At 03:07 PM 5/6/02 -0500, you wrote:
>Tremont doesn't just have cut nails, it has much of the very antique
>machinery that made nails being excavated today, and it uses some of those
>old machines yet today. It was a living example of early manufacturing
>technology still operating at the original site.

Well, yes and no....

While Tremont has been in continous operation for a long time, their works
have undergone a series of changes over the years. One of the citations I
spit out in my previous e-mail mentioned the switch from exclusively water
power to combined steam in the 1920s. They continue to evolve today. See
for example:

http://www.e-ci.com/success/shears_tremont.html

Don't get me wrong, I love the Tremont folks, I'm glad they're still at it
and I hope the never give it up. They do use many of their original 19th
century machines, which from the correspondences I've had with them require
a heck of a lot of work to maintain all those parts that wear out over
time. I'm sure it's nothing less than a labor of love. Tremont is the only
place in the world where you can  still watch those old machines crank'em out.

I guess I'm just saying that I'd try to view such industries as more of an
organic and changing animal than a "frozen in time" picture of 1819
american nail manufacture.

Maybe this is another one for the "myths" category....

Dave



**************************************
David Moyer, RPA
Iowa Office of the State Archaeologist
700 Clinton Street Building
University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA 52242
(319) 335-5702
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