Nails Research Paper

Throughout time the process of building has sparked many ideas. Although some of the ideas end in failure, a few go on to be successful. But when people see a building or a nice piece of furniture, they look at what it is made of. While the thing that holds it together is overlooked, which would be the nail. When thinking of nails it is not often that the history of nails comes to mind, from the size to the evolution of nails throughout time, although without them the process of building would be totally different. Surprisingly, nails date back to the ancient times. Archaeologists have found hand made bronze nails from as far back as 3000 B.C. (Melchert, pg.1). The Romans made many of their nails from iron, which was harder, but many ancient nails have rusted away since (Melchert pg. 1). While the nail has almost always been produced for fastening and joining,
The term “penny”, as it refers to nails, is thought to have originated in medieval England to describe the price of 100 nails (Fourshee pg.1) The letter “d” which means penny stands for the Latin name given to the Roman coin, Denarius (La Belle Cut Nail Factory pg. 4). This system of classifying nails by size according to price was in place by 1477 A.D. (La Belle Cut Nail Factory pg. 4). Even though we still use the term penny, today the size of the nail is determined by measuring its length (La Belle Cut Nail Factory pg. 4). Nails start at 2d, which is one inch in length, and range up to 60d which is six inches in length (La Belle Cut Nail Factory pg. 4). From 2d to 16d, the size increases by quarter inches; above 16d, the size increases by half inches (Fourshee pg. 1). Setting the price of nails did not standardize their size (Allen pg. 1). However, it is apparent that the price of nails was constant, or almost constant, for a long period of time, and because of this it lead to standard sizes as a result (Allen pg.