A bradawl is a carpenter's small tool consisting of a slender steel stem with a chisel edge, used for making holes for screws and nails. Research Bradawl
A butterfly board is a sex toy used in some play piercing games. It comprises a card or wooden board with a hole cut to the shape of the male genitalia. The board is placed over the genitals and the skin of the edges of the penis and scrotum is pinned with needles or nails to it. Research Butterfly Board
Farriery is the art of horse-shoeing. It consists in the attachment of a rim of iron, by means of nails, to the lower border of the horse's hoof, in order to prevent its excessive wear. Research Farriery
Horn is a general term applied to all hard and pointed appendages of the head, as in deer, cattle, etc, but as a term denoting a particular kind of substance nothing should be called horn which is not derived from the epidermis or outer, layer of the integument, whether on the trunk, hoofs, or head.
Horn is a tough, flexible, semi-transparent substance, most liberally developed in the horns of bovine animals, but also found in connection with the 'shell' of the tortoise, the nails, claws, and hoofs of animals, the beak of bird and turtle, etc
Horn is softened very completely by heat, so as to become readily flexible, and to adhere to other pieces similarly softened. True horn consists principally of an albuminoid principle, keratin, with a small portion of gelatine and a little phosphate of lime. In some species of animals the males only have horns, as for instance the stag. In cattle both male and female have horns, though there are also hornless cattle.
Horns differ widely in the case of different animals. Thus the horns of deer consist of bone, and are deciduous; those of the giraffe are independent bones, with a covering of hairy skin; those of oxen, sheep, and antelopes consist of a bony core covered by a horny sheath. The horns of the rhinoceros alone consist exclusively of horny matter. The horns of oxen, sheep, goats, and antelopes are never shed, except in the case of the prong-horned antelope. The number never normally exceeds four, and in the case of deer the horns are branched.
The various kinds of horns were formerly employed for many purposes. The principal formerly used in the arts are those of the ox, buffalo, sheep, and goat. Deer horns were almost exclusively employed for the handles of knives and of sticks and umbrellas. Those which furnish true horn can be softened by heat (usually in boiling water), cut into sheets of various thickness, which sheets may be soldered or welded together at the edges so as to form plates of large dimensions, and were formerly polished and dyed so as to imitate the much more expensive tortoise-shell. The clippings of horn may be welded together in the same manner, and were formerly made into snuff-boxes, powder horns, handles for umbrellas, knives, forks, etc. As horn has the valuable property of taking on and retaining a sharp impression from a die, many highly ornamental articles were also turned out. Combs for the hair were made from the flattened sheets, and out of the solid parts of buffalo horns beautiful carvings were made. Research Horn
Ihram is a sacred state in which a Muslim is required to enter before embarking on a pilgrimage to Mecca. The state of ihram decrees that one must not have sexual intercourse, cut one's hair, shave or cut one's toe nails. Research Ihram More information about Ihram
The Iron Crown is a crown of gold set with jewels, made originally for the kings of Lombardy, and deriving its name from the fact that it enclosed within its round a circlet of iron, said to have been forged from one of the nails used in the crucifixion of Christ. It was supposed to confer upon the holder sovereignty over all Italy. Napoleon I was crowned with the Iron Crown at Milan on May the 26th, 1805. Research Iron Crown
Wood screws or screw nails are nails which are screwed into the material instead of being hammered. Until 1760 they were not popularly used owing to the high cost of their production, but in 1760 a machine was invented for their manufacture and in 1817 a German clockmaker patented an automatic screw-making machine. In 1854 an American invented a practical serviceable machine for producing screws and the industry took off, especially in Birmingham, England. Research Wood Screw
The elephant is the two surviving species of the order proboscidea, the African elephant (Loxodonta) and the Asian elephant (Elephas) which are both very similar, except that the African elephant is generally slightly larger and has very large ears. The African elephant also differs from the Asian elephant in having a roughened trunk with two processes instead of one at the end, three rather than four nails on the hind foot, coarser molars with thicker enamel, a more convex forehead and relatively larger eyes.
Behaviourally the two species are very similar, except that the African elephant generally sleeps standing up. Perhaps the most striking feature of the elephants is the long prehensile trunk formed from the nose and upper lip. The trunk contains nasal passages and nostrils at the tip. Elephants are gregarious animals, travelling in herds of up to 100 animals, and inhabiting forests and grassy plains where they eat only plant matter, the African elephant rarely eating grass but preferring leaves, fruit and the inner bark of some trees. Elephants start breeding when about 15 or twenty years old, but are not fully grown until they are 25 and live to about 50 years of age. The gestation period is 20 months, and a single young or very rarely twins, is born with a cow giving birth to four or five young during her life. Research Elephant
A hoof is the horny casing of the foot of a ruminant, horse, swine or similar animals. Hooves may be regarded as homologues of the toe-nails of other animals. They are composed of epithelium cells, agglutinated and dried, and of intercellular substance and cell contents. Chemically they consist of keratin. Research Hoof
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