Nails

[Delmonico]

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Does anyone know when the more modern roundheaded machine made nails came out.  I always thought that the square head cut nails were the only kind in the old west.  Doing some other searching I found a bunk in a photo in Solomon Butcher's collection that looks like it's nailed together with round head nails.  The date is 1886. 

[Major 2]

Wire nail machinery was invented in France about 1855 and some nails were imported . But not until about 1870 did American made machines produce wire nails. It was 1890 before wire nails were more plentiful than cut nails in the US.

[Arcey]

As unlikely as it may sound, nails were made at Monticello in Charlottesville.  Same sold by Thomas Jefferson.

[Delmonico]

I like this, just like food items, conflicting dates, but that's what makes it fun.  If you want to look at the picture go to:

 http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award98/nbhihtml/pshome.html

Type supper into the search.  Also it appears that this fella has a full button down shirt.  Not unkown in this era, but much rarer than the pull over type.


 

[Mogorilla]

For 1886, interesting to see that it appears he is using a percussion rifle as well.

[Russ T Chambers]

Del

Am I right in assuming this is also a reverse image, as the lock on the rifle, and the buttons on the shirt, appear to be bass-acwards?   

[Arcey]

Keep lookin' it the long gun 'n I wonder if it's a rifle or a shotgun.  Seems ta be a sling there 'n maybe a fastener or sumthin' right where the rear sight of a rifle would be 'n not really a sight at all.  Can't see if it has one or two triggers for the chair.

Wonder whut was in that jug in the lower left too.  Bet whatever it was it was good 'n it looks like he was too young ta be drinkin' it...........

[Delmonico]

We have a 5 ftX7 ft enlargement of that photo in the NSHS Museum.  I've looked at it a hundred times or more.  I always thought is was a double barrel shotgun with a sling.  Never noticed the nails though till the other day.

Kind of shows you can miss things no matter how many times you look.  The shirts that looks like a full button was what I always noticed.

[Silver Creek Slim]

Ya talkin' bout the nails in the bed frame?

Slim

[Delmonico]

Yep.  Saterday I was helping put together an outfit for a 4th grader to go to a one room school house for a day and we were looking at some of the school pictures on the collection.  Found a step nailed with round head nails also.  I din't make any notes as to which one.  But I'll find it again.

Just shows though no matter how much you think you know, something will surprise you sooner or later..

[Delmonico]

And yet another source that has a different idea.


http://www.uvm.edu/~histpres/203/nails.html

With the rapid development of the Bessemer process for producing inexpensive soft steel during the 1880s, however, the popularity of using iron for nail making quickly waned. By 1886, 10 percent of the nails produced in the United States were made of soft steel wire. Within six years, more steel-wire nails were being produced than iron-cut nails. By 1913, 90 percent were wire nails. Cut nails are still made today, however, with the type B method. These are commonly used for fastening hardwood flooring.


If this source is right 10% is a lot of nails and they should start showing up.  The reason cut nails are liked in flooring is that they hold better. 

[J.D. Yellowhammer]

Here are some close-ups.  I brought out the contrast a little:

http://www.dorseyfoto.com/sup1.jpg

http://www.dorseyfoto.com/sup2.jpg

http://www.dorseyfoto.com/sup3.jpg


I'll see if I can get more out of the long gun.

JD

[J.D. Yellowhammer]

check out the end of the trigger guard. Does this help identify it?

http://www.dorseyfoto.com/longgun.jpg

[Delmonico]

One minor problem, if the photo is reversed, which would be a good reason for the hammer on the left, is the fella wearing a ladies shirt.  I look at the way the buttons on a man's or ladies shirt are to tell if the photo is reversed.


Ain't this fun.

[Four-Eyed Buck]

I was thinkin' it was reversed. That didn't look like a shotgun to me, was thinking more along the lines of a plains rifle myself. The heads on those nails look somewhat oval to me.......Buck

[Delmonico]

But the buttons on the shirt are where they should be.   Buttons to the right, button holes to the left.

[Delmonico]

Ok, go to:

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award98/nbhihtml/pshome.html

Type rifles and Westerville into the search.  The shotgun the guy is holding is a breechloader, but look at the forend.  Now go to the rifle in the antlers on the roof and look at the forend.  Compare both to the gun in the other picture. 

Don't even look at the one guys belt rig, that is really strange.

[Four-Eyed Buck]

RCJ, I've yet to see a left handed lock on a muzzle loader, but that doesn't mean someone didn't do it. A lot of those front stuffers were custom jobs anyway....
 Wow, three pages on nails!!!!!!!!!!!

[Delmonico]

At one of the workshops I went to, John Carter who is in charge of this collection said he thought he understood it till the computor enhancements became possible.    As I study this collection in my spare time I see all kinds of things that could drive one crazy.

Actually for me one of the best things the "Supper" picture shows is the differance in the amount of fat on an 1880's ham and one from our modern improved leaner pig.   But thats for a post I'm going to do in Cosie's Corner.

Until very recent times left handed people were forced to be right handed and the term for lefthanded, sinister, also came to mean someone kind of evil.  I've never seen a left handed muzzle-loader either. 

The nails, it don't matter except that I learned that what I thought was right isn't always so, because the round-headed wire nails were starting to be made, I sure thought they dated later, but again that depends on the source we belive.

[Four-Eyed Buck]

Dang, Del, we're gonna learn somethin' even if it kills us......

[Delmonico]

Thats what we're here for.

[Nolan Sackett]

I'd say this is a single barrel percussion muzzleloading shotgun, you can see the barrel tennon and ramrod pipes. - based on the style of the hammer and guard I'd say probably of Belgian make. While possibly a rifle the round barrel, lack of rear sight (what sort of looks like a rear sight is part of the sling IMO), oversized trigger guard, and other points ID'd on the photo suggest shotgun not rifle.
While left handed firearms were not overly common neither were they unknown (after all double barrels used left handed locks) -  Inexpensive muzzleloading shotguns were still being built at this time in pretty good quantity since they were cheap to build and thus sell.........

[Delmonico]

Thanks Nolan, I just didn't know if there were any built that way, as you know little totally surprises me anymore.