The nail of Jael’s tent with which she killed Sisera, is called יתד; it was formed for penetrating earth, or other hard substances, when driven by sufficient force, as with a hammer, &c; it includes the idea of strength. The orientals, in fitting up their houses, were by no means inattentive to the comfort and satisfaction arising from order and method. Their furniture was scanty and plain; but they were careful to arrange the few household utensils they needed, so as not to encumber the apartments to which they belonged. Their devices for this purpose, which, like every part of the structure, bore the character of remarkable simplicity, may not correspond with our ideas of neatness and propriety; but they accorded with their taste, and sufficiently answered their design. One of these consisted in a set of spikes, nails, or large pegs fixed in the walls of the house, upon which they hung up the movables and utensils in common use that belonged to the room. These nails they do not drive into the walls with a hammer or mallet, but fix them there when the house is building; for if the walls are of brick, they are too hard, or if they consist of clay, too soft and mouldering, to admit the action of the hammer. The spikes, which are so contrived as to strengthen the walls, by binding the parts together, as well as to serve for convenience, are large, with square heads like dice, and bent at the ends so as to make them cramp irons. They commonly place them at the windows and doors, in order to hang upon them, when they choose, veils and curtains, although they place them in other parts of the room, to hang up other things of various kinds. The care with which they fixed these nails, may be inferred, as well from the important purposes they were meant to serve, as from ...

NAILS. A nail is a headed pin or spike of metal, commonly of iron. The primary and principal use of nails is in wood work (joinery and carpentery), but they are also employed in upholstery, shoemaking, saddlery, slating, sheet-metal working, horse-shoeing, and numerous other trades. The consumption in all civilized communities is enormous, but it is exceptionally great where timber houses and wooden erections generally prevail, as in the United States of America, and in many British colonies. Size, form of head, nature of point, and special uses all give names to different classes of nails. Thus we have the names tacks, sprigs, and brads for very small nails; rose, clasp, and clout, according to the form of head; and flat points or sharp points according to the taper of the spike. Arranged according to the manner in which they are manufactured, nails may fall into four principal classes: —(1) ordinary or hand-wrought nails; (2) machine-wrought and cut nails; (3) wire or French nails; and (4) cast nails. The nailer handicraft was at one time a great industry in the country around Birmingham, and to this day in conjunction with chain-making it constitutes an important though declining trade. It is essentially a family industry, carried on in the meanest of workshops, with a very few simple blacksmith’s tools and appliances. The nails are forged from nail-rods heated in a small smith’s hearth, hammered on a low anvil, the nail length cut off on a chisel attached to the anvil, and the head formed by dropping the spike into a hole in a “bolster” of steel, from which enough of the spike is left projecting to form the head, which is variously flattened out. The head, in the case of clasp nails, is formed with two strokes of the hammer, while rose nails require four ...