[
1505]
N.
Nab.
1. (
Fire-arms.) The cock of a gun-lock.
2. (
Locksmithing.) The keeper of a door-lock.
Nac′a-rat.
（
Fabric.) Fine linen or crape dyed of a pale red color.
Nail.
1. A sharp narrow piece of metal for attaching objects by driving it into or through them.
It differs from a
spike or a
tack in being smaller than one and larger than the other; from a
screw in that the latter is not driven but twisted into the wood; from a brad in having a head, while the
brad has but a spur.
The
nail used by Jael, the wife of
Heber the Kenite, when she smote Sisera, was a tent-pin (
wated). The hammer was the mallet used to drive in the tent-pin.
The nail was probably of hard wood, and when “fastened in a sure place” was useful then as now. It is not all ground that will hold a tent-pin securely when a wind-storm comes on.
Deborah's song is a magnificent paean, but we must agree with Kitto that Jael's was “a treacherous and cruel act.”
The nails of ancient
Egypt were usually of bronze.
Iron nails have mostly perished with rust.
The tools of the Tahitians, when first discovered, were made of stone, bone, shell, or wood.
They had no idea of metal.
When they first obtained nails, they mistook them for the young shoots of some very hard wood, and, hoping that life might not be quite extinct, planted a number of them carefully in their gardens.
Eight years after the first voyage of
Captain Cook, that distinguished navigator says iron had quite superseded stone and bone.
Until eighty years since nails were always forged.
Before the introduction of machine-made nails, 60,000 persons were employed in forging nails in
Birmingham, England.
One authority states that there are about 300 varieties of nails made in
England, and 10 sizes of each variety.
We have no such to present.
The English mode of numbering, 7 lb., 8 lb., etc., denotes that 1,000 of the respective varieties would have those weights.
This mode of enumeration is substantially similar to our own, but much variation has occurred.
The following are the names, lengths, and number to the pound of the several sizes of nails: —
| Name. | Inches long. | No.
to the pound. |
| 2 d. fine | 1 | 880 |
| 3 d. fine | 1 1/2 | 665 |
| 3 d. common | 1 1/4 | 400 |
| 4 d. | 1 1/2 | 280 |
| 5 d. | 1 3/4 | 195 |
| 6 d. common | 2 | 155 |
| 6 d. fencing | 2 | 80 |
| 7 d. common | 2 1/4 | 120 |
| 7 d. fencing | 2 1/4 | 65 |
| 8 d. common | 2 1/2 | 90 |
| 8 d. fencing | 2 1/2 | 50 |
| 9 d. common | 2 3/4 | 70 |
| 9 d. fencing | 2 3/4 | 40 |
| 10 d. common | 3 | 55 |
| 10 d. fencing | 3 | 30 |
| 12 d. | 3 1/4 | 45 |
| 16 d. | 3 1/2 | 28 |
| 20 d. | 4 | 20 |
| 30 d. | 4 1/2 | 16 |
Nails are cast for some purposes, but their quality is inferior.
They may be improved by annealing (which see).
Garden nails for driving into brick walls, and nails for shoe-soles, are cast.
In 1718 an English patent was granted to
Clement Dawbeny for cutting iron into nail-rods; it was worked by water-power.
Clifford, 1790 (
England), patented a process of making nails by swaging between rollers whose depressions agreed with the shape of the nail; half in each roller.
The heads and tails joined so as to make them in a string, to be afterward separated by nippers.
It was proposed to treat a sheet in this way, converting it into strings of nails.
Clifford's next machine was to cut the nails from a bar rolled thicker at the head-end.
The nails were made at another operation, in a swage.
Thirty or forty patents in
England followed these of
Clifford's, but the
American nail-cutter was the first to cut the nails and swage the heads at one operation.
See nail-making machine.
The preliminary operations of smelting, puddling, squeezing, rolling, cutting, fagoting, re-heating, and re-rolling in the nail-plate train are described under their appropriate heads.
The plate thus prepared is taken to the cutting-machine, which shears off pieces as long as the width of the plate, the strips having a width to suit the particular size of nail for which they are intended.
This is a little longer than the destined nail, as a part of the slip cut from it is to be upset to form the head.
The nail-strips are heated by being placed on their edges on red-hot coals, whence they are taken one by one by the pinchers of the boy who tends the nail-machine.
It will be understood that the plate as it comes from the nail-plate train has fibers running in the direction of its length.
This is cut transversely into strips in which the fibers run across.
A transverse cut on this strip gives a nail in which the fibers are lengthwise.
See diagram
b.
The cutting jaws of the nail-machine are presented somewhat obliquely to the line of direction of the nail-plate, so as to remove a taper piece, the wide end being swaged into a head and the sharper end remaining as a point, and the nail-plate being turned over after each cut.
 |
|
Nail-plate and nails. |
Sparables, sprigs, brads without heads, and glazier's points are all of them of a triangular shape, and are merely cut from the strip.
Brads with heads and headed nails are made by cutters of peculiar form, which leave projections upon the head-ends of each nail, as seen in the figure, which illustrates the various kinds mentioned.
Nails are assorted as to —
1.
Purpose; as,
hurdle, pail, deck, scupper, sheathing, fencing, slating.
2.
Form of the heads; as,
rose, clasp, diamond, billed, clout, countersink, dog, etc.
3.
Form of points; as,
flat, sharp, spear, clinch.
4.
Thickness; as,
fine, bastard, strong.
[
1506]
5.
Size; from 1 1/2 lb. to 40 lbs. That is, 1,000 nails of a given size will weigh so many pounds.
6.
