The First Nails

The first nails were undonbtedly the eharp teeth of various animáis. Then, it is telieved, pointed fragmeutsof flint followed. The first manufactured metal nails were of bronze. The nail with which Jael killed Sisera was a wooden tent pin, probably pointed with iron. Bronze nails have been found in the Swiss lake dwellings, in several placea in Frunce and in the valley of the Nile. Until the present centtiry iron nails ■were forged, a blacksmith being able to raake only two or three dozen a day. The first cut nails were made by Jeremiah Wilkinson in Rhode Island in 1775. The first patented nail machine was by Perkius, 1795, and its product of 200,000 nails a day was considered so euormous that soine persons deenaed the result due to snpernatural agency.