NAILS, MANUFACTURE OF 383 



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HTAC ARAT is a term derived from the Spanish word nacar, which signifies mother- 

 of-pearl ; and is applied to a pale red colour, with an orange cast. The Nacarat of 

 Portugal, or Bezetta, is a crape or fine linen fabric, dyed fugitively of the above tint, 

 which ladies rub upon their countenances to give them a roseate hue. The Turks of 

 Constantinople manufacture the brightest red crapes of this kind. 



NACREOUS. (Nacre, Er.) A term applied to shells and minerals which have a 

 pearly or iridescent lustre. 



XTAGYACrXTE. A native telluride of lead containing gold, silver, and copper. 



KTAXX,S, MANUFACTURE OP. (Clou, Fr. ; Nagel, Ger.) The forging of 

 nails was till of late years a handicraft operation, and therefore belonged to a book of 

 trades rather than to a dictionary of arts. But several combinations of machinery 

 have been recently employed, under the protection of patents, for making these useful 

 implements, with little or no aid of the human hand ; and these deserve to be noticed, 

 on account both of their ingenuity and importance. 



As nails are objects of prodigious consumption in building their block-houses, the 

 citizens of the United States very early turned their mechanical genius to good account 

 in the construction of various machines for making them. So long since as the year 

 1810, at appears the Americans possessed a machine which performed the cutting and 

 heading at one operation, with such rapidity that it could turn out upwards of 100 

 nails per minute. ' Twenty years ago,' says the secretary of the State of Massa- 

 chusetts, ' some men, then unknown, and then in obscurity, began by cutting slices 

 out of old hoops, and, by a common vice griping these pieces, headed them with 

 several strokes of the hammer. By progressive improvements slitting-mills were 

 built, and the shears and the heading tools were perfected ; yet much labour and 

 expense were requisite to make nails. In a little time Jacob Perkins, Jonathan Ellis, 

 and a few others, put into execution the thought of cutting and of heading nails by 

 water-power ; but, being more intent upon their machinery than upon their pecuniary 

 affairs, they were unable to prosecute the business. At different times other men 

 have spent fortunes in improvements, and it may bo said with truth that more than 

 one million of dollars has been expended; but at length these joint efforts are 

 crowned with complete success, and we are now able to manufacture, at about one- 

 third of the expense that wrought nails can be manufactured for, nails which are 

 superior to them for at least three-fourths of the purposes to which nails are applied, 

 and for most of those purposes they are full as good. The machines made use of by 

 Ordiorne, those invented by Jonathan Ellis, and a few others, present very fine 

 specimens of American genius. 



' To northern carpenters it is well known that in almost all instances it is unneces- 

 sary to bore a hole before driving a cut nail ; all that is requisite is, to place the cutting 

 edge of the nail across the grain of the wood ; it is also true that cut nails will hold 

 better in the wood. These qualities are, in some rough building works, worth twenty 

 per cent, of the value of the article, which is equal to the whole expense of manufac- 

 turing. Eor sheathing and drawing, cut nails are full as good as wrought nails ; only 

 in one respect are the best wrought nails a little superior to cut nails, and that is where 

 it is necessary they should be clenched. The manufacture of cut nails was born in 

 our country, and has advanced, within its bosom, through all the various stages of 

 infancy to manhood ; and no doubt we shall soon be able, by receiving proper en- 

 couragement, to render them superior to wrought nails in every particular. 



' The principal business of rolling and slitting-mills is rolling nail plates ; they also 

 serve to make nail rods, hoops, tires, sheet iron and sheet copper. In this State we 

 have not less than twelve. 



' These mills could roll and slit 7,000 tons of iron a year ; they now, it is presumed, 

 roll and slit each year about 3,500 tons, 2,400 tons of which, probably, are cut up into 

 nails and brads, of such a quality that they are good substitutes for hammered nails, and 

 in fact, have the preference with most people, for the following reasons ; viz. on account 

 of the sharp corner and true taper with which cut nails are formed ; they may be driven 

 into harder wood without bending or breaking, or hazard of splitting the wood, by 

 which the labour of boring is saved, the nail one way being of the same breadth or 

 thickness from head to point.' 



Since the year 1820, numerous patents have been taken out in this country for the 

 manufacture of nails by machinery. A few only of these can be noticed. 



The first nail apparatus to which we shall advert is due to Dr. Church ; it was 

 patented by Mr. Thomas Tyndall, of Birmingham, in December 1827. It consists 



