Wigzel Screw and Spiral Nails

ABP-HBM-3.600

Wigzel Screw and Spiral Nails

1859/1861

4 examples of twisted nails mounted on a board. rectangular shank nails: sharp twist, shallow twist, untwisted controls

Montague W. Wigzell

GB 14 & GB 136: Montague W Wigzell

1 January 1859; 1 June 1861

good condition

Acquired 30/6/1905

1- Hand converted 'gate' nail (used in partitions & doors); 2 - Hand converted General purpose nail; 3,4 - Machine made cut nail, & same type found at Port Fairy, circa 1854; 5,6 - Machine made from rod, spur head floor nail, with unused example from W&D Museum bins.

Montague W. Wigzell, an artist and inventor, patented a machine for putting a twist onto standard production nails with British Patent No 14 of 1 January 1859, and Patent No 1369 of 1 June 1861. The nails produced by this process were made in a converted sail loft at Topsham, near Exeter, Devon, where he was Headmaster of the School of Art. / The four examples of twisted nails shown here are a mixture of hand-converted and machine made nails, apparently dating from the mid to late 1860s. They were found in a large batch of salvaged nails obtained from a reclamation yard at Glastonbury in Somerset. They may have been part of an experimental batch, although several nails had traces of hardwood under their heads.

Donated by Chris How

Reclamation yard, Glastonbury, Somerset

Ironmongery

Iron

85 mm, 80mm, 75mm, 75 mm, 60mm, 60mm