NAIL MANUFACTURE, Until a both paratirely recent period alrest etery kind Of nail as produced by hand-lain:41r' eaoh nail, however Minute, Wail separately forged ftotu thin rod Of iten, a prdeett which it Mill followed In theprodnethirl Of what are tethni• Daily known es 'Wrought nails. AS nails so formed possess Certain advantages, for parti cular lands of Work. Oyer formed eithet by tasting, or by cutting or stamping but Of rolled sheet Metal, there it no reason td cipatd the total abandointent of thit process; notwithstanding the coMatintial improvement of nall-making machinery.
For some purposes nails toritied by the Much cheaper protets of eastia# hate been long tised, Common cast nails are, however, eo thlttley and 56 brittle that they can Drily be tined for a few coarse purposes, WI in plasterer's trek, end in the miffing up of fruit treet. the introduction of great improvements in the Manufacture, however, a very ttseftil kind of cast nail, of an exceedingly pure malleable east iron, has been successfully introduced for certain descriptions of woodwork. Nails of this kind are neat and regular in their appearance; being east with great acettraty ; and they are annealed to such perfection that the metal will heat flit more bending than ordinary wrought-iron without injury. This extraordinary degree of tenacity is, however, obtained at the expense of rigidity, 50th nails being often nearly as soft as copper, And therefore quite unsuitable for lice in hatd Woods.
In the snaking of cut-mils, the nails eta Cut from sheet-iron of suitable thieknettli which is first reduced by cutting transversely, into strips or Tiberias of a breadth Mittel to the intended length of the nails.. These strips are then applied to a machine in Which chisel-shaped cutter descends With sufficient forte to Cut oft from the end bf the strip, at each downward stroke, a harm* piece suffici ent to form one nail. As the nails are required to be of a tapering form, the cutter Must be so fixed as to fotiti a slightly bblimittc angle to the direction in which the Strip is pushed into the machine, and this obliquity twist be ktversett or varied after each stroke, by means simi lar to those adopted in tomb-cutting ma= chin sty.
Nell making is tondttettEl itroh a very extensive scale in Iiirmingliern. Within the town itself, cut nails are made by the aid of machinery ; *hereto in the neighbouring villages teratight nails are blade by amend. There is One particular establishment at iiiitigbara, the machinery of Which irati-a few years tip; adequate to the manufacture of tiro thOUSAMI Millibin of naill annually. The machines to employed are the following Sheett of rich ate cUt up into Strips, each strip as Wide SmS the length of the hail td be shade ; this eating is effbetod by a kind of ematuttiblit Shears, Worked by ateinn pelter. The strips are then CUL iip into tiails6 In one kind of cutting niaehine, the butter or blade vibrates up and down, cutting de a piece of iron from the strip at each descent; and it hag also a Syringing Motion horiositrilly, so as tb shako the Cut§ at art elite angle With each Other instead of parallel ; the consequence of this is that the cuts, being alternately obliend in different directions, give a wedge slIttpe to the pieties of iron but off, and these pieces thereupon constitute the nails. In another retm of machine the blade has hot a Stringing movement; but after each cat the strip of iron is turned firer, so at to present time other side Uppermost for the next cot ; an arrangement which brings about the tame wedgo-shape to the cot nail, but by diffbrent meant. In a third form of machine, the piece of iron, after being cut from the strip, is caught by a kind of clasp, and exposed to a pressure which gives a head to it. gpike nails are Made by machinery in a different Way. A square rod of iron, of the proper thickness, is cut into lengths ; and each Or piece is exposed tb such powerful pressure as to squeeze It into the feint of a nail this Mote resemb:es a teromighf than a eat nail. All cut nails are annealed before being fit for dse.
A newspaper paragraph has lately stated, William Laugher, a nail-maker, of Broms grove, has received orders to make a thousand gold, it thousand silver, and a thousand iron quirt,' for exhibition in the Crystal Palace, the whdle three thousand not to weigh mote than throe grains. They will bo the sniallest flails ever produeed.'