384 100 9MB
English Pages [56] Year 1961
THE
STORY OF A o
M5s
CO.
J672
Adler
Ados C513947
Story of a nail
J672
Adler TIT
Ad5s C513947
Story of a nail
/*
PUBLIC LIBRARY FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY, IND. ALLEN COUNTY EXTENSION DEPT. ANTHONY 3333
SCHOOLS
as
IllPPWW^'g 8056
C/,
*
^'DRAWN
THE STORY OF A NAIL Irving and Ruth Adler
The John Day Company
- New
York
Books by Irving and Ruth Adler
NUMBERS OLD AND NEW THINGS THAT SPIN
:
FROM TOPS TO ATOMS
SHADOWS THE STORY OF A NAIL Books by Irving Adler SEEING THE EARTH
FROM SPACE
HOT AND COLD
WEATHER IN YOUR
LIFE
DUST
THE TOOLS OF SCIENCE THE SUN AND
ITS
FAMILY
MAN-MADE MOONS MONKEY BUSINESS: HOAXES IN THE NAME OF SCIENCE
HOW LIFE BEGAN MAGIC HOUSE OF NUMBERS
THE
STARS: STEPPING STONES INTO SPACE
TOOLS IN YOUR LIFE FIRE IN YOUR LIFE
TIME IN YOUR LIFE
THE SECRET OF LIGHT
© 1961 by Irving and Ruth Adler must not be reproany form without permission. Published by The John Day Company, 62 West 45th Street, New York 46, N.Y., and on the same day in Canada by Longmans, Green & Company, Toronto. All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof,
duced
in
Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number; 61-5646
Manufactured
in the
United States of America
Contents Nails, Nails
4
Joining Without Nails
8
Handmade
Nails
Machine-made
Nails
10 co SCH00LS
The Story of Iron Ore C513947 The Story of Coal The Story of Limestone Moving the Ore, Coal and Limestone The Story of Coke The Story of Wrought Iron The Story of Pig Iron Making Steel from Pig Iron The Story of Wire Rods The Story of Steel Wire Making the Nail
12
14 16 18
20 22
24 26 28 32 34 36
Finishing the Nail
38
Sterilized Nails
40
Nails with
Two
Balloon-frame
Feet and
Homes
No Head
42 44
Picture Story of a Nail
46
Word
48
List
Head
Nails, Nails
/¥ m
These are
all nails.
Nails usually have heads
and pointed shanks. Nails have many and shapes and are made from many ent metals.
Shank
Each kind
of nail has
its
sizes
differ-
own
spe-
cial use.
There
is
one way
same. They are
all
together.
J
4
in
which
all nails
are the
used for joining materials
The carpenter
uses
common
nails for
mak-
ing the rough framework of houses.
The
roofer uses roofing nails.
and
their shanks
their
roof shingles from
broad
The barbs on
flat
becoming
heads keep
loose,
even in
strong winds.
The man who makes wooden packing boxes uses box nails. They are long and thin. Some have bumps on their shanks, so that they will hold well.
The man who makes wooden hoop fasteners rels in place.
are easy to
for fastening the
They have sharp
hammer
barrels uses
hoops of bar-
points. So they
into the barrel, close to
the hoop. Their shanks are short. So their points do not go through to the inside of the barrel
where they might scratch what
They have mered
large
flat
is
in
it.
heads which can be ham-
against the hoop. So they hold the
hoop
tightly in place.
The carpenter who
builds docks uses barge
for his work.
The
spikes are
long and thick. They do not
split
the
and boat spikes
out of which the dock
have square shanks and
is
built
flat
wood
because they
points.
0\
The man who lays a wood floor uses flooring nails. They go through the hard wood easily without splitting it. The shank of the flooring nail
is
rough. So the nail holds very
well.
The man who
builds concrete forms uses
double-headed form
made
of
nails.
wood. Concrete
is
The forms
are
poured into the
form. After the concrete has hardened, the
form
is
taken apart. The extra head makes
it
when the form has to be taken off, and keeps the wood from being damaged. Then the wood can be used over easy to pull out the nail
and over again
for
making other concrete
forms.
many kinds of nails that are made. They are made in many sizes. Some nails are so small that 1,000 of them weigh as much as a thimbleThese are only a few
ful of water.
