nail of objectionable burred 
 edges, it is necessary to polish and smooth the nails by 
 tumbling- them in a steel drum for a time before packing 
 them for shipment. 
 
 In most states, in addition to the tumbling, the 
 manufacturer is required by law to heat sterilize all 
 lath nails, besides packing them in dust proof containers 
 for shipment. The containers used are the standard nail 
 kegs, made dust proof by a lining of suitable paper. 
 
 (b) MIL TUMBLERS. The subject of tumblers for 
 cleaning nails is one that has cost the nail companies a 
 very considerable sum of money, for the mechanical clean- 
 ing of nails and the elimination of dirt and "whiskers" 
 is not so easy of accomplishment as might at first seem 
 probable . 
 
 The tumblers are cylindrical in form, with cast 
 iron heads mounted on a 4 or 5" diameter shaft which is 
 continuous through the tumblers. The sides are usually 
 made of l/4" special steel plate, containing from 3 to 4% 
 nickel to withstand the abrasion of the nails. The 
 plates are bent 36 to 42" in diameter and long enough to 
 
 ( 53 ) 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
hold fifteen to twenty- five kegs of nails. Each tumbler 
 has a removable lid bolted onto and extending the full 
 length of the body. This lid is double and is made up of 
 two steel plates, curved the same as the tumbler body. 
 
 A 3/16" inside plate, perforated with l/8" diameter holes, 
 is mounted on a 1 / 4 " outside plate with 1/4" liners between, 
 forming a space out of which the dirt, saw dust and "whisk- 
 ers" must escape by sifting through the perforations of 
 the inside lid plate during the period of cleaning. The 
 outside plate prevents the nails coming through these per- 
 forations. The tumbler is charged and discharged by re- 
 moving the lid . 
 
 It has been found that the most economical method 
 of tumbling nails is to handle them in lots of fifteen 
 kegs or more at a time. This reduces to a minimum the 
 labor of weighing at the packing scale , the labor of 
 heading kegs and the labor of storing nails in the ware- 
 house by having several kegs of the same size nails to 
 handle at one time. 
 
 (c) POLISHING MATERIAL. The cheap, but effective, 
 polishing material for wire nails is common sawdust and 
 it is used universally for that purpose. It is put into 
 the tumbler with the nails, and, during the tumbling period, 
 is gradually eliminated with the dirt and "whiskers" by 
 sifting through a finely perforated false cover. The 
 dirt, sawdust and "whiskers" drop into the hopper under 
 the tumbler, as shown on Plate VI. When the tumbler is 
 
 ( 54 ) 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 r 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
rid of all sawdust and "whiskers", the hopper is cleaned 
 out, after which the nails are dumped from the tumbler 
 into this hopper and from there packed in kegs and sent 
 to the warehouse. It is not customary to use sawdust of 
 any particular wood, because the sawdust of all woods seems 
 to answer the purpose equally well. 
 
 (d) TIME REQUIRED TO CLEAE. The tumblers are 
 usually run at a speed of about 20 r.p.m. After the 
 tumbler is charged, it is run for a period of an hour 
 to an hour and a half depending upon the condition of 
 nails to be cleaned. One and one-quarter hours is not 
 an unusual period required to clean nails. 
 
 (e) PREVENT Ix,G BEET EAILS IE CLEAEIEG. In 
 cleaning nails in a tumbler, care must be exercised lest 
 considerable damage be done by bending the nails. This 
 usually occurs as a result of the nails catching in some 
 point in the sides or ends of the tumbler which has worn 
 out and needs replacing. Borne few years ago, a many sided 
 tumbler, say ten to twelve sides, was quite popular. 
 However, it was found that the nails rapidly wore the 
 joints between the faces and the result was many bent 
 nails. These tumblers have been replaced for the most 
 part by those of the cylindrical steel drum type, free 
 from construction joints in the sides. 
 
 The round tumbler has proved very satisfactory. 
 
