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Clout-nails, thofe ordinarily tiled for nailing on of clouts 
to axle-trees; they are flat-headed nails, and iron-work, 
is ufually fixed with thefe nails. Dech-nails , thofe proper 
for faftening of decks in (hips, doubling of Ihipping, and 
floors laid with planks. Dog-nails, or j-bent nails, proper 
for faftening of hinges to doors, &c. Flat-points are of 
two kinds ; viz. long, much ufed in fliipping, and proper 
where there is occafion to draw and hold faft, yet no ne- 
ceflity of clenching ; and jhort, which are fortified with 
points, to drive into oak, or other hard wood. Lead-nails, 
ufed to nail lead, leather, and canvas, to hard wood : thefe 
are clout-nails dipped in lead or folder. Port-nails, com¬ 
monly ufed to nail hinges to the ports of fhips. Ribbing- 
nails, ufed to fallen the ribbing, to keep the ribs of IhLps 
in their place in building. Rofe-nails are drawn four- 
fquare in the (hank, and commonly in a round tool. Ro- 
ther-nails, chiefly ufed to fallen rother-irons to fitips. 
Scupper-nails, much ufed to fallen leather and canvas to 
wood. Sheathing-nails, ufed to fallen lheathing-boards 
to fhips : the rule for their length is, to have them full 
three times as long as the board is thick. Brads, long 
and flender, without heads, chiefly ufed for thin deal 
work, to prevent fplitting. To which may be added 
tacks ; the fmallell ferving to fallen paper to wood ; mid¬ 
dling, for wool-cards and oars; and larger, for upholfte- 
rers and pumps. They are dillinguilhed by the names of 
white-tacks, or tin-tacks, and two-penny, three-penny, 
and four-penny, tacks ; being fo much per hundred of 
fix fcore. 
The immenfe confumption of nails in all the mecha 
nical arts and trades, caufes their fabrication to be a con- 
fiderable branch of national manufafture. It is chiefly 
carried on in Staffordlhire, in the neighbourhood of Dud¬ 
ley, Wolverhampton, and Birmingham ; indeed, it is the 
principal confumption of the malleable iron made in that 
part of England. The iron ufed in the nail-trade is of 
the cheapell fort, chiefly made in the pudling-furnaces, 
and worked by rollers inllead of a forge-hammer. This 
metal is, by repeated rolling, reduced into fmall thin bars, 
which are then palled through the grooves of the flitting- 
roilers, and thus divided or flit into three, four, five., or fix, 
fmall fquare rods, of a proper fize to make nails. Thefe, 
which are called nail-rods, are a very extenfive article of 
trade. The nailers refide chiefly in the cottages, where 
the women and children aflill in the labour. They em¬ 
ploy forges, fuch as are ufed by fmiths ; but the bellows 
are very lightly loaded, fo that a very fmall motion given 
to them now and then will blow fufliciently to heat the 
rods; two, three, or four, of which, according to their 
fize, are always kept in the fire together; and, when any' 
one has a good red heat, the nailer takes it out of the fire, 
and, battering it on the anvil, brings it to a lharp fquare 
point at two or four llrokes; he then applies it over the 
edge of a chifel fixed on an anvil, and, byftriking a (ingle 
blow on the rod, cuts off a fufficient length to make a 
nail, which falls into a tin pan ; then he makes another, 
and, cutting it off likewife, returns the end of the rod to 
the fire for another heat; now, with a pair of tweezers, 
like fugar-tongs, he takes up the nail, and introduces its 
point into a fquare tapering hole, made acrofs through 
the end of an iron tool or mould ; by ftriking a blow or 
two on the end of the iron, he flattens it down, and forms 
a head, the figure of which is determined by the number 
and direction of the blows given it. This procefs is con¬ 
duced with furprifing rapidity, as the nailers, by long 
pra&ice, acquire a mechanical habit of forming a com¬ 
plete nail by a certain number of llrokes, fo as never in 
the courfe of an hour to make an unneceffary movement. 