Other
of the
nails are so large that
each one
weighs 2 pounds.
The carpenter buys his nails at the lumberyard in cardboard boxes or wooden kegs. Each container usually holds from 25 pounds to 100 pounds of nails. You can buy nails at the hardware or five-and-ten-cent store in cardboard boxes. Each box contains A pound, /i pound or 1 pound of nails. l
6
l
The word "penny"
used to
is
tell
the size of a nail.
long time ago, in England, nails that sold for
six
A
pennies
pound were called "sixpenny" nails. The name "sixpenny" meant the price of the nail. It was written as 6d, which is the short way the English write "sixpenny." a
The name "sixpenny" any more.
Now
it is
doesn't
nail
(12d)
A twopenny
nail
(2d)
is
is
if
size of the nail.
smaller than a sixpenny
/7 ££s
nail.
Very small ones are
they have small heads, and tacks
have large heads.
A
larger than a sixpenny nail.
nails are called spikes.
called brads
the price of the nail
used to show the
twelvepenny
Very large
mean
if
they
I lift
il
Joining Without Nails
made of iron. People began to make houses out of wood long before they had any iron. So they had to join the pieces of wood without nails. The first houses that used wood were made of posts, Most
nails are
twigs and mud. Posts were set in the ground. Twigs were
woven back and
forth
around the
posts.
The spaces and
cracks around the twigs were filled with
The
carpenters
who
lived in
mud
or clay.
Egypt 4,000 years ago
did very fine woodworking. They had metal tools with
which
to work.
They
also
had
iron
and copper
nails.
But
metals were hard to get. So they did not use nails often.
Also there was not tians did not
make
much wood
in
Egypt. So the Egyp-
their houses out of 8
wood. They did
use
wood
for
making furniture and
needed large pieces smaller pieces.
coffins.
When
they
wood, they made them from
of
They made
large pieces of
wood by
plac-
ing planks cut from the same tree trunk side by side.
The planks were then were sometimes used furniture
row
Wooden pegs planks. Wooden
joined together. for joining the
was often held together by
linen cord or nar-
strips of leather.
Woodworkers used gether.
They had
to cut the pieces of
wood
together very carefully, so that they would like a jigsaw puzzle.
were used
to
make
wood
special joints to hold the
Wooden
to
to-
be joined
fit
together
pegs, iron bolts or glue
the joints hold tightly.
f-^
Coffin
lid
made by join-
ng small pieces of |
—
2**f-^
wood
FjjSgjfrPeg
^^^
in
B^S Joining with
wooden pegs
Old Egyptian 9
The peg
joints
place
Nailrod
Hammer
Anvil
Handmade
Nails
Until about 150 years ago, nails were
The
nail
makers bought iron nailrods
made by hand.
in different sizes
from the ironworks nearby. They used very simple So they were able to make the
The
nail industry in
nails in their
own homes.
England grew up around the
works of Birmingham. In the United States
around the large iron
New
New
and
tools.
it
iron-
grew up
England ironworks. Today the very
steel mills in the
United States are not
England. But Taunton, Massachusetts,
is
still
in
the
center of the tack-making industry.
The handmade nails were known as forged cause the nail maker used a forge for heating rods. The heated nailrod was hammered on 10
nails be-
the nailthe nail
maker's anvil.
A piece,
with a
The shank
chisel.
the length of the nail, was cut of the nail
was then held
off
in a
The head was shaped by hammering one end of the shank. More than 300 different kinds of forged nails vise.
were made. Nails with ferent ways. There
different shapes
were round
nails
were used
in dif-
and square
nails.
The shape of the head gave the nails Some nails had heads that looked like shoe nails were
made
would not break in the
curious names. flowers. Horse-
of the very best iron so that they horse's hoof.
Some horseshoe
nails
made by hand. Because nails were made by hand, they were very expensive. When the farmers who settled our country wanted to move farther west, they could not take their are
still
houses with them. But they could take their did this by burning
down
their houses
nails.
They
and gathering
the nails together from the ashes.
