science · 12 December 1796 · 228 years ago
In 1796, the second U.S. patent for a machine that combined the operations of nail cutting and heading was issued to George Chandler of Maryland. A month earlier, Isaac Garretson of Pennsylvania was issued the first U.S. patent for a nail cutting and heading machine on 16 Nov 1796. Records of these patents were lost in the Patent Office fire of 1836. Previously, nails had been cut cold since 1777, in Cumberland, Rhode Island. Decades later, Adolph and Felix Brown built the first successful wire nail machine. Their work was supervised by Major Thomas Norton in New York City, where it was put to use by William Hassall in 1851. The availablility of large quantities of inexpensive wire nails made the building boom possible.
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