41–50 of 75 posts
its quite fascinating what you can do with really simple tools. some nails, a hammer, a saw, a piece of string, a bubble level, and measurement tools. highly optimized tool set.
Lovely that you added the piece of string in there, that's about the most multi-functional tool there is. Plumbbob (using a large nail as weight!), level line, marker, fixture (and many others) all at once.
> Why nails? They are a basic manufactured product whose form and quality have changed relatively little over the last three centuries This is probably more true for nails than many other things. It also has problems when looking at the details with (older style) cut nails working better than wire nails in some applications but being more expensive. The article discusses these but I would have liked it if the article…
If I'm reading this correctly: - After a long period of getting cheaper in real terms, nails have started to get more expensive (you get less nail for your money in 2022 than you did in 1992). - The main driver of this cost increase is more expensive labor and services, essentially human time is becoming more expensive to purchase. - This rise is cost is unlikely to be felt by the average consumer because we have bot…
This is interesting, because I’d assume that the labor part of the total cost to produce a nail has fallen to practically zero nowadays. I would assume that capital (machines and factory buildings) and raw material (steel) would comprise practically the entire cost of producing a nail nowadays.
> Why nails? They are a basic manufactured product whose form and quality have changed relatively little over the last three centuries This is probably more true for nails than many other things. It also has problems when looking at the details with (older style) cut nails working better than wire nails in some applications but being more expensive. The article discusses these but I would have liked it if the article…
> Why nails? They are a basic manufactured product whose form and quality have changed relatively little over the last three centuries While 'somewhat' true, its also untrue. Modern nails are different from the nails in the 60's. Modern nails are rounded. Many of the 1960s nails are square with sharp edges, a completely different manufacturing technique. I imagine that these were either forged in shape or cut from sq…
If I'm reading this correctly: - After a long period of getting cheaper in real terms, nails have started to get more expensive (you get less nail for your money in 2022 than you did in 1992). - The main driver of this cost increase is more expensive labor and services, essentially human time is becoming more expensive to purchase. - This rise is cost is unlikely to be felt by the average consumer because we have bot…
> - The main driver of this cost increase is more expensive labor and services, essentially human time is becoming more expensive to purchase. This is interesting, because I’d assume that the labor part of the total cost to produce a nail has fallen to practically zero nowadays. I would assume that capital (machines and factory buildings) and raw material (steel) would comprise practically the entire cost of producin…
I found this to be an enlightening and fun article. The one negative I would flag is that it is US-centric and - while nails did not change much during that period - the US was created as a collection of states while being settled by colonizers. That was a very disruptive geographic phase. It would probably be more useful to have run a similar study against Europe during this period. While the formation of nation sta…
There were a number of very disruptive wars in Europe during the last three centuries, not to mention emergence and disappearance of whole nations, whether defined by language or state borders or armies. The numerous famines and genocides had a very real socio-economic impact.
Socialist and communist governments in the last hundred years with their market planning ideology in something like half of Europe would also throw a wrench in natural price formation. This is not the only socio-economic challenge: the diversity of languages, currencies and forms of government would not help make sweeping studies like this accurate.
The colonizers of the US were largely immigrants from Europe, who were fleeing war, oppression, famine or other calamity. There has never been any comparable immigration from the US to Europe (or indeed to anywhere). To me this indicates very strongly which region has been stable or not.
In comparison, the very disruptive geographic phase that you refer to seems very stable growth to me. I'm a bit puzzled how the relative change has been less in Europe, in my view it's quite the opposite!
I hadn't realized how valuable and useful nails were until I toured Monticello, and there was a nailery out back. I.e. you couldn't just go buy a bag of nails, you had to make them yourself.
Once upon a time nails were valuable enough to be passed on to offspring in the estate of a deceased person. It was also pretty common to recycle them when taking something apart, not to remelt them but simply to re-use them after straightening.
[1]: https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/40503/were-iron...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Why nails? They are a basic manufactured product whose form and quality have changed relatively little over the last three centuries While 'somewhat' true, its also untrue. Modern nails are different from the nails in the 60's. Modern nails are rounded. Many of the 1960s nails are square with sharp edges, a completely different manufacturing technique. I imagine that these were either forged in shape or cut from sq…
"Cut nails", the traditional wedge shaped ones, cut the fibers as the nail goes in. Modern wire nails, with their sharp points, shove the fibers to the sides, increasing the risk of splitting. Additionally, the fibers cut by the traditional nails form a natural wedge, making those nails far harder to pull out. You can improve the performance of a wire nail by simply blunting the tip with a hammer. For more info, here…
EDIT: Aha, no, apparently not, because the alignment of the tapered sides on the cut nail is what makes the wedging effect work (from the first video link posted by parent).