The history of the nail

Remember, what mess began in the house when one of the characters of Jerome K. Jerome's story "Three in a boat( not counting a dog)" - Uncle Podger undertook to do something for au pair? Once he decided to hang a picture. Where did he start? With nails. .. "He sends the maid to buy six pence nails, and after her - one of the boys to tell her what size nails should be."

It's probably not an exaggeration to say that one of the most popular household items is the most common nail. And in any house there will probably be nails. How else? After all, without them you can repair or hang a painting on the wall, and often they also repair shoes for the home master. But the nail is needed not only in everyday life. Without large nails - crutches do not lay a railway, without a nail, neither furniture, footwear, nor other factories can do. It is necessary both in construction and in shipbuilding - in short, not to list all the areas of application of this modest worker.

And the nails appeared in the primitive man. Then they were pointed fish bones, thorns of trees and bushes, chips. With their help fastened parts of buildings, boats, nailed skins, which served as protection from wind and snow.

With the discovery of metal, they learned to forge, and then to cast nails. At first they were made of bronze, but they were valued literally in gold, so only very rich people could use them. But already in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome were widely distributed iron and copper nails. Archaeologists in the excavation of ancient buildings in a multitude find such nails and sometimes even determine the time when buildings were built.

In Russia, nails were forged from the X-XIII centuries. And this occupation was considered so honorable that even the chroniclers mentioned the masters-nailers. Until the beginning of the last century, when machines were invented for the manufacture of forged nails, they were made by hand. Approximately at the same time wire nails appeared, the material for them was a special wire.

There are a lot of nails - building, roofing, roofing, finishing. And also wallpaper, decorative, plaster, slate, shoe, horseshoe, ship, finally, barge. All of them differ from each other in the shape of the rod and head, in thickness, in length. The growth of the smallest is 5 millimeters, but there are also giants - a half meter high! Most nails are made of mild steel. Ship and barge, which come into contact with water, - from copper and brass. Shoe can be metal or wooden( wooden wear about the same speed as the sole).

At all times people wanted to somehow improve the nail. So there were "designs" with transverse and longitudinal incisions( like in files - to better hold), with screw cuts( as in screws).Here is another original idea: at the nail, first cut the sides, to get a square section, and then twist it. The result is a helix on the surface.

For a durable and durable connection of highly vibrating parts, the steel core is wound around the nail core with pointed steel springs. When this nail is clogged, the barrette springs diverge to the sides and act as anchor anchors. There is an improved model of rail crutch, which fixes the rails. The inventors proposed to drill a curved hole in the crutch and insert a nail into it. When clogging a crutch, this nail, curving, climbs into a sleeper like a hook.

Master making nails. Engraving of the end of the XV century.

Did not pass nails with your attention and chemistry. In Germany, for example, produce metal nails in a thin polymer "clothes."They are very handy in the production of furniture - do not ruin expensive wood. And in England they decided to make nails out of. .. fiberglass. It turns out that they are not inferior in strength metal. Where are they used? Also for furniture production, only ship, as it constantly "lives" in dampness.

Wooden cathedral in Kizhi, built without a single nail.

But perhaps the most original one can recognize a nail invented in 1972 by an Englishman. Everyone knows that the hardest thing is to hammer a nail in the very beginning, when you have to hold it with your fingers and try to direct the hammer blows, plant it. After that, it's much easier to work. So, this nail is hollow: an additional thin "packing" nail walks through the hole to the point, and a fist through the hole in the hat. The central part of the nail is filled. .. with explosives! When you hit the bonnet, or rather - by striking, the explosive ignites, and a thin nail is fired into the tree. The main nail is planted, and now, please zakolachivayte, not afraid to damage your fingers. Such a nail can be compared to a patron, and such a "military" comparison will not be the only one. After all, now the production of tare is put on the flow, where each nailing machine is "charged" with a ribbon with nails stacked parallel or twisted into a spiral, well, no matter what - a battle machine gun!

You can make nails from metal shavings. Usually it is sent to the remelting. Engineers found it useful: in special presses, the chips turn into a dense mass, almost indistinguishable from a solid metal. From this mass get pretty good nails. The same result, if you take old cans.

And do you think it is possible to sell nails as souvenirs? It was such an application that one enterprising businessman found to the ancient nails found in our day in Scotland. In the I century BC there was an ancient Roman fortress. Once the legionaries had to leave the fortifications urgently. And since they did not want to leave values ​​to the enemy, they buried the available nail stock( no less than 7 tons) to a depth of 3 meters. This is the "treasure" and the builders dug up. Great was their surprise, and then scientists, when they saw that the nails remained in perfect condition, without a single speck of rust, although all the boxes had long since decayed. And then these nails were laid out in cellophane bags with the inscription: "A nail similar to those with which Jesus Christ was crucified" - and put on the market.

But back to Uncle Podger. He still managed to hang the picture( albeit crooked and unreliable), and "the wall a few yards around looks like it was shot with grape shot."But it's done, but it all started with an ordinary nail. ..

Take note of

You can hammer a nail without damaging your fingers, holding it with a clothespin, comb, plasticine, a narrow strip of paper folded in half.

In the spring-loaded bar, the nail can be pressed with clamp.