Heads of handmade
Horshoe
nail
'^i 11
nails
o
Knife cuts off nail here
Holding iron
strip for
making
^
cut nails
Machine-made Nails
The first machine-made nails were cut nails. A man named Ezekiel Reed, who lived in Massachusetts, invented the machinery for making cut
These of iron.
and
as
first
The
machine.
was
strip
wide
made very
machine-made
A
The
were made from
as thick as the nail
as the nail
hot.
nails
nails in 1786.
was
strip
long.
The
strips
was going
strip of
was then fed
to
metal was
into a cutting
knife sliced a piece of the strip
by making
a slanting cut near one end. Before the next cut
made, the cut off
strip
became
caught by a small
was turned
over.
Each piece
a nail. As each slice
vise.
The
be
was cut
that off
it
was was
was
vise held the slice tightly while a
hammer hit one end
of the slice. This flattened the
end, making the head of the nail. Cut nails, which are usually used for nailing
the
wooden
same way. 12
floors,
are
still
made
in
The machine-made nails with the largest number of uses are made from wire. They are called wire nails. The first
machines for making wire
were made
nails
France. So wire nails are also called French
have been made by machine
for
nails.
in
They
about 100 years.
became worth while making wire nails by machine when there was plenty of iron and steel to use. About It
100 years ago a
new way
of
making
iron
and
steel
discovered. Very good iron and steel could then be
cheaply. steel.
Wire could be made cheaply from
So good wire
nails
could be
made
the nails that are used today are wire
The of the
story of a nail
way
in
is
which iron
made.
three things that are needed to
and limestone.
It is
story of the earth
It is
make
a story that
is
nails
and
It is
the story
a story that
is
the story of the
iron: iron ore, coal
almost as old as the
itself.
Old cut
this iron
nails.
It is also
older than the story of ironmaking.
made
cheaply. Most of
a very long one. is
was
and spike
The Story Before you can
and
iron
and
and water are Iron
ores
iron nail,
you must have iron
iron ore, coal
steel:
also
to
and limestone. Air
used in making iron and
steel.
usually not found in nature as a metal.
is
found joined
The
Ore
Three things must be brought together
steel.
make
make an
of Iron
It is
to other chemicals in minerals called ores.
from which we get iron are found
all
over the
world. Most of the iron ore used in ironmaking in the
United States comes from the
states of
Minnesota, Mich-
igan and Wisconsin, along Lake Superior.
The trict is It
iron ore that
is
found
in the
a kind of rust. In this ore, iron
began
to
Lake Superior is
joined to oxygen.
be formed millions of years ago when great
shallow seas covered that part of the earth. of these seas
had
iron in
it
The water
joined to other chemicals to
form compounds. As time passed, these compounds to the floor of the sea.
of
mud hundreds
They stayed
Many
there,
mud that also settled The mud hardened into rock.
millions of years passed.
fell
making a layer
of feet thick. This thick layer
ered later by more of the sea.
dis-
was cov-
on the bottom
The shape
of the face
of the earth kept changing. Parts of the earth that
were
covered by water were pushed up and mountains were formed. Mountains rose out of the sea in what 14
is
now
the
Lake Superior
Rain
district.
millions of years, wearing
the mountains were iron
compounds
in
left.
it,
off.
on the mountains for
them away. Only the roots of The hardened mud, with the
was
ground wore away part
fell
Water
in these roots.
of these roots
in the
and carried them
But the water did not carry away the iron com-
pounds. These were
The
ore near
kind of mining iron ores are
left
behind.
Lake Superior is
very
mined
much
is
mined
like
in
open
digging a
in tunnels that
pits.
cellar.
-"
r^" i
pit
Other
go under the ground.
5*
Open
This
ore mining
The Story Iron
is
of
Coal
freed from iron ore by heating
Coke
together with coke.
makes the furnace
hot. It
in a furnace
it
also acts as the fuel is
which
made from
a kind of coal
dug up out
of the ground.
called soft coal.
Coal
is
a black rock that
had
Coal, too,
its
is
beginning
when
great shallow seas
covered parts of the earth millions of years ago.
covered what nois
is
now
and Ohio. The
Pennsylvania,
air
West
grew
in the
into the
Virginia,
to the seas.
large.
Illi-
There were
Great forests of giant ferns
swamps. As time passed, plants died and
swamps. They rotted slowly
swamps. The rotted plants formed a
known
sea
was very hot and damp. The heat
and dampness made plants grow very
swamps next
A
in the
fell
water of the
thick, black paste.
