Brook Abdu Robert Gordon Robert Knopf

Abstract

Laboratory analyses of nails, nail rod, and hoop iron from Thomas Jefferson’s nailery at Monticello, Virginia, yield information about the methods used and the products made at American rolling and slitting mills in the early years of the 19th century. The iron, made by fining pig, is nearly free of phosphorus. It is relatively soft and ductile, having a tensile strength of 290 MN/m2 and a reduction of area of 62%. Critical grain growth found in the hoop iron indicates that the metal was at a temperature of about 840°C during its last rolling pass. Rolling conditions produced an unusual pinch-and-swell structure in the slag inclusions. Bending at the edges of the nail rods indicates that the clearance between the slitter discs was about 20% of the nail rod thickness. Ferrite veining in the rod suggests that the iron passed through the slitters at a temperature between 600 and 700°C.

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References
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How to Cite
Interpretation of artefacts from Thomas Jefferson’s nailery at Monticello, Virginia. (2022). Historical Metallurgy, 37(1), 43-50. https://hmsjournal.org/index.php/home/article/view/261
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