exposition, the sky-scrapers of Chicago, the rails, the tacks,
[Footnote: In the history of Rhode Island, by Arnold, it is claimed that
the first cold cut nails in the world were made by Jeremiah Wilkinson,
in 1777. The process was to cut them from an old chest-lock with a pair
of shears, and head them in a smith's vise. Then small nails were cut
from old Spanish hoops, and headed in a vise by hand. Needles and pins
were made by the same person from wire drawn by himself. Supposing this
to be the beginning of the cut-nail idea, _the machine for making
them_ would still remain the actual and practical invention, since it
would mark the beginning of the industry as such. The importance of the
latter event may be measured by the fact that about the end of the last
century there began a strong demand. In the homely farm-houses, or the
little contracted shops of New England villages, the descendants of the
Pilgrims toiled providently, through the long winter months, at beating
into shape the little nails which play so useful a part in modern
industry. A small anvil served to beat the wire or strip of iron into
shape and point it; a vise worked by the foot clutched it between jaws
furnished with a gauge to regulate the length, leaving a certain portion
projecting, which, when beaten flat by a hammer, formed the head. This
was industry, but not manufacture, for in 1890 the manufacturers of this
country produced over _eight hundred million pounds_ of iron,
steel, and wire nails, representing a consumption of this absolutely
indispensable manufacture for that year, at the rate of over _twelve
pounds_ for each individual inhabitant of the United States.] the
fence-wire, the sheet-metal, the rails of the steam-railroads and the
street-lines, the thousand things that cannot be thought of without a
list, and which is a material that is furnished more cheaply than the
old iron articles were for the same purposes.

[Illustration: SECTIONAL VIEW OF A BESSEMER "CONVERTER."]