 Erom four to six steel angle irons should be riveted to 
 the side of the tumbler, parallel to the shaft, to break 
 
 ( 55 ) 
 

 - 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
the slide of the nails around the circumference as other- 
 wise the tumbler will wear rapidly. Common carbon sheet 
 steel for the sides will not last over one to three years, 
 while hard steel has been known to give service ft) r 
 twenty-six years in a nail tumbler. 
 
 fiails bent in tumbling are easily overlooked and 
 once put into the keg and sent to the warehouse no more is 
 heard from them until a complaint is received from the 
 customer. The prevention of bent nails is important. 
 
 The price is vigilance and the remedy is frequent and sys- 
 tematic inspection of all nail tumblers. 
 
 ( 56 ) 
 

 
 
 - 
 
 ' 
 
VIII. PACKING AUD 3T0HIUG EAIIo 
 
 (a) UBUAL MIL PACKAGE. It has been the custom 
 in America for a number of years, before the days of 
 wire nails at least, to use a wood keg for the shipment 
 of nails. This keg is of such size that it will hold 
 net 100 § of nails , which is also an American custom. Kegs 
 have been standardized now as much as possible, which is 
 of great advantage in a large warehouse where kegs of 
 several manufacturers must all be piled together. 
 
 The standard keg is made of bilge sawed staves, 
 
 18" long, and, before the keg is assembled, the material 
 is all kiln dried. Ko attempt is made to produce a water- 
 tight keg, as was once the custom in making nail containers. 
 On account of the growing scarcity of wood and the con- 
 sequent increasing cost of it, numerous patents have been 
 issued covering the design and manufacture of steel con- 
 tainers for nails, but without much practical success. 
 
 In unheated warehouses, the steel package is a contributory 
 cause of spoiled nails from rusting as this package will 
 sweat in damp weather. Besides this objection, the lightest 
 steel keg is heavier than one made of wood and, for this 
 reason, would cause a large loss in freight due to the 
 increased weight of the container. It is safe to say that 
 
 ( 57 ) 
 
.. - , . - , 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 
the day is far away when steel containers for nails will 
 replace those made of wood. 
 
 Special nails are packed in suitable boxes of any 
 description to please the customer. 
 
 (b) PARALLEL PACKING OR MILS. The standard nail 
 keg is 18" long by 9 to 11" in diameter, depending upon 
 the size of nail to be packed. It is a fact that nails 
 dropped promiscuously into a package occupy more room per 
 pound that when arranged systematically. Actually, tie 
 systematic method' of packing nails will permit the use of 
 a keg 1" less in diameter than that required by the pro- 
 miscuous method. The cooperage thus saved in the course 
 of a year's run in a large nail mill will amount to several 
 thousands of dollars in value. 
 
 The method of systematically arranging nails in 
 the package is simple. A funnel, provided with four 
 parallel steel partitions, long enough to extend almost 
 to the bottom of the nail package, is dropped into the 
 keg to be packed. The keg is then placed under the lower 
 edge of the shelf of the tumbler hopper and the nails are 
 raked into the keg through the funnel, while the keg is 
 kept in vibration by means of a rigid connection to a 
 small throw eccentric on a shaft under the tumbler, as 
 shown on Plate VI. The function of the funnel partitions 
 is to cause the nails to parallel as the keg is vibrated, 
 thus economizing noom in the keg. The keg is vibrated 
 
 ( 58 ) 
 

 
 
 < 
 
 . 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
about 350 times per minute. This gives a compact and 
 systematic arrangement of the nails in the package. 
 
 In 1916, a Swiss by the name of Otto Gamper in- 
 vented a magnetic nail packer whereby nails were drawn 
 parallel to the lines of magnetic force while dropping 
 into the package. This packer was based on the principle 
 that linear articles of iron, when brought into a magnetic 
 field, automatically take a position parallel to the lines 
 of force. The outfit is primarily for packing special 
 nails, such as foundry nails, in small boxes, but its 
 practical value in a large mill is still to be proved. 
 
 Up to the present time, it has not been extensively 
 adopted. 
 
