"Using the preferred cost index developed inwards this paper, the existent cost of nails on a character adjusted footing fell—relative to a wide packet of consumption goods every bit measured past times the overall CPI—by a constituent of nearly fifteen from its peak inwards the mid-1700s to the middle of the 20th century, averaging a reject of 1.3 per centum a year. (Prices bring risen some inwards the past times several decades.) ...
"[T]oday, a nail-making automobile alongside a footprint of nearly 3 feet foursquare [can] attain 300 to 450 nails per minute. If nosotros assume that i worker tin operate iv machines at i time as well as that each automobile produces 350 nails a minute, as well as thus undertaking productivity of boom production has increased past times a constituent of 1400 times since the era of hand-forged nails when it took a worker nearly a infinitesimal to attain a nail. With most of this alter occurring over the menses from 1790 to 1940, the annual charge per unit of measurement of increment inwards undertaking productivity was nearly five per centum a yr ..."
Here's an illustrative figure. The colors demonstrate the principal changes inwards boom technology over time, from hand-forged nails, to a mixture of forged as well as cutting nails, to the predominance of cutting nails, to the modern wire nails. (In interpreting the graph, discover that the existent cost on the vertical axis is a log scale for cents/nail.)
This dramatic alter inwards productivity of boom production has the implication that nails were far to a greater extent than expensive inwards relative terms dorsum inwards the 1700s. Sichel offers a let on of brilliant anecdotes as well as statistics to back upwards this claim. For example:
- "[T]he dome of the Maryland State Capitol, completed inwards 1788 as well as made largely of wood, was joined together alongside no nails but rather alongside wooden pegs as well as Fe straps. Presumably, this alternative was made, at to the lowest degree inwards part, because of the high cost as well as express availability of nails at the time."
- "The high value of nails during the 1700s is highlighted past times the exercise of burning downwards abandoned buildings to facilitate recovery of the nails ..."
- "[T]his newspaper also reports domestic absorption of nails, going dorsum to 1810. At that time—more than twenty years later on the Maryland State Capitol was completed—nails are estimated to bring amounted to nearly 0.4 per centum of nominal GNP. In today’s terms, this part is similar to that of trouble solid purchases of personal computers as well as peripherals or of airfares. As prices plunged during the 1800s, domestic absorption rose dramatically. But, every bit a part of nominal GDP, domestic absorption of nails, which i time were quite important, bring larn de minimus. So, patch nails look everyday today, that perception reflects a twosome hundred years of pregnant declines inwards their relative price."
- "In 1798, a relatively uncomplicated trouble solid (24’ x 36’ alongside seven windows) inwards Warren, Connecticut was valued at $50. ... This trouble solid probable was built alongside few nails, but, every bit a idea experiment, let’s suppose that it were built primarily alongside nails rather than other joinery. ... Suppose that the 1798 trouble solid would bring required fifty pounds of nails ... Given boom prices inwards 1789 of $12.00 per hundred pounds, the nails for that 1798 trouble solid would bring cost $6.00, to a greater extent than than 10 per centum of the value of the house!"
While the cost of nails themselves hasn't fallen inwards the final half-century, Sichel makes several interesting points. First, the diversity of nails has risen as well as in that place bring been a let on of character improvements, similar rust-proofing nails as well as adding rings approximately the shank of the boom to amend asset power. In addition, Sichel argues that the conception of the nail-gun has caused the cost of an installed boom to proceed falling substantially. He uses back-of-the-envelope calculations to propose that the cost of an installed boom using a nail-gun is nearly 60% lower than the cost of a hand-hammered nail--which suggests that the cost of an installed boom is close its all-time depression correct now.