3/2/2024 0 Comments Small copper rivets![]() ![]() More innovations followed: by 1855, an English coppersmith invented a machine that could produce 1,000 kilos (2,200 lbs) of rivets a day, and by 1862, a French machine could crank out 2,000 kilos (4,400 lbs!) of rivets per hour. This began to change in 1836, when a French coppersmith named Antoine Durenne patented a machine that could manufacture rivets using mechanical pressure to shape the factory head. What had been a task that consumed hours of a smith’s time could now be handled mechanically. (For this history, I am indebted to the Bulletin de la Société d’encouragement pour l’industrie nationale, which, in 1906, saw fit to publish Étude expérimental du rivetage. A skilled smith could make about 100 kilos (220 lbs) of rivets a day. Up to the mid-19th century, rivets were forged by hand: the smith heated up a metal bar and used a special anvil called a bombarde to cut the bar to the proper length and hold it in place while he or she shaped the factory head. The first revolution: Machine-made rivets I think the appearance of the factory head and the shop head are clues to the technology used to assemble the pot and handle, and which in turn can indicate the general era of the pot. ![]() Once the rivet is inserted through the pot wall and handle, the smith pounds or “upsets” the other end into a rounded or flattened shape to form the second head - the “shop head” ( la rivure) - that spreads and locks the handle to the pot. When a rivet is made, it’s given a “factory head” (in French, la première tête), the mushroom or button shape on one end. I’m coming to suspect that rivets could indicate the era in which a French copper pot was made. The way a rivet looks indicates how it was formed and fitted to the pot.
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