[N.]
NACARAT, is a term derived from the Spanish word nacar, which signifies mother of pearl; and is applied to a pale red colour, with an orange cast. See [Calico-printing]. The nacarat of Portugal or Bezetta is a crape or fine linen fabric, dyed fugitively of the above tint, which ladies rub upon their countenances to give them a roseate hue. The Turks of Constantinople manufacture the brightest red crapes of this kind. See [Rouge].
NAILS, MANUFACTURE OF. (Clou, Fr.; Nagel, Germ.)
The forging of nails was till of late years a handicraft operation, and therefore belonged to a book of trades, rather than to a dictionary of arts. But several combinations of machinery have been recently employed, under the protection of patents, for making these useful implements, with little or no aid of the human hand; and these deserve to be noticed, on account both of their ingenuity and importance.
As nails are objects of prodigious consumption in building their block-houses, the citizens of the United States very early turned their mechanical genius to good account in the construction of various machines for making them. So long since as the year 1810, it appears, from the report of the secretary of their treasury, that they possessed a machine which performed the cutting and heading at one operation, with such rapidity that it could turn out upwards of 100 nails per minute. “Twenty years ago,” says the secretary of the state of Massachusetts, in that report, “some men, then unknown, and then in obscurity, began by cutting slices out of old hoops, and, by a common vice griping these pieces, headed them with several strokes of the hammer. By progressive improvements, slitting-mills were built, and the shears and the heading tools were perfected; yet much labour and expense were requisite to make nails. In a little time Jacob Perkins, Jonathan Ellis, and a few others, put into execution the thought of cutting and of heading nails by water power; but, being more intent upon their machinery than upon their pecuniary affairs, they were unable to prosecute the business. At different times other men have spent fortunes in improvements, and it may be said with truth that more than one million of dollars has been expended; but at length these joint efforts are crowned with complete success, and we are now able to manufacture, at about one-third of the expense that wrought nails can be manufactured for, nails which are superior to them for at least three-fourths of the purposes to which nails are applied, and for most of those purposes they are full as good. The machines made use of by Odiorne, those invented by Jonathan Ellis, and a few others, present very fine specimens of American genius.
“To northern carpenters, it is well known that in almost all instances it is unnecessary to bore a hole before driving a cut nail; all that is requisite is, to place the cutting edge of the nail across the grain of the wood; it is also true, that cut nails will hold better in the wood. These qualities are, in some rough building works, worth twenty per cent. of the value of the article, which is equal to the whole expense of manufacturing. For sheathing and drawing, cut nails are full as good as wrought nails; only in one respect are the best wrought nails a little superior to cut nails, and that is where it is necessary they should be clenched. The manufacture of cut nails was born in our country, and has advanced, within its bosom, through all the various stages of infancy to manhood; and no doubt we shall soon be able, by receiving proper encouragement, to render them superior to wrought nails in every particular.
“The principal business of rolling and slitting-mills, is rolling nail plates; they also serve to make nail rods, hoops, tires, sheet iron, and sheet copper. In this State we have not less than twelve.
“These mills could roll and slit 7000 tons of iron a year; they now, it is presumed, roll and slit each year about 3500 tons, 2400 tons of which, probably, are cut up into nails and brads, of such a quality that they are good substitutes for hammered nails, and, in fact, have the preference with most people, for the following reasons; viz., on account of the sharp corner and true taper with which cut nails are formed; they may be driven into harder wood without bending or breaking, or hazard of splitting the wood, by which the labour of boring is saved, the nail one way being of the same breadth or thickness from head to point.”
Since the year 1820, the following patents have been obtained in England for making nails; many of them of American origin:—
Alexander Law, September, 1821, for nails and bolts for ships’ fastenings, made in a twisted form, by hand labour.