 (c) PACKING MACHINERY. After the kegs are filled 
 with nails at the tumbler, the keg, still without the head, 
 is placed on a floor type conveyor which delivers it to 
 
 the scale for final weighing. The net weight of the nails, 
 regardless of size, is made 100#* After leaving the scale, 
 the head (properly stencilled with size of nails, and 
 maker's name) is put on by hand together with the top hoop 
 which is ptressed home in a head press machine. The keg is 
 now rolled by gravity to a nailing machine, which nails 
 the top hoop through to the head. From the nailing ma chine, 
 the keg is delivered to the warehouse by a conveyor. 
 
 (d) STORAGE OF KAIL KEGS. When the supply of 
 nail kegs is depended upon to come from the outside, a 
 
 shutdown due to a delay in shipment must be guarded 
 against by providing storage for enough kegs to tide over 
 (59) 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
any reasonable delay. The Kegs are light and no special 
 type of building is necessary. The place of storage 
 should be located where the cost of handling and re- 
 handling is cut to a minimum. This would be near the 
 packicg room and near a side track. 
 
 ( e ) THE STORAGE OF HAILS. The logical size of 
 the warehouse for finished nails is only to be determined 
 by the policy of the manufacturer as to the quantity of 
 finished stock to be carried. The net floor area deter- 
 mined upon must be increased for the necessary aisles 
 and trackways between piles of various sized nails, as 
 each size should be kept in a section by itself and 
 accessible in case nails from this section were wanted 
 to fill an order. 
 
 The nail warehouse must be dry. It is not neces- 
 sary to have it heated, but it should be well ventilated. 
 The floor must be dry at all times, else the nails will 
 rust. Besides being dry, the fLoor must be capable of 
 sustaining the weight of loaded kegs piled to the ceiling, 
 which it will be subjected to during a time when the 
 policy of the manufacturer is to accumulate a large stock 
 of finished nails. 
 
 The warehouse should be located where switch tracks 
 are accessible without bothering the other departments of 
 the plant. The use of a covered loading platform is 
 
 strongly recommended, as the loading of any number of 
 cars is possible by extending the platform the required 
 amount, without altering the building. The cover is a 
 

 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
protection to both nails and employes when loading in 
 stormy weather. 
 
 It is essential that the warehouse be isolated 
 from the cleaning department , or any other department 
 where dust is raised; othe rwise , the nails will get 
 dirty if stored for any length of time and this will 
 give rise to complaints from the customer. 
 
 ( 61 ) 
 

 
 
 
 . 
 
 
IX. 
 
 MIL DIES. 
 
 (a) KIHD OF STEEL BEST ADAPTED. A considerable 
 item of expense in the operation of a nail mill is in- 
 volved in making the cutting and pinch dies and the 
 heading hammers. Both cutter and pinch dies are made 
 from beveled shapes sold by the tool steel makers and 
 known as "Wire Hail Die Shapes". These shapes are made 
 up in bars beveled at an angle of 3 0 degrees, on two 
 edges, so that no machinery is necessary to fit the die 
 into the die holder of the machine. 
 
 The grade of steel best adapted for cutter dies 
 is one of the high speed varieties. High speed steels 
 are the only ones that will stand up on Bessemer steel 
 wire at the speeds which nail machines are operated, 
 because of the heat generated in heading and cutting. 
 
 The life of the dies is longer when cutting open hearth 
 steel . 
 
 Pinch dies made of high speed steel will stand 
 up the longest, unless they are accidentally broken. 
 
 This rarely happens except on 20d to 60d sizes, where, 
 on account of the higher pressures necessary to hold the 
 wire for heading, the dies are sometimes split in two. 
 For these larger machines, Ho. 5 temper common tool steel 
 
 ( 6 £) 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 . 
 
 
 
is sometimes used; then, if the die splits, the cost 
 of the tool steel lost is not as great as for the high 
 speed steel. 
 
 The hammer heads are made of machinery steel 
 having a counter-bored hole in one end, into which is 
 pressed a hardened, high speed steel plug. The hammer 
 can then be repaired by renewing the plug, which forms 
 the head on the nail. 
 