More plants grew and died and rotted in the swamps. In this way layers of peat hundreds of feet thick were formed. Later, in some places,
This paste
is
as peat.
the sea rose and covered the layers of peat with sand.
The
layers of
peat, pressing
it
mud and
together.
sand pushed
mud and
down on
The water was squeezed out
of the peat, leaving the black rock called coal.
times the land rose out of the sea again. giant ferns
the
grew and rotted and 16
died.
New
Some-
forests of
Another layer of
New with mud
peat was formed.
seas rose
layer of peat
and sand.
was formed. Layers
known
1.
A
second layer of coal
formed
in this
way
as soft coal.
Giant ferns grew
the
of coal
and buried the second
in
swamps
2. Plants
died and
into the
swamps and
fell
rotted
3.
Layers of peat were
formed
1
The peat became when the water was squeezed out of it
4.
coal
MM How coal was formed
are
The Story
of
Limestone
In making iron a long time ago, part of the iron was
caught in a rocky mixture called wasted.
Now
slag.
This part was
saved with the help of limestone.
it is
made from
Some
of the
animals that live in the sea are shelled animals.
When
Limestone
is
a rock
shells.
they die their shells sink to the bottom of the sea, where they pile up. bits.
The
pile of shells breaks
Finally the pile of shells
mud. The weight
of the
up
into smaller
becomes a layer
water presses
down on
of white this
mud,
called limestone. In
some
of the places,
where limestone was formed there
aren't
any seas any
making a rock
longer. So the limestone
earth where
it
is
found near the surface of the
can be dug out 18
easily.
Limestone
is
usually
loose from the sides
mined
in
open
and bottom
of the pit. It
crushed into small lumps which are size.
Finally
it is
pits. It is
washed and ready
all
to
blasted is
then
about the same
be used
in iron-
making.
Limestone
way
is
sometimes mined in tunnels
as coal.
:?=
32=
Mining limestone
in
a tunnel
in the
same
Moving the Ore, Coal and Limestone After the iron ore, coal and limestone are mined, they
must be carried
making takes
Most States
to the steel mill,
used
ore
is
mines of the Lake Supe-
pit
The
pits.
The
ore
is
dumped
into
cars are then pulled to long ore docks.
stored in one of the
the ore dock.
steel-
Great steam shovels and electric shovels
scoop up the ore from the
The
and
ironmaking in the United
in
comes from the open
railroad cars.
iron-
place.
of the ore
rior district.
where
Then
ore
is
many
pockets which line
poured from these pockets into
the holds of the lake ships.
The
ships carry the ore to
ports near the steel mills. At the port, giant shovels with
clamshell buckets unload the ore into waiting cars.
scoop of the shovel can
fill
a whole car.
The
cars
One
dump
the ore on one of the piles at the steel mill.
Most
of the soft coal
used in coke making comes from
western Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, West Virginia and
Kentucky. Moving belts carry coal from the mines to the top of the
tall
carry the coal
coal-washing plant. More moving belts
down
down, the coal
is
to waiting railroad cars.
sorted
by
several times. Clean coal
The is
size
On
railroad cars carry the coal to the steel mill,
20
way
and washed and dried
makes a better kind
stored in large piles.
its
of coke.
where
it
Much Lakes.
limestone comes from pits near the Great
It is
iron ore
loaded and unloaded in the same way
which comes by lake
limestone
come by
ship.
as the
Other supplies of
railroad car to the steel mill. It
stored alongside the coal and ore.
Giant shovels unload ore 21
is
The Story
of
Coke
made from coal in special ovens called coking ovens. The ovens are high and narrow and are built in long rows. There are often 100 ovens in a row. The coal is heated in these ovens without any air. The ovens are Coke
is
heated by coal gas. Since there doesn't catch
very hot,
made
gives off gases.
it
Chemicals
and begin
fire
any
isn't
gases are piped away.
in the gases are taken out.
The chemicals
Then
are
and other useful
later into drugs, dyes, plastics
things.
the coal
As the coal gets
to burn.
