This 1999 photograph shows 4 first story log floor beams in the old farmhouse on the Michael Korns, Sr. Somerset County PA family farm. Such log-type beams are typical to many local farm houses. Three of the beams have rotted away and fallen down. The one intact floor beam shown here runs under the left wall of the central hallway. The house portion to the left of this beam had collapsed by the time this photograph was taken in July, 1999. Note the tongue and groove floor board construction. also note the iron nails and the old hinge which were driven into the beam to hang items on. Enlarged photos of the nails are included below; note the unusual early-style headless machine-cut configuration, which is similar to at least one of several nails that were recovered from the eastern external wall of the house.
Click Here to see Figure 5 from the 1923 article "The Dating of Old Houses" by Henry C. Mercer, which shows dated samples of early cut nails. Specimen A in Figure 5 is a nail like those on the left of this beam photo, and those recovered from the east end of the house. The nail on the far right (and enlarged below) looks like it has an L-head shape, like Specimens B and E in Figure 5.
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