Material; as,
copper nail, for sheathing of ships, metal covering of roofs.
Galvanized, plated with zinc, etc.
7.
Mode of manufacture; as,
wrought, cut, cast.
The accompanying cut shows some of the peculiarities as to
heads, points, and thickness.
c. Rose-nail; sharp point, a flat head showing facets, square shank.
d. Rose-nail; flat point, square shank.
e. Clasp-nail; bastard (medium) thickness, barbed head, square shank.
f. Clout-nail; fine point, flat circular head, and round shank.
g. Counterclout nail; countersunk head, flat point, round shank.
h. Dog-nail; faceted head, round shank, fine point.
i. Kent-hurdle nail; a broad, thin, rose head, flat shank, spear-point for clinching.
j. Rose-clinch nail; rose head, square point, either clinched or riveted down on a washer or
rove.
k. Horseshoe-nail; countersunk head, square shank, fine point.
l. Brad; billed head, square shank, fine point.
To which may be added
spikes, tacks, and other varieties.
Nichol's nail (1873) is a strong, light nail formed of sheetmetal with or without a head, and stiffened by longitudinal grooves, ridges, or corrugations.
See under the following heads: —
| Bastard-nail. | Nailer's forge. |
| Brad. | Nail-hammer. |
| Brob. | Nail-machine. |
| Bullen-nail. | Nail-plate feeder. |
| Clamp-nail. | Pail-nail. |
| Clasp-nail. | Picture-nail. |
| Clinch-nail. | Plenshing-nail. |
| Clout-nail. | Ribbing-nail. |
| Counterclast-nail. | Rose-nail. |
| Countersink-nail. | Screw. |
| Cut-nail. | Screw-nail. |
| Deck-nail. | Scupper-nail. |
| Diamond-nail. | Sharp nail. |
| Dog. | Sheathing-nail. |
| Door-nail. | Sparable. |
| Doubling-nail. | Spear-nail. |
| Fencing-nail. | Spike. |
| Fine nail. | Spike-extractor. |
| Flat-head nail. | Spike-machine. |
| Flat nail. | Sprig. |
| Forge. | Tack. |
| Frost-nail. | Tack-claw. |
| Garden-nail. | Tack-driver. |
| Gate-nail. | Tack-hammer. |
| Gimp-nail. | Tack-puller. |
| Glazier's point. | Tin-tack. |
| Hob-nail. | Tree-nail. |
| Horseshoe-nail. | Trunk-nail. |
| Hurdle-nail. | Weight-nail. |
| Lead-nail. | Wheelwright's nail. |
| Mop-nail. | Wire-nail. |
| Nail-clincher. |
2. (
Blasting.) A taper copper rod used in tamping to make a hole by which the fuse or train may reach the charge.
3. A stamping instrument.
4. A measurer of length, 2 1/4 inches = 1/16 of a yard.
Nail-ball.
（
Ordnance.) An iron ball with a tail-pin projecting from it, to keep it from turning in the bore of the piece.
Nail-brush.
A small brush for cleaning the fingernails.
 |
|
Nail-clincher. |
 |
|
Nail-driver. |
Nail-clinch′er.
A blacksmith's tool for clinching the point end of a nail, —or what remains of it—against the hoof.
In the example, the steel faces of the clincher are adjustable, being hinged to the jaws so as to conform to the various forms of hoofs, one face
B′ resting below the shoe and the other
A′ clinching the nail.
Nail-driv′er.
In
Fig. 3277, the point of the instrument is placed at the spot where the nail is to be driven, the plunger is raised, and a nail dropped through the feed-tube; the plunger being then allowed to fall drives the nail home.
 |
|
Nail-extractor. |
Nail-ex-tract′or.
An implement with nipping claws for grasping a nail and withdrawing it. In the example, one claw is upon the fulcrum-piece to which the other jaw is hinged.
 |
|
Nail-extractor. |
In
Fig. 3279 the lever and fulcrum are pivoted together, and their jaws are clamped together by the act of lifting.
Nail-file.
A small, flat, single-cut file for trimming the finger-nails.
It is a part of the furniture of the dressing-case, or is cut on the blades of the nail-scissors, or on one small blade of a pocket-knife.
 |
|
Nail-hammer. |
Nail-ham′mer.
One for driving nails.
Notably, one which holds a nail for driving, as in the example.
Between the
peen and the claws is a recess in which a nail may be held to start it in the lumber; the other parts are effective for their specific duties.
In
Fig. 3280 the nail is gently held by the spring under the poll of the hammer till it is stuck into place ready for driving by a one-armed carpenter.
 |
|
Nail-hammer. |
Nail-head tool.
（
Iron-turning.) A lathe-tool
a having a circular expansion with a sharp edge, causing it to resemble, in a degree, a nail-head.
One edge is supported on the rest
b, and the other is applied to the work to be turned.
 |
|
Nail-head tool. |
Nail′ing-ma-chine′.
1. (
Carpentry.) A machine in which, the parts of a box being placed in the
[
1507]
proper relation, plungers advance and drive the nails which secure the sides of the box together, and the sides to the bottom.
Similar machines (see
Rice's and
Holmes's patents) are used for driving the legs of a wash-board against the sharpened edges of the corrugated zinc plate, sinking the zinc into the legs; an immediately succeeding motion forces the nails which secure the legs to the other portions.
The nails are fed into grooves from hoppers, and the drivers advance along the grooves and complete the operation.
2. (
Shoemaking.) A machine which acts automatically to drive the nails into shoe-soles.
The nails are fed from a hopper, or are cut, one at a time as needed, from a coil of wire, and driven into the sole.
In
