NAGOYA 



4056 



NAILS 



rice, coal, camphor, tobacco and flour. Popula- 

 tion, 1913, 164,500. 



NAGOYA, nah go'ya, the capital of the prov- 

 ince of Owari, Japan, best known as one of the 

 great centers of the pottery trade. The city 

 is situated near the head of Isenumi Bay, on 

 the island of Hondo, 235 miles from Tokyo and 

 ninety-four miles from Kioto. The first gla/r<l 

 pottery produced in Japan was made in the 

 thirteenth century by Kato Shirozaemon, at 

 Seto, thirteen miles from Nagoya, and all the 

 products of the great potteries of the former 

 are taken to Nagoya to be sold or for ex- 

 port. Nearly the entire population is engaged 

 in the pottery industry, and the city has also 

 large cotton, silk and embroidery factories. 

 In this city originated the Japanese system of 

 enameling known as cloisonne. The most im- 

 portant of the buildings is the castle of Nagoya, 

 erected in 1610, and now used as a military 

 depot. Population in 1913, 447,950. 



NA'HUM, the seventh of the twelve minor 

 prophets of the Jews. Nothing is known of his 

 life or personality excepting that he was an 

 Elkoshite, and no one knows where or what 

 Elkosh was. In the book of the Old Testament 

 which bears his name, Nahum foretells the fall 

 of Nineveh and in striking and fanciful terms 

 prophesies its utter destruction and ruin. He 

 compares Nineveh to Egyptian Thebes (No- 

 Amon), which had evidently just been de- 

 stroyed, thus fixing the date of his prophecy 

 around 606 B.C. 



NAIADS, na'yadz, or ni' adz. As the dryads, 

 in classical mythology, presided over trees and 

 woods, so the naiads were the special divinities 

 of springs, fountains, brooks and rivers. They 

 were greatly venerated, and goats and lambs 

 were sacrificed to them; milk, fruit and flowers 

 were offered to them, and oil, honey and wine 

 were poured out as libations. 



NAILS, parts of the outer skin, or epidermis, 

 especially developed to afford protection or to 

 provide weapons of offense and defense. Claws 

 and hoofs of animals are forms of nails, as are 

 the long talons of such birds as the eagle. In 

 some instances the nail constitutes nearly the 

 entire foot, as the hoof of the horse. The 

 chemical composition of nail is the same as 

 that of horn, which is made up of carbon, hy- 

 drogen, oxygen, nitrogen and sulphur. 



The nails of man appear on the upper sur- 

 face of the ends of the fingers and toes, and 

 serve as protective coverings. The skin below 

 the nail, from which it grows, is called the 

 matrix. Near the root of the nail the cells are 



smaller and carry less blood; the white, cres- 

 cent-shaped spot which they cause is called the 

 lunula (from luna, im-aning moon). If a nail 

 is torn off it will grow again, provided the 

 matrix has not bren severely injured. The 

 state of health is often clearly indicated by the 

 nails, the presence of fine grooves across them 

 being a sign of physical weakness. Doctors 

 find a study of the nails a help in the diagnosis 

 of certain diseases. 



NAILS, naylz. Of the billions of nails made 

 in America every year nearly all are cut from 

 steel wire, yet it was not until the last quar- 

 ter of the nineteenth century that the wire nail, 

 or French nail, as it was at first called, became 

 popular. When old shingles are 

 being taken from a roof, or an old I2d. 



house is being pulled to pieces, 

 the nails found are not round, 

 but square, like horseshoe nails. 

 Square nails are cut from 

 plates of steel, iron or other 

 metal. They taper, but are 

 not sharpened. For cen- 

 turies they were made 



WIRE NAILS 



The numbers refer to the length \)f the nails in 

 inches ; d means penny. Actual lengths are pic- 

 tured, 



hammering which flattens the heads; but in 

 1786 a machine for doing most of the work was 

 patented in the United States. A century la t Ti- 

 the wire nail was beginning to be accepted as a 

 substitute for the cut nail, and as it is much 

 cheaper to manufacture, it has rapidly displaced 

 the older style. The wire nail may be bent and 

 does not break as easily as the ordinary cut 

 nail, but the latter holds better and is more 

 durable. A specially-forged cut nail is used in 

 horseshoeing; it is more pointed than the or- 

 dinary cut nail. 



