building, &c. Small pieces of iron, bars, &c. which being drove into wood, serve to bind several pieces together, or to fasten something upon them.

Nail, is also a measure of length, containing the 16th part of a yard.

Nailing of Cannon. When circumstances make it necessary to abandon cannon, or when the enemy's artillery are seized, and it is not however possible to take them away, it is proper to nail them up, in order to render them useless; which is done by driving a large nail or iron spike into the vent of a piece of artillery, to render it unserviceable. There are various contrivances to force the nail out, as also sundry machines invented for that purpose, but they have never been found of general use; so that the best method is to drill a new vent.

One Gasper Vimercatus was the first who invented the nailing of cannon. He was a native of Bremen, and made use of his invention first in nailing up the artillery of Sigismund Malatesta.