 (b) HARDENING AND TEMPERING. The die maker 
 cuts steel into the required lengths for various dies 
 and performs the few necessary machine operations on 
 the pieces to prepare them before hardening. They are 
 then heated in a gas furnace and tempered in oil, all 
 
 in strict conformity to the steel manufacturers instruc- 
 tions for that particular grade of steel. After harden- 
 ing, the dies are finished by grinding. 
 
 (c) ECONOMIC UTILIZATION OF TOOL STEEL DIE SCRAP. 
 After being used for a period of twenty to twenty-four 
 hours operating time, the cutter dies get dull. They can 
 be reground once or twice, after which they must be an- 
 nealed and remade. In time, they become too short to be 
 easily handled, but by the use of the oxyacetylene torch 
 
 a piece of soft steel can be welded on the die and the 
 original length restored and the useful life of that 
 particular piece of tool steel prolonged accordicgly. 
 
 (d) MACHINERY REQUIRED. The amount of machinery 
 required to operate a die room is not extensive. A cold 
 
 ( 63 ) 
 

 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 .. ... 
 
 
saw, with automatic attachment, id required to cut the 
 tool steel bars into die lengths. A small milling 
 machine and an 18" shaper will take care of the neces- 
 sary milling and shaping of the cutter and pinch dies. 
 
 A three- or fo ur- vertical multiple spindle sensitive drill 
 is required for the pinch dies and some styles of cutter 
 dies. Two nail die grinding machines, with universal 
 die holders, for grinding the pointing dies are neces- 
 sary. The "Universal" machine, built by the makers of 
 the "Universal" nail machines, gives excellent results. 
 This is one of the very few machines made for the work 
 of gri nd i ng nai 1 d ie s . 
 
 To complete the equipment is needed a Isio.l 
 gas fired oven furnace for both heating and annealing 
 the dies, and a gss heated oil bath for tempering some 
 grades of dies. The operation of these gas furnaces 
 requires a positive blower to furnish the air. 
 
 ( 64 ) 
 
■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 , 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
X. DESIGN AImD EEBCRIPTIOli OF A TYPICAL SAIL MILL. 
 
 (a) STATEMENT OF PROBLEM. While engaged in 
 the engineering depsrtment of a large steel wire drawing 
 plant, the writer was required to lay out, and later 
 build, a complete mill for the manufacture of all com- 
 monly used, standard wire nails. This mill has been in 
 operation for the past few years and has a capacity of 
 about 100 net tons of finished nails every ten hours. 
 
 The experience gained in that undertaking and the facts 
 gathered from comparative observations made at other 
 nail manufacturing plants form the basis of this descrip- 
 tion, which is typical of the modern, American nail mill. 
 The present state of the art of making nails, described 
 in detail in the preceding chapters, is given for the 
 purpose of making clear the various points influencing 
 the design of this type of mill. 
 
 It was desired to increase the finishing equipment 
 of the plant to dispose of sbout 100 tons of plain drawn 
 steel wire, daily, which amount could be furnished from 
 the wire mill in almost any size, from rods down to 15 gage 
 wire. The manufacture of nails filled the requirements 
 nicely, because equipment could be purchased to use all 
 
 common sizes of wire in some quantity. Just what the 
 total quantity would amount to, in tons of wire, with 
 
 ( 65 ) 
 

 
 . 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
the nail mill running full, could not be accurately fore- 
 told, because the tonnage output would only be determined 
 by the style of nails to be manufactured to meet trade 
 demands . 
 
 To illustrate how these trade demands cause a 
 variation in the tonnage requirements of wire, a #9 x l/£" 
 roofijqg nail and a lOd common nail are both made of the 
 same gage wire, on the same size machine, and at the same 
 number of nails per hour. The roofing nail is l/£" long 
 and an hour's run on the machine weighs 68#: the lOd nail 
 is 3" long and an hour's run on the machine weighs £48# - 
 a difference of 11 £# in favor of a higher tonnage in the 
 case of the lOd nail. 
 
 In order to establish an arbitrary tonnage for 
 the production of the mill, for the preliminary work of 
 design, only the common variety of nails was considered 
 in the output, altho the same machines are adjustable to 
 make all styles of nails within their range of length 
 and gage. 
 
