Figure 43. — Sloping wire draw-bench similar to the one described by Sellers. 

 The tail of the lever (b) was actuated by studs or cams on a water wheel shaft. 

 From John Nicholson, The Operative Mechanic, and British Machinist, 2d American 

 ed. from 3d London ed., 2 vols. (Philadelphia, 1 83 1 ). vol. 1, opposite p. 354. 



depressing the handle in the left hand, it was clipped 

 of]'. 



As late as the year 1 832, I found the pin straighteners 

 still in use in England. One extensive wire worker 

 was using the adjustable arrangement I have de- 

 scribed. He called it the Sellers straightener, which 

 he explained by saying that his predecessor had been 

 a correspondent of Nathan Sellers, from whom he had 

 received the plan, and at the same time the plan of 

 his annular annealing pots, which they had not suc- 

 ceeded in using for the finest numbers of brass wire, 

 which I found them still annealing over open charcoal 

 fires, requiring great skill on the part of the workman, 

 and even then the work was very imperfectly done. 



On examining their furnace, the cause of failure 

 was evident; a uniform heat could not be had in it, 

 nor could the degree of heat be regulated with any 

 certainty. I made them drawings of grandfather's 

 furnace that had been without any change in plan 

 successfully used for over fifty years, had one erected, 

 charged a pot, worked off a heat, to the amazement of 

 the proprietor, who was not slow in seeing certainty 

 where there was uncertainty and a saving of not less 

 than ten per cent in labor in that particular branch 

 of his business. [33] 



From all I can learn the early memorandums of 

 drawing brass wire relate to a sizing of the wire, and 

 not making it from the crucible or ingot. All 

 imported wire of that period, when in long lengths, 

 showed a perceptible difference in size, one end fre- 

 quently being a full number larger than the other. 

 This was supposed to be owing to the wear of the 

 holes in the draw-plates, and not as it proved to be an 

 accumulation of minute scales or hard matter in plates 

 closing the holes and constantly reducing the size of 

 the wire as it was being drawn. 



For laid moulds, wire of absolute uniformity was 

 required to give a perfectly smooth level surface, hence 

 the necessity of a careful redrawing of all imported 

 wire for that purpose, in fact all the finer numbers for 

 weaving the vellum faces were subjected to the same 

 redrawing or sizing; frequentlv they were reduced 

 from so much larger sizes as to require several 

 annealings. 



But it was not this perfecting of brass wire that led 

 directlv to the annealing in closed vessels, important 

 factor as it afterwards proved to be in the successful 

 prosecution of that branch of the business. It was 

 the difficulty experienced in drawing the finer qualities 

 of iron wire suitable for card teeth, and for weaving 



91 