The
air,
the gases are piped back to the coking
ovens to be burned in order to heat them. After the gas has been burned, left in
it
the ovens after the gas
gray in color.
It is
It is
becomes very
burns,
it
When
the coking
oven are opened.
is
hard and strong.
spaces like a sponge. it
The piped away
passes off as waste.
is
A
It
has
solid matter is
coke.
many
It is
little air
almost pure carbon, and
when
hot.
finished, doors at
both ends of the
large coke pusher pushes the hot
coke out of the oven into a waiting
car.
The
car carries
the coke to a special building. There sprays of water wet
and cool the coke. catch
fire in
If this
the open
air.
was not done, the coke would After the coke has cooled,
sorted and ready for use in the iron furnaces. 22
it is
Before coal was discovered, charcoal was used for heating the iron furnaces. Charcoal is carbon made by baking wood, very much the way coke is made
by bak-
ing coal.
Now
coke takes the place of the charcoal. Coal
is
loaded here
Gases are away
piped
Door
^11
Hot coke is pushed out here
Gases are piped back here
How
a coking oven works
Old blast furnace
The Story
The
first
iron that
of
Wrought Iron
was made was wrought
iron. Iron
ore and charcoal were heated together in a furnace. blast of air
some
from bellows made the
ores, the iron
is
fire
joined to oxygen.
burn very
A
hot. In
The hot charcoal
away from the iron, leaving the iron by itself. At the same time the heat melted the iron. Iron ore always has some sand mixed with it. Part of the iron took the oxygen
joined with the sand to form a rocky material called
The
slag.
solid
came out of the furnace was a pasty mixed with slag. It had to be hammered while it
was
still
was
lost
iron that
hot to squeeze the slag out of
with the
slag.
24
it.
A
lot of iron
hundred years ago the ironmakers of Belgium learned what to do so that they wouldn't lose any iron Six
with the
slag.
with the ore
They put limestone and charcoal. Then
into the furnace along
the limestone, instead
of the iron, joined with the sand to form the slag.
furnace was
made
The heavier
iron sank to the bottom of the furnace.
slag,
which was
lighter, floated
of the slag, all they
the iron. tall
To
had
on top
do was
to
let it
of
slag melted.
it.
To
The
get rid
flow off the top of
get the slag hot enough to melt, they used
round furnaces.
bottom
and
so hot that the iron
The
A
blast of air
of the furnace, to
Such a furnace
is
make
was blown
the
fire
called a blast furnace.
Bellows
in at the
burn very
hot.
The Story
of Pig Iron
A modern is
blast furnace
higher than a ten-story
building.
Near the
nace are the
blast fur-
piles
of ore,
limestone and coke. Next to the furnace stoves.
The
is
row
a
of tall
stoves are used
for heating the air that
be used
is
to
in the blast furnace.
Ore, coke and limestone are
coke and
\
in at the top of
the furnace by
limestone! [,;,'/
dumped
\
little
dump
which run along the
cars
sink to the
bottom and
t
tracks that slope
up
to the
top of the furnace from the
ground. Blasts of hot
air are
blown up from near the
tom
of the furnace.
bot-
The coke
burns and the mixture of ore, coke and limestone sinks to the bottom of the furnace.
The furnace
is
hottest at the
bottom. So, as the mixture sinks,
26
Modern
blast furnace
it
keeps getting hotter.
By
the time
it
has melted and
melted and off.
bottom
gets to the
come out
floats
on top
coke, limestone
iron
The
is
little
and ore
So while iron flows out
more
of the ore.
The
of the iron. It
In the meantime, the
more
of the furnace, the iron
dump
is
slag has also
easy to skim
cars
keep pouring
into the top of the furnace.
at the
bottom
of the furnace,
being made.
iron flows through a hole in the furnace into a
large ladle
which dumps
it
into a bottle-shaped car called
The mixer keeps the needed for making steel. Iron made in this way is called a mixer.
iron melted until
it
pig iron, and this
is
how into
it
got
its
name. At one time the melted iron flowed
a
row
of
little
of
it
forms.
baby pigs next
The row
to a
mother
of forms looked like a pig.
Melted iron
dumped
in
is
herei^
©© Mixer car
27
is
row
Making
The
first fast,
Steel
from Pig Iron
cheap way of making
steel
semer process. Pig iron has some carbon iron with
some
of the carbon taken out of
was the Besin
it.
it.