 (b) OUTLINE OF DESIGN. In the designing of a 
 nail mill, the first requisite is a comprehensive know- 
 ledge of the operation of nail machines and nail making 
 methods. The first step was to outline the general plan, 
 bearing in mind the mechanical operation, superintendence, 
 co-ordination of new and existing divisions, routing' 
 material and future expansion. 
 
 ( 66 ) 
 

 ' 
 
 
 . 
 
 *• 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 , 
 
 . 
 
 ■ 
 
 - 0 
 
 - 
 
In general, a nail mill has three divisions - 
 each one subdivided, as follows 
 
 I. MANUFACTURING. 
 
 1. Hail Machines 
 
 2. Handling Material 
 
 3. Building 
 
 II. CLEANING A HD PACKING. 
 
 1. Cleaning Machinery 
 
 2. Packing Machinery 
 
 3. Building 
 
 III. WAREHOUSE 
 
 t 
 
 (c) SELECTION OF HAIL MACHINES. The nail machines, 
 of all equipment in the nail mill, are of the utmost im- 
 portance and it is upon their selection that operating costs 
 largely depend. Operation of the principal nail machines 
 is explained in Chapters III and IV. In connection with 
 the design of the nail mill in question, it was proposed 
 to do necessary repair work on the nail mill equipment in 
 the machine shop used for repairs in the rest of the plant. 
 This was a factor in the choice of new equipment , care 
 being taken to make sure that all parts could be made in 
 this shop. The first cost was not necessarily a govern- 
 ing influence in their choice. In addition to the new 
 machines to be purchased, there were several second hand 
 machines available for use and these were included in the 
 equipment . 
 
 After a careful survey to determine the quantities 
 of various sizes of nails to be made, the total number of 
 machines was placed at one hundred sixty-two and divided 
 as between the number of each size required. The. estimated 
 
 ( 67 ) 
 
- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 . 
 
 
 » 
 
tonnage output and horse power required to drive the 
 machines were taken from the data in tables shown on 
 pages 47 and 48. 
 
 (d) BUILDING. The general character of nail 
 making machines, which is explained in more detail in 
 the preceding chapters, together with the weight of the 
 output make it desirable to have the nail making done 
 on the ground floor, where each machine can be placed on 
 an individual foundation. The building is not then sub- 
 jected to the excessive vibration obtaining where machines 
 are operated and heavy load3 trucked on an upper floor. 
 
 The floor space required for each machine is not 
 large, and the working spaces can be arranged in straight 
 lines, no working space is required back of the crank 
 shaft for the operation of the machines. This being the 
 case, the machines can be arranged in a double row along 
 the mill, with the line shaft carried overhead between 
 two single rows of machines which are driven by individual 
 belts from this line shaft. 
 
 A truckway, over which the nail wire is brought 
 into the mill and the nails taken away to the cleaning 
 department, is required in front of each single row of 
 machines. In addition to this truckway, space within 
 easy reach of each machine is required in which to stock 
 the wire which is to be cut into nails. This space can 
 
 best be supplied across the truckway from the machines. 
 
 ( 68 ) 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The general arrangement of the entire nail mill , 
 and its relation to the rest of the plant, is shown on 
 Plate I. The wire mill, shown at the top of the plate 
 and directly across the track from the nail mill, is the 
 source of supply for nail wire drawn to size. This is 
 delivered to the nail mill on trucks, drawn by electric 
 storage battery tractors, and is left on the truck just 
 as piled in the wire mill until wanted for the nail 
 machine. This practice necessitates a large equipment 
 of trucks, but pays well by eliminating the labor other- 
 wise required to unload the trucks and pile the wire on 
 the nail mill floor. 
 
 The mill is divided into two sections, in 
 order to keep the length of the building within reason 
 and still have enough room to install the required number 
 and sizes of machines. If the length of the mill is such 
 that supervision cannot be maintained by the foreman from 
 some centrally located position, his work will be slighted. 
 Therefore, the office space of the foreman is located at 
 one end of the mill, as shown on Plate I, from which point 
 he can easily direct all operations without an assistant, 
 thus cutting the overhead expense of superintendence to 
 a minimum. 
 
