Overlooked inventions?



Nails

I listened to a Rest is History podcast about Captain Cook which mentioned his men traded nails & muskets with the aboriginals; I thought the sailors must have been ripping-off the locals with the nails...

I then listened to a different podcast which mentioned how valuable nails were in the pre-mass manufacturing era. Early pioneers of the US would burn their wooden housesv down when they moved to salvage the nails for the next property they would build.

Pre-mass manufacturing, nail manufacture was something only a skilled blacksmith could make
 

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