So
Steel
steel
is
can
be made from pig iron by taking part of the carbon out of the pig iron. This
is
done by blowing
air
melted pig iron in a Bessemer furnace. The the carbon burn. steel.
The
steel
is
What
is
left in
then poured
Gases given off by burned carbon
Inside a Bessemer furnace
the furnace
off.
over the
air
makes
is
melted
Another cheap way of making hearth furnace. The hearth
shaped
like a large
round
is
dish.
steel
is
in the
an open, shallow pool,
The pool
is
scrap iron and melted pig iron. Limestone the mixture.
Hot gases and
over the pool. They burn as
make
open-
filled is
with
added
to
come together and pass they flow over it. The flames air
the mixture in the pool hot enough to melt the
scrap iron and burn out the chemicals in the mixture that aren't wanted.
The limestone melts and forms
kV
Z.
,
WfA
*\
POT Gas
•
An open
hearth furnace
29
a slag.
The pool now contains melted on the top. The slag overflows melted
back molds
steel
into a small ladle.
steel flows into a giant ladle
of the furnace. in
which
it is
with slag floating
The melted
through a hole steel
is
at the
poured into
shaped and cooled. After the
has hardened in the molds, the molds are taken
A soaking
pit
The
off
steel
while
v
the steel
is still
ing pit where it
soft
red-hot.
it is
enough
to
into
wide
rolled.
by
flat sheets.
pieces called
steel
then put into a soak-
is
heated through and through to make
be
to different shapes
The
Next the
giant
Some
rolls. is
steel
Some
is
squeezed
steel
is
squeezed
squeezed into long narrow
billets.
—
,;
—
—
_
A
-+ ».
-^P-*
Giant
rolls
squeeze the
in-
steel into different
31
shapes
The Story
The end
of
Wire Rods
or cross section of a billet
or circle. Billets are used for
is
a small square
making some
steel pipe.
Billets are also
used for making the wire rods out of
which the wire
for wire nails
Billets for
they are pair of
still
rolls.
a potato
is
is
formed.
wiremaking are rolled several times while hot.
The
Each time they billet
is
are rolled
by a
squeezed by the
rolls
the
way
squeezed by a potato masher. The opening
between the
rolls is
smaller than the billet that
rolled.
So each rolling makes the
longer.
Each
ly,
different
the billet
rolling also is
makes the
billet
is
being
narrower and
steel stronger. Final-
squeezed out as a rod, and wound up
coils.
32
in
A The wire they can be
reel of
wire rod
rods must be cleaned of
made
into wire.
They
oil
and
dirt before
are cleaned
by
dip-
ping them into a chemical bath. They are then washed with fresh water. Next, the rods are made to ly they are
rust. Final-
dipped into a bath of lime and dried
in a very
hot oven. The heat of the oven makes the lime form a
very hard coating on the outside of the rods. The coat of rust
and lime on the rod makes the next step
making
easier.
33
of wire-
The Story
The wire
rods are
of Steel
made
Wire
into wire
by pulling them
through smaller and smaller holes. This drawing. The wire rods are drawn
They
are
drawn through
when
a hole in a die.
is
called wire
they are cold.
The coating
of
lime on the rod keeps the rod from sticking to the die.
Dies for drawing steel wire must be strongest steel.
Diamonds
made from
the very
are sometimes used in the
wire-drawing dies because they are the hardest things in the world.
spool near the
wound around a wire-drawing machine. One end of the
rod
The pointed end
To draw
wire, the cold coiled rod
pointed.
is
is
is
threaded through a
hole in the die of the wire-drawing machine, the
thread
is
way
put through the eye of a needle. This end
a is
then attached on the other side of the die to a drum that turns.
An
electric
motor turns the drum, pulling the rod
The rod becomes longer and narrower and is wound around the turning drum. The wire rod becomes steel wire. The steel wire is drawn several times. Each time it is pulled through a smaller hole. Each time through, the wire becomes narrower and through the hole in the
die.
longer.