 This arrangement also gives two entrances to 
 the nail mill from the wire mill, which prevents con- 
 gestion of traffic between mills and makes a shorter 
 average haul than would be the case if the nail mill were 
 
 . 
 
 ( 69 ) 
 

 . 
 
 . 
 
 , 
 
one long 1 stretch. It also provides a possible means 
 for nail mill expansion, as shown by dotted lines at the 
 right on Plate I, without increasing the average haul of 
 wire from the wire mill or of nails to the cleaning 
 department. Also, in case wire is received from the 
 outside for making nails, a car can be set at one entrance 
 of the nail mill without interfering with the traffic 
 between mills at the other entrance. This is a feature 
 worthy of consideration, because it does not require 
 any adjustment other than the established routing of 
 material through the mill. 
 
 Plates II and III show the plan of the 
 nail mill by sections, each section drawn to a larger 
 scale and more in detail than was possible on Plate I. 
 Plate IV shows a cross section of the nail mill. 
 
 The type of building selected is that 
 known as "Mil Construction". This type forms a sub- 
 stantial part of the original group of mill buildings 
 and was the determining factor in its selection. In 
 construction, the building is of the slow burning type, 
 which, in this open style of structure, is most desirable 
 from the fire hazard standpoint. 
 
 A monitor in the center of the buildiug, 
 extending the entire length of the mill, is of ample 
 height to provide good light and air throughout the 
 buildirg. This monitor forms an excellent means of 
 ventilation, through the sash along both sides. 
 
 ( 70 ) 
 

 
 ' 
 
 , 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 , 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The roof is flat with a 5-ply, built-up-gravel 
 covering and supported on 3" center-matched planks. 
 
 The joints of the planks are broken over the rafters, 
 which are 8"xl6", laid on 8- ft centers, and form a sub- 
 stantial support for the 3" plank roof and also for 
 shaft hangers which are lagscrewed to them. 
 
 With the spacing of 8-ft center to center of 
 the shaft hangers, a 5 h.p. drive can be installed 
 anywhere on the 3" shaft without danger of deflecting 
 it in the least. This fact determined the adoption of 
 a 3" line shaft for the machine drive. 
 
 The floor is 1-1/16", end-matched, factory grade 
 hard maple, laid on and at right angles to the plank of 
 a 3" creosoted sub-floor, which is continuous under the 
 runways and the maple. The 3” plank is insulated from 
 any moisture from the earth by a 1" cushion of sand, 
 which is thoroughly tarred and compacted while hot and 
 laid on a 3" foundation of either cement or tar concrete - 
 preferably the former. If carefully laid, this floor is 
 durable and stands up well under heavy trucking. A poor 
 floor should not be tolerated. It occasions loss of 
 time in moving material and is often the cause of ac- 
 cidents to employes, because of the occurrence of badly 
 rotted places. 
 
 The truckways are formed of 1" cast iron plates, 
 
 4 by 6- ft in size, and weighing about 950$. The surface 
 is crossha tched to prevent slipping. There are two 
 
 ( 71 ) 
 

 
 - 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
objections to the use of these plates. First, they 
 become very slippery, making them difficult to walk 
 upon, and thus are the cause of some accidents: 
 second, they are constantly subjected to heavy trucking 
 which seems to cause the upper side to elongate and the 
 plates soon bow up in the middle. These objections are 
 hard to overcome and steel plates are subject to the 
 same trouble. However, with the two defects just named, 
 cast iron plates have proved more satisfactory than 
 steel in the long run and they work in nicely with the 
 1-1/16” maple used in the floors. 
 
 All window sash are of wood . However, if the 
 building were of more than one story and the question 
 of light of equal importance, the type of building could 
 be changed to one supported on steel framework and with 
 lighter sidewalls containing steel sash. This would make 
 up for loss of light from the monitor, which would neces- 
 sarily be eliminated so far as the first floor is con- 
 cerned. The sash in the side walls are of the check- 
 rail type, while the monitor sash are single and center- 
 pivoted. The center-pivoted monitor sash are far superior 
 to the top-hung type, where ventilation is to be considered. 
 The former permit the escape of heated air, which naturally 
 accumulates in the top of the monitor, 7/hile the latter 
 tend to entrap this air and thus retard ventilation. 
 
