WIRE-DRAWING. Wire is metal elongated into the form of a slender cylindrical rod, often so fine as to be comparable to a thread, by the operation of wire-drawing. This process consists in passing a piece of ductile metal through a series of hole's, successively diminishing in diameter, in a hardened steel-plate called a draw-plate, so as to reduce its crow-section to the size and figure of the last or smallest hole, increasing its length at the same time in a certain propor tion to the diminution of thickness occasioned by tbo process. Though ordinary wire is cylindrical, the nature of the process of wire-drawing renders it available for the formation of slender rods of any other required figure. An important application of the process to the pro duction of other forms is to the manufacture of pinion-wire for time keepers. This is produced of any required size and number of teeth, and the wire being out to the required length for both pinion's and axis, the teeth are filed away from the portion used for the latter. By this means pinions may be formed at much less expense than by the ordinary process of wheel-cutting. The grooved rims of spectacle frames are another example of the useful application of the wire drawing process, they being formed of wire made for the purpose.
In early times, metals were probably beaten out with a hammer into thin plates or leaves, which were then divided into small slips by means of scissors or some other cutting instrument; these slips were subsequently rounded by a hammer and file, so as to form threads or wires. Beckmann expresses his opinion that the rarity with which works made with threads of metal are alluded to strengthens the pre sumption that the ancients were unacquainted with the process of producing wire or metallic threads by drawing. So long as wire was formed by the hammer, the artists of Nurnberg, by whom it was fabricated, were styled wire-smiihs, but subsequent to the introduction of the drawing process their designation was changed to wire-drawers or wire-millers ; and as these appellations occur as early as 1351 and 1860, in the histories of Augsburg and Niirnberg respectively, Beck mann conceives that the invention of wire drawing must be assigned to the 14th oentury. In all probability the earliest drawn wire was made by hand, but ere long a machine, impelled by water-power. and capable of drawing wire without the intervention of the hand, was introduced. Though the point is not certainly established, this
ingenious machine appears to have been first constructed at Nurnberg by a person named Ludolf, who kept it secret for some time, and realised much money by the use of it. Ntirnberg also gave birth to many subsequent improvements in the manufacture of various kinds of wire. The precious metals were undoubtedly among the first made into wire ; and perhaps brass and iron were not drawn until some time after the invention of the art. Blanch iron-wire, or white wire, is, however, mentioned in a list of manufactured articles the importa tion of which into England was prohibited by an act of the reign of Edward III., in the year 1463; and in a similar act passed in 1484 both iron and batten wire are mentioned. Anderson records, under the year 1565, the granting of patents to certain Dutchmen or Germans for the prosecution in England of various manufactures, among which is that of wire. He states that prior to that time all English iron wire appears to have been drawn by manual strength, in the Forest of Dean and elsewhere; and that until these foreigners introduced the use of a drawing-mill, the quality of English wire was so bad that moat of that used in the country, as well as ready-made wool-cards and similar articles, was imported from abroad. By the year 1630 the manufacture appears to have made such progress, that in a proclama tion of Charles I. it is alluded to as a manufacture of long standing, and one which employed many thousand persons ; and it is asserted " that English wire is made of the toughest and boat Osmond iron, a native commodity of this kingdom, and is much better than what comes from foreign parts, especially for making wool-cards." The proclamation then forbids the importation of foreign iron wire, and of wool-cards, hooks and eyes, and other articles made of it. The first wire-mill in England was set up at Sheen, near Richmond, by a Dutch man, in 1662. The wire-drawing business either following the cloth manufacture or determined by the proximate localities of coal and iron-atone, took deep root in the neighbourhood of B trnsley in York shire. The manufacture of copper and brass wire in this country was commenced about the year 1649, at Esher, by two foreigners; but they used Swedish rose-copper.