A little wonder, every day

Steel wire changed nail production

оптимізовано з `media/pittsburgh-bessemer-converters-1886.jpg`: 1618×2048 px (половина початкової ширини й висоти), JPEG quality 82.

documentary photograph of workers at a wire-drawing and nail factory, Petah Tikvah, 1939; G. Eric and Edith Matson Photograph Collection, Library of Congress; the LOC reports no known restrictions, Commons identifies the work as public domain in the U.S. Original page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jewish_factories_in_Palestine_on_Plain_of_Sharon_%26_along_the_coast_to_Haifa._Petah-Tikvah._Wire_drawing_%26_nail_factory._%27Barzelit,%27_Ltd._Some_of_the_wire_drawn_is_transformed_into_nails_LOC_matpc.22480.jpg. Courtesy attribution: Matson Collection / Library of Congress. It documents later wire-nail production outside the United States and is not presented as a U.S. factory in 1913. No edits.

1 / 2

оптимізовано з `media/pittsburgh-bessemer-converters-1886.jpg`: 1618×2048 px (половина початкової ширини й висоти), JPEG quality 82.

Listen to fact0:00 / —

When the Bessemer process made steel cheaper to produce in the 1880s, nails increasingly shifted from iron that was cut into shape to nails made from steel wire. A U.S. National Park Service overview says that about 10% of American nails were already made from soft steel wire in 1886, and that wire nails made up about 90% by 1913. Historical archaeologist William Hampton Adams, analyzing U.S. production data, reports different shares for those years: 6.8% in 1886 and 94.2% in 1913. Despite the difference in figures, both sources show a rapid shift to wire nails; they were easier and cheaper to make and less expensive to ship.