Wire

A wire is a single, usually cylindrical, elongated strand of drawn metal. Wires are used to bear mechanical loads and to carry electrical energy and/or communications signals.

History of wire production

In antiquity, jewellery often contains, in the form of chains and applied decoration, large amounts of wire that is accurately made and which must have been produced by some efficient, if not technically advanced, means. In some cases, strips cut from metal sheet were made by pulling them through perforations in stone beads. This causes the strips to fold round on themselves to form thin tubes. This strip drawing technique was in use in Egypt by the 2nd Dynasty. From the middle of the 2nd millennium B.C most of the gold wires in jewellery are characterised by seam lines that follow a spiral path along the wire. Such twisted strips can be converted into solid round wires by rolling them between flat surfaces or the strip wire drawing method. Strip and block twist wire manufacturing methods were still in use in Europe in the 7th century A.D, but by this time there seems to be some evidence of wires produced by true drawing.

Related Topics:
Antiquity - Jewellery - Egypt - 2nd Dynasty - 2nd millennium B.C - Gold - Europe - 7th century A.D - Drawing

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Square and hexagonal wires were possibly made using a swaging technique. In this method a metal rod was struck between grooved metal blocks, or between a grooved punch and a grooved metal anvil. Swaging is of great antiquity, possibly dating to the beginning of the 2nd millennium B.C in Egypt and in the Bronze and Iron Ages in Europe for torcs and fibulae.

Related Topics:
Bronze - Iron Age - Torc - Fibulae

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Twisted square section wires are a very common filigree decoration in early Etruscan jewllery.

Related Topics:
Filigree - Etruscan

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In about the middle of the 2nd millennium B.C a new category of decorative wires was introduced which imitated a line of granules. Perhaps the earliest such wire is the notched wire which first occurs from the late 3rd, early 2nd millennium B.C in Anatolia and occasionally later.

Related Topics:
3rd - Anatolia

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Wire drawing was not introduced into England before the second half of the 17th century. Wire is usually drawn of cylindrical form; but it may be made of any desired section by varying the outline of the holes in the draw-plate through which it is passed in the process of manufacture. The draw-plate or die is a piece of hard cast-iron or hard steel, or for fine work it may be a diamond or ruby. The object of utilizing precious stones is to enable the dies to be used for a considerable period without losing their size, and so producing wire of incorrect diameter. Diamond dies must be rebored when they have lost their original diameter of hole, but the metal dies are brought down to size again by hammering up the hole and then drifting it out to correct diameter with a punch.

Related Topics:
Wire drawing - 17th century - Draw-plate - Die - Diamond - Ruby

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