SEVERAL MECHANICAL INVENTIONS. 255 



the plate being the length of the nails) ^ fixed and moving 

 cutters are used, the one placed on a solid bed, the other 

 passing up and down their edges in contact,, in the com- 

 mon way of shearing iron. 



(3) One of the " gripping " or holding dies is placed 

 just under the fixed cutter, the face of it and the cutter 

 lying in the same plane, and the counter die moves for- 

 ward to bring the grooves in both together, so as to hold 

 the nails firmly, allowing a portion of the large ends to 

 stand out beyond the dies, to form the heads of the nails. 



(4) The slips when severed are pressed down by the 

 cutter, and a sliding piece advances (under the face of the 

 cutter) to hold the nail against the face and prevent its 

 falling, until it reaches the groove in the gripping dies. 



(5) The heading die then advances (the cutter having 

 risen out of the way) and presses the projecting end of the 

 nail into such kind of heads as are sunk in the end of the 

 heading-die, say into the '' rose,'^ ^^clasp,'^ or "clout" heads 

 of the trade. 



It often happens that success or failure, with power- 

 driven machines, turns upon slight points in their con- 

 struction ; and this appeared to apply to the patent nail- 

 machines when they were first brought into use in this 

 country. The making of cut nails was not a new manu- 

 facture at that time : the method in practice was to cut 

 and head the nails by two separate processes, the passing 

 from one to the other, being done by hand ; and this labour 

 was saved by uniting the cutting and heading in one 

 course of operations by the patent machines. 



The practical advantages obtained by these machines 

 were found to be nearly inversely as the size of the nails 

 made by them ; hence the motive for using them chiefly to 

 make the smaller sort of nails required in the market; 

 but here an unlooked for obstacle arose — the new machine 

 never having been used for, or adapted to, the making of 



