Re: Question about an unusual spike

The possibility of machine error in forging (and for the record, I don't think that's what this spike represents) raises a further interesting question, namely, when did railroad spikes start to be made by machine? The invention of the railroad spike, along with the flat-bottomed T-rail profile, is usually credited to Robert L. Stevens of the Camden & Amboy RR in New Jersey in the 1830s. However, and I may be mistaken on this point, I don't think there were any facilities for closed-die drop forging in the US until the 1850s. (Samuel Colt appears to have been the first to use closed dies, but he was making guns.) This means there must have been some early period when every railroad spike was made by hand. At 14,000 spikes per mile (per Doug's calculations above) on every one of the pre-Civil War railroads in the US, that implies an army of blacksmiths doing nothing all day but making railroad spikes. It boggles the mind.

-Philip Marshall



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/17/2015 06:06PM by philip.marshall.