When it
the wire passes through the wire-drawing die
becomes bright and
shiny. It also
34
becomes
stronger,
harder and
stiffer.
the wire cannot be
Sometimes
it
becomes
made any narrower by
fore this happens, the wire
cooled,
it
hard that
drawing. Be-
heated. After the wire has
is
can be drawn through the dies again. This
be done several times
.fS*3947
'
i. , Wire u has thousands
clips;
may
until the wire has the right thickCO. SCHOOLS
n6SS
paper
so
t
or uses. It
is
, used tor fences and
coat hangers and safety pins; needles and
spiral notebooks.
Much
Things
wire
is
used for making
made from 35
wire
nails.
Making the Nail Before the wire straightened. eral pairs of
is
used to make
straightened
It is
smooth
It is
must be
it
by passing through
sev-
rolls.
The straightened wire machine.
nails,
is
then fed into the nail-making
fed into the nail-making machine in jerks
by a feeding machine. Wire
nails are
made head
first.
A
gripper die holds
the wire firmly in place in the nail-making machine. little bit
mer
hits this bit of
of the die.
A ham-
wire with a hard blow, flattening the
die.
The
The hammer then
pulls
wire against the
head
end
of wire sticks out past the
A
flattened wire
becomes the
of the nail.
away from
the gripper die
and the die opens up. Then the feeding machine pushes
more wire through the
die.
Enough wire
through the die to make a
nail.
Now the steel jaws
gripper die close around the wire and pinch after the wire
cut the wire.
same time
is
pinched, two knives
The knives form
gripper die. the
it.
of the
Right
together and
the point of the nail at the
that they cut the wire.
The knives do not make Then
move
pushed
is
A
little
hammer
wire
is
their cut right next to the
left sticking
hits this bit of
of the next nail.
36
out past
wire to
make
its
end.
the head
The nail-making machine goes through these steps over and over again — hammer, push, cut; hammer, push, cut
—
as
it
makes
nail after nail.
This will
be the
head of the
nail
Rolls of
feeding
machine
.
.
.
.
when
the
hammer flattens t
against the
gripper die Knife
How
a
nail
machine works
37
Knife
-———-———
"^•- -ffiflf '
Finishing the Nail
When the nails
are cut
smooth. There are
by the
little
knives, the poinjts aren't
wire hairs, called whiskers,
where the wire was pinched and
cut.
After the nails have been cut off from the wire, they
drop into
moving
little
nails to bins.
The
carts.
These
little
carts carry the
bins tumble the nails around the
a clothes dryer tumbles the clothes inside
many
little
it.
way
There are
fingers that stick out all over the insides of
the bins. There
is
sawdust inside the
bins, too.
As the
bins turn, the nails rub against the sides of the bins. This shines the nails
be sticking
and breaks
off
the whiskers that
Any
oil
that
to them.
sticks to the
may be on
sawdust. Screens in the bins
let
may
still
the nails
the oily
sawdust and the whiskers drop out of the drum, but hold
back the
nails.
The
nails are
then ready for weighing and
packing.
A
may make many different kinds of wire nails. Each kind of nail is made by a different machine. Most wire nails are made by single-blow machines. The heads of nails made by single-blow machines are hit by the hammer only once. Single-blow machines can make as many as 700 nails in a minute. nail mill
38
Nails with very large heads are
made on double-blow
machines. Their heads are formed by two blows of the
hammer. Staples
and tacks are other kinds
of wire nails
made
by nail-making machines.
U. S.
Nail-making machine
St—
I
Corp.
Sterilized Nails
Tacks are small
nails
with big heads. They have very
sharp points.
man who
Tacks are used by the
lays carpets. Their
sharp points go through the carpet easily. They grip the
wooden
r
floor
under the carpet because
their shanks are
down
the carpet with-
not smooth. Their big heads hold
out tearing
it.
Because tacks are so small, the
lays carpets keeps a
works.
easier for
It is
mouth than
He
bunch
to
have
him
to
of
them
a tack.
hunt around
tacks around in his
He
mouth
in his pocket for
mouth with
uses his tongue to
mouth and then
to
his
it.
hand
move
the
push them out
he needs them. Because he keeps the tacks he uses
i
he
as
to take a tiny tack out of his
doesn't even have to touch his
when he needs
in his
man who
as
in his
mouth, they must be very clean. Tacks are sterilized
by putting
made very tacks.
make them clean. They are them into a drum which has been
sterilized to
hot.
