History of Wire Making

Wire has been in use for many hundreds of years. It was known in Nineveh and Egypt in 800 B.C. It was made then and for many centuries afterwards by beating metal into plates. These were then cut into strips and rounded by further beating. Wire drawing was known in the 14th century, but the machinery used in this process and the Bessemer steel process were not perfected until the 19th century. In modern wire plants, the raw materials, usually steel, is received in the form of small bars, or bullets. The bullets are heated and conveyed to a set of rolls to be reduced in size. Finally, for ordinary sizes of wire, each bullet is rolled down to a rod smaller than a lead pencil. The heated rod is carried through a pipe to a device which coils the rod. 

 The coiled metal is cooled and taken to the plant where it is drawn into wire of all sizes. First the scale, which has accumulated, is removed by an acid bath, and the acid in turn is removed in an alkali bath. Next, the rod with a small, sharp point enters a bell-mouthed hole in a draw plate, or die, made of hard steel or in some cases of a diamond or ruby. It emerges from the smaller end of the hole reduced in size. The process of drawing the wire through smaller and smaller holes continues until the desired size is reached. As the metal is drawn finer it becomes harder and more brittle. This from time to time the metal must be annealed to make it soft and tough, and it must be constantly oiled as it is pulled through the dies, or perforated plates.