NAILS, headed spicules of metal, varying in size from those a little larger than ordinary pins to those several inches in length and from 1/40 to of an inch in thickness. Up to the beginning of the 19th century they were made by hand as a household industry in various countries. In England, Birmingham was the centre of the industry, at one time giving em ployment to over 60,000 persons, and requiring a weekly supply of 200 tons of nail-rods from the iron-works of that district. In the United States, New England held a corresponding po sition and is even to-day the centre of the in dustry in America, with Taunton, Mass., as the great tack-making centre of the world. Almost all of the nail output of England was consumed at home and similar conditions obtained in the United States, France and Germany.
Hand-made nails were known as wrought or forged nails and were made from metal plates rolled to the required thickness and then slit by slitting-rollers into nail-rods or split rods of various sizes, corresponding to the re quired size and character of the nails to he forged and were sold to the nail-makers in bundles. The hand-nailer's outfit consisted of a forge for heating the nail-rods, an anvil (a small cube of steel), a hammer resembling that of a file-cutter (the face being sloped toward the handle), and a few "swages" (stamps or dies for producing ornamental or stamped heads).
To make a nail, a nail-rod was heated on the forge, hammered on the anvil and a por tion of it the length of the required nail was cut off on a chisel attached to the anvil. The head was shaped in a vise which gripped the shank of the nail and had a counter sunk in the jaws of the vise into which the head was ham mered to shape it. Various forms of heads were produced by employing different kinds of counters. These forged or wrought nails included at least 300 different types, with at least 10 sizes in each type, representing a total of over 3,000 different names. The retail terms — fourpenny, sixpenny, tenpenny, etc.— were not only indefinite in themselves, but varied in different countries and even in differ ent localities of the same country. Therefore, nails were generally designated by terms defin ing their use, as deck, scupper, pail, mop, hurdle, etc., or according to the forms of their heads, as clasp, rose, diamond, etc., or the shape of their points, as flat, sharp, spear, etc. Their thickness was expressed as fine, barbed and strong, and their length in inches, generally in connection with the weight (expressed in pounds) of 1,000 of the nails referred to. The principal forms of these old-time English nails are illustrated by the accompanying drawing and their uses may be briefly stated as follows: (1) "Rose-sharp" and "fine-rose: the former used for coopering, fencing and other rough work employing hard wood; the latter, with broad spreading heads of greater holding power, used in pine and other soft woods. (2) "Flat point rose: used in wood liable to split by the wedge-like action of sharp-pointed nails. They were driven with the edges of their flat points across the grain of the wood and not only avoided splitting but also held more firmly. (3)
"Clasp* nails: commonly used by carpenters in deal and similar woods. The edges of their heads projected downward and, when driven below the surface of the wood, held tightly by clasping a portion of it altogether, and also allowed a plane to pass over them in finishing work. (4) "Clout* nails, with flat circular heads and round sharp-pointed shanks: used for nailing iron-work and other substances to wood. (5) "Counter-clout* nails, with counter sinks under their heath, and chisel points: ex tensively used by wheelwrights and smiths. (6) "Fine-dog" and "Strong-dog," with solid, slightly countersunk heads, round shanks and speared points: used for nailing down stout iron-work, in which the heads are not required to lie flush with the face of the metal. (7) "Kent-hurdle* and "Gate" nails, with broad thin rose heads, flat shanks and good spear-points : used for nail ing together and clenching the oaken bars of hurdles, fences and gates. (8) "Rose-clench)) nails, with points cut square: used in nailing wood-sheathing and the manufacture of pack ing cases and boxes, in which the soft wood is liable to split unless bored before being nailed. The square heads of the nails punch out their own holes by driving a portion of the wood before them. The term "clench* was derived from the mode of their employment in boat building, where they were clenched by hammer ing down or by riveting the end over a "rove (a diamond-shaped metal plate), thus drawing the planks together firmly. (9) "Horseshoe" nails, with square or countersunk heads: made of the best refined iron and capable of being drawn out fine without breaking in the hoof. (10) "Brads and tacks*: a class of small very useful nails, employed for a variety of purposes too numerous to mention. The latter were some times made so small that 1,000 did not exceed 20 grains in weight. In the United States nails are designated as to kind as wrought, cut and wire nails; as to type by the purpose for which they are to be used, as lath nails, shingle nails, etc.; and as to surface, as smooth, barbed, etc. In sizes they range from the two-penny (2-d) to the sixty-penny (60-d)- nails. Above these sizes they are called spikes; below them, brads. The smooth wire two-penny nails run almost exactly 1,000 to the pound; of larger sizes the count runs about as follows: three-penny, 600; four-penny, 300 to 450, according to gauge of wire; five-penny, 275 to 400; six-penny, 175 to 300; eight-penny, 100 to 150,• 10-penny, 70 to 90; 12-penny, 65; 16-penny, 50; 20-penny, 30; 40-penny, 18; 60-penny, 11. Six-inch spikes run about nine to the pound and 12-inch spikes three to the pound. For many years nails have been marketed by the keg containing 100 pounds. Through the use of a recently devel oped packing machine, which, through the agency of magnetism, arranges the nails in parallel, nails are in the market in cardboard cartons from 10 pounds upward and in large quantities in wooden boxes which occupy only half the space required by the "keg* with its helter-skelter contents. The small nails or brads are usually packed in telescope contain ers, holding from one-quarter pound up to one pound.