 Ventilation is also greatly improved by the in- 
 stallation of a forced-draft heating system. In winter. 
 
 ( 72 ) 
 

 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 , 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 
the air is tempered by being- blown through a bank of 
 steam heating coils and then into the room. It Is a well 
 demonstrated fact that a mill is more comfortable at a 
 lower temperature when heated with fresh air, than when 
 heated with steam coils alone. 
 
 This was especially noticeable in the cleaning 
 and packing room. When heated by steam coils, it was 
 impossible to keep the dust down even with the windows 
 open - which they always were except in tine most severe 
 winter weather. However, when properly heated fresh air 
 was blown into the room, the dust settled rapidly and 
 working conditions were greatly improved. 
 
 In a manufacturing department, the arrangement 
 of 3team heating coils is important. If carried overhead, 
 they usually have a peculiar effect on the workman. His 
 head is too hot, causing headaches, while his feet are 
 too cold for comfort. An arrangement whereby steam heating 
 pipes are carried along the wall near the floor, or the 
 use of floor radiators, is satisfactory because it pro- 
 duces a better circulation of air in the entire room. 
 
 The coils, however, are subject to frequent repairs, made 
 necessary by their being hit with loaded trucks. This 
 is another reason for the installation of a blower 
 system, where the air pipes can be carried overhead and 
 the air deflected downward. 
 
 (e) HAIL MACEIHE DRIVES. The extent of operation 
 of a nail mill will depend upon the orders received for 
 
 ( 73 ) 
 
. 
 
 V. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 , 
 
 
nails from the trade. If these orders were always of such 
 size that the entire output of the mill would be required 
 to fill them, the arrangement of the drive would be a 
 simple matter of obtaining a power unit large enough to 
 drive the entire mill. However, experience shows that 
 orders are not received in such convenient amounts and 
 there are times when only a small part of the mill will 
 need to operate. To meet this condition, a flexible 
 arrangement of drive and machines must be provided; 
 that is , the machines must be grouped in such a way 
 that several different sizes can be operated at one time 
 and still have only a part of the mill running. This will 
 give a small tonnage, but a varied output. 
 
 Careful examination of Plates II and III, noting 
 the various sizes of machines grouped for each of the 
 four drive shafts extending the length of the mill, will 
 make this scheme clear. 
 
 The driving units selected are electric motors, 
 as shown. The power demanded of each is such that no 
 unusual sizes are required. They do not occupy excessive 
 floor space and operate without fumes or dirt. They re- 
 quire no regular attendant, except periodic inspection 
 by the plant electrician. 
 
 (f) CLEAIIIG AID PA CHUG BUI L DUG . The cleaning 
 and racking building, also the warehouse, are, like the 
 nail mill, of slow burning mill construction , but with 
 this exception - the second floor of the cleaning room is 
 
 ( 74 ) 
 
 i 
 

 e 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 
of reinforced concrete, supported on structural steel. 
 
 This change is made because the concrete is fireproof in 
 itself; no dust filters down to the floor below as it will 
 through the cracks of a board floor; and no oil soaks 
 through, making a dirt catcher of the ceiling below. 
 
 The only parts of the building which are two stories 
 high are the elevator section, the part over the empty 
 keg storage, and that over the tumblers. By making these 
 parts two stories high, the gravity system of cleaning 
 nails can be used, as expla ined. The remainder of the 
 buildings, including the warehouse for finished nails, 
 are of one story mill construction, the same as the nail 
 mill proper. 
 
 (g) TUMBLER DRIVES. From actual tests on similar 
 nail tumbling machines, it ha s been found that from 
 3 to 5 h.p. are required to start each tumbler - the 
 power requirements depending upon the kind of nails being 
 tumbled. After the tumblers get well under way, the power 
 required drops materially. As shown on Plate VI, the 
 drives for the four lines of tumblers are located under 
 the floor beams and suspended from them. The main drive 
 shafts are installed for each group of tumblers, from 
 which individual belt drives are extended to each one of 
 the tumblers and provided with a tight and loose pulley 
 so that any tumbler can be independently shut down. 
 