The heat
The heat also
kills
the germs that are on the
changes the color of the wire from
which the tacks have been made. After the tacks have been
sterilized,
nails are called
they look blue. So sterilized tacks and
blued tacks and 40
nails.
The upholsterer who makes
sofas
and
chairs also keeps
tacks in his mouth. So upholsterer's tacks are blued.
The
lather
who
nails
down
the
wooden
strips
on the
wire for plaster walls keeps the lath nails in his mouth.
So lath
nails are blued, too.
41
Nails with
The farmer has going into the
Two
Feet and
to build fences to
fields that
No Head keep
his
cows from
he has planted with grain.
He
has to build fences around his chicken yard to keep his chickens from getting wire.
He fastens the
lost.
He
builds his fences out of
wire to fence posts with special wire
nails, called staples.
42
The farmer can use an ordinary wire fencing wire to fence posts. the nail part
he
is
using.
He
way into the fence Then he bends up
sticks out past the wire.
hammer and
He
nail for fastening
this
by hammering
post, just
below the wire
does
the part of the nail that
hits the nail
hard with
flattens the nail against the post.
his
The bent
nail holds the wire against the post.
A it
staple does the
better.
A
ends of the
staple
is
same job shaped
as a
bent
like the letter
U have very sharp points.
but
nail,
U.
it
does
The two
These are the
feet
The wire fencing that is to be fastened to the fence post is held in place by the bend in the U. The staple is hit hard with a hammer until it goes all the way
of the staple.
into the post.
Then
the
bend holds the wire
against the post.
43
tightly
Balloon-frame Houses
The people who settled in the western part of the United States had plenty of wood for building houses. Because nails were handmade and expensive, they didn't have many either,
that
nails.
There weren't enough carpenters,
who knew how
were used
for
to join the
heavy pieces
wood
of
making houses. Houses took a long
time to build. So people often had to live in shacks or
dugouts until their houses were finished.
The machine-made
changed
nail
this picture.
Car-
numwhenever
penters didn't have to worry any more about the
ber of nails they used. They could use nails
wood together. So a new kind of house began to be built. The frame of this new kind of house was made of long, light pieces of wood. The frame held up the roof and both floors of the house. Some people made fun of this way of building houses. They called the houses made this way "balloonthey wanted to join two pieces of
frame" houses, because they thought the frames weren't very strong. These people were wrong. These houses
were strong and easy
to build.
building was a church built in a the city of Chicago.
en houses built
It
in the
of light pieces of
was
The little
first
balloon-frame
town
that
became
built in 1833. Nearly all
wood-
United States since then are made
wood held
together by
44
nails.
Heavy pieces of wood held together by joints and pegs
A wooden Light pieces of
house 400 years ago
wood
held
together by nails
A modern wooden 45
house
x
PilescpjF
co
*
—
-
Coking ovens
—
™
-
Mixer car
Open
hearth
furnaces 11* (A
Limestone
pits
46
1
*
j
yTTTTTT]Xpl__^x\x
ioa wire from
f
l Hi \
I
ittZfr
Hot hardened steel
u-
li
WMu-
Picture story of a nai
47
WORD —A
Bellows er, it
Billet
blows
—A
blowing
tool for
LIST air.
When
pressed togeth-
air out.
long piece of iron from which an iron rod
is
made.
Coke is
Die
—A
solid fuel
coal without
air. It
almost pure carbon.
— A tool used for shaping something by cutting it or
squeezing Iron
made by baking
it.
—A
compound
chemical in which iron
is
joined to
other chemicals.
Limestone
—A
rock formed under the sea from piles of
old sea shells.
— A mineral from which a metal can be taken out. Peat — A pasty, black muck formed by rotted plants on Ore
swampy Pig iron
—
bon on
Wrought
ground. Iron
made
in a blast furnace. It has
some
car-
it.
iron
—A
soft iron that
mering.
48
can be shaped by ham-
utaon««^^K^nBnn«»9nEHHaHi^^H
nD^^HHHHHH
•
£
THIS
*
A
|
ISA
JOHN DAY#
*
^
6UARANTEED
%
LIBRARY BINDING
• •
^
^