For large nails, they can only make one, and cut it off, at 
each time they take the iron from the fire; becaufe they 
would be unable to get the heading finiflied whilll they 
were fufliciently hot. The length of the nail is regulated 
by a flop, fixed at a certain dillance from the edge of the 
chifel, fo that the point of the nail being applied to this, 
determines the proper place for the edge of the chifel. 
i L. 
The fize of the mould withinfidc, and the dimenfions to 
which the point of the nail is reduced by hammering, 
caufes the cut end to project above the furface of the 
mould more or lefs; fo that the head will be thicker or 
thinner, and have its quantity of metal regulated, by the 
degree of taper given to the point; therefore, the art of 
the workman is difplayed in linking with a due force, fo 
that every nail fhall be made of the fame fize, by a certain 
number of blows. In tlfis manner the greater number of 
all nails are made ; but the great expenle of labour has 
induced many manufacturers to turn their attention to 
inventions which would diminifli the labour, fo as to ena¬ 
ble them to bring their nails to the market at reduced 
prices, or of a better quality. Many patents have been 
taken out for thefe inventions, fomeof which we (hall 
briefly notice. 
Mr. W. Finch, of Wimboorne in Staffordlhire, obtained 
a patent in July 1790, for manufacturing nails by machi¬ 
nery. He propofed, by means of a water or (team mill 
giving motion to a main-lhaft or axis, to actuate a num¬ 
ber of fmall hammers, to work either in a tilt or lift man¬ 
ner. By thefe hammers the nails were to be forged ; but 
the operation was to be divided among three people for 
headed hails ; thus, one to attend the fire, and carry the 
rods, as fall as they were properly heated, to the fecond 
perfon, ftationed before the hammer, who would make 
the nails in the molt expedi ions manner, by only turn¬ 
ing the rod about under the hammer ; when cut off, the/ 
were taken by the third perfon, who finilhed the heads in 
a tool as above deferibed, but by means of a hammer 
worked by machinery, inllead of hard labour. By thefe 
contrivances, in conlequence of the more fpeedy motion 
of the machine-hammers, feveral nails were to be made 
at once heating of the rod; whereas, by the old method, 
only one, or two at molt, could be made; thus making 
a great faving of labour; and, as the operation required 
noftrength, children might ealily make the largedfpikes; 
the motion of the hammer being fo regular, that they 
could eafily acquire a dexterity in turning the rods pro¬ 
perly to receive the blows. 
In the fame year, Mr. Thomas Clifford, of the city of 
Briltol, obtained two patents for the manufacture of nails 
of every kind. The principle on which his fird invention 
was founded, was that of making the nails in a die ; that 
is, by having a die, or the impreflion of the nail to be cut, 
formed in one or more pieces of Heel; and the iron, of 
which the nails are to be formed, is drawn or rolled into 
the proper form or thicknefs, and, by a force adapted to 
the purpofe, preffed into a cavity or die, fo as to form the 
nails either complete, or lo nearly complete as that they 
can be finilhed with very little labour. This operation 
may be done in feveral ways; but the one particularly re¬ 
commended by Mr. Clifford is by rollers of iron or flee], 
and worked either by water, fleam, wind, horfes, &c. The 
two rollers are to be made of iron, and cafed with Heel, 
each of the fame diameter, which is proportioned to the 
length and fize of the nail intended to be made. Each 
roller Ihould have a cog-wheel on it, the cogs of one 
roller to work into thofe of the other, fo that both the 
rollers may perform the fame exaCt revolution. One half 
the imprefs of the nail is to be cut in the lurface of one 
roller, the other half in the other; fo that the two im- 
preffions form a cavity or die of the exaCl form of a nail 
extending the lengthways of the nail on the circumference 
of the rollers; and, as many impreffions of the fame kind 
may be cut in the rollers, one at the end of the other, as 
will complete their circumference, and continue the ca¬ 
vity all round the rollers; the point of one nail joining 
the head of the next, or the two points and two heads 
joining each other. The rollers mull, in this as in other 
cafes, be made to work very true and clofe to each other. 
The mode of operation is this : A rod of iron, previoufly 
rolled or drawn to a convenient fize, is to be heated, and, 
while hot, the end of it is put between the rollers into the 
cavity or die which forms the impreflion of the nail. The 
rollers. 