 Each of the line shafts is driven by a 40 h.p. 
 electric motor, which provides an estimated power 
 
 ( 75 ) 
 

 
 
 , 
 
 « 
 
 
 r 
 
 
 , 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 , 
 
requirement of 4 h.p. for each of the tumblers. In all 
 probability, they operate on less than that. Any ad- 
 ditional power required to start the tumblers can be 
 taken care of on the overload capacity of the motor, which 
 will be only momentary. In view of the fact that at least 
 one tumbler on each line shaft will be down for charging, 
 and that only one tumbler will be started at a time, the 
 40 h.p. motor will provide ample power. 
 
 The power for operating the nail keg shaker for 
 packing is furnished by the same motor. Only about 1 h.p. 
 is required for this work and, while the shaker is in 
 operation, the corresponding tumbler, which has just been 
 emptied, is down for charging; hence, no overload is put 
 on the motor in thus operating the shaker. 
 
 (h) SAWDUST STORAGE. To meet the requirements 
 for sawdust, used in cleaning, a storage bin has been 
 provided on the second floor of the cleaning department 
 capable of holding two carloads of sav/dust, as shown on 
 Plate V. This quantity is sufficient to cover the require- 
 ments of the nail mill for a period of six weeks. Since 
 the sawdust is used on the second floor, this is the 
 logical place to store it. 
 
 For the purpose of unloading sawdust from the car 
 and elevating it, a direct-connected, electric motor 
 driven blower, having a 20” suction pipe, is mounted on 
 the ground floor ard. connected to the storage bin by a 
 20" blower pipe, which extends to a centrifugal dust col- 
 lector on the roof over the sawdust bin. From here. 
 

 
 • - 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 , 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 
 
the sawdust drops to the storage bin below. Care should 
 be taken not to mount the fan where a lift must be made 
 by the suction end of the blower system. 
 
 A pipe smaller than aoout 18" in diameter, with 
 corresponding blower, is not satisfactory. The carrying 
 capacity of such an air system is about 25 % of the volume 
 handled by the blower. Since the sawdust is received in 
 cars and handled in the car to the suction end of the 
 pipe, in scoop shovels or coke forks, a pipe smaller than 
 18" is overloaded and soon stops up. 
 
 (i) HAIL WAREHOUSE. Ho recommendation is made 
 as to the logical size of the warehouse for finished nail3. 
 As stated before, these dimensions are best determined 
 by the policy of the manufacturer as to the size of the 
 finished stock to be carried. The warehouse shown on 
 Hate I will hold about twenty-five carloads of nails. 
 
 A cross section of the warehouse is shown on 
 Plate IV. It is practically the same type of building 
 as the nail mill, except that there are no side windows. 
 
 The tar concrete sub-floor keeps the nails dry and thus 
 prevents rust. A covered loading platform extends on 
 each side of the warehouse, as shown on Plate I. This 
 permits the loading of several cars with a minimum of 
 trackways on the inside of the building, leading to the 
 cars, and the cover affords protection to both nail stock 
 and employes during stormy weather. 
 
 X77) 
 

 
 * 
 
 •• 
 
 
 
 
I 
 
 W ire Mill 
 
 3£4£t 
 
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 Gieneral Plan Nail Department 
 
 <73) 
 
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 ( 74 ) 
 
 PLATL n 
 
 Plan oj Sect ion 0} Nail Mill 
 

 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
See Plate II 
 
 ( 80 ) 
 
 PLATE. HI 
 

 * 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 

Sawdust Slower 
 
 ( sz ) 
 
 PLATE. Y 
 

 
 I 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I hi ; 0 ! r f 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 * ; 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Figure II 
 
 National Nail Forming Mechanism 
 
 ( 85 ) 
 

 
 
* 
 
 Figure IV 
 
 National Radius Links 
 ( 87 )