The Garrett mill, on the other hand, gives rod which is more uniform all along in shape and diameter and it has the considerable advantage that it is quickly adaptable to change of product; it does not require such complicated and nice adjustment as does the Morgan mill. So, despite the greater danger to the rollers from the circling loops about them, which occasionally become unmanageable, the Garrett mill is largely used. CHAPTER XIX WIRE AND WIRE DRAWING It may be rather disconcerting to some enthusiastic ones who assume that we Moderns have made all the progress that is worth while to learn that so many of our supposedly new products were far antedated. In the case of wire, again, we were antedated as much as 30 centuries. The wires which were produced by the Ancients, however, were usually of the noble metals, gold and silver. They were not drawn through dies as are the wires that we know, but were hammered into shape from long, thin strips of metal. The earliest use of our “drawplate” method of which we find authentic mention was in the 14th century in Germany. The wire was hand-drawn. Machine-drawn wire was being produced in England as early as 1565. In the United States the wire drawing industry had become pretty well established by the middle of the 17th century. As Cort had not at this time invented the rolling process for bars and rods, very uneven strips of metal only were available from which to draw the wires. But, even so, with our highly developed rod mills and our present very satisfactory No. 5 wire rod to begin with, our wire drawing methods are yet seemingly crude and show small advance compared with the very great progress which has been made in other lines of the iron and steel industry. Unlike the processes of forging, rolling, etc., drawing of wire is done cold. In this condition steel has its highest strength to stand the strain. The rod or wire is pulled through very hard cast iron or steel dies, the general process being well likened to pulling a rope through a small knot hole.