Date nail
A date nail is like a special nail that is used to mark when a tree was cut down or when some wooden thing was made. Think of it like when you draw a picture and put the date on it so you remember when you made it. Except instead of drawing, people put a nail in the wood.
So let's say a person cuts down a tree and they want to remember when they did it. They would hammer a nail with a number (like "19" for the year 2019) into the tree trunk. Then they could come back years later and see when the tree was cut down.
This was really useful for things like building railroads. The workers would put date nails in the railroad ties (the wooden things that hold the rails in place) so they would know how old they were and when they needed to be replaced.
Nowadays, people don't use date nails as much because they have other ways to keep track of things. But you can still find them sometimes and they're a cool way to learn about history and how people used to keep track of stuff.
So let's say a person cuts down a tree and they want to remember when they did it. They would hammer a nail with a number (like "19" for the year 2019) into the tree trunk. Then they could come back years later and see when the tree was cut down.
This was really useful for things like building railroads. The workers would put date nails in the railroad ties (the wooden things that hold the rails in place) so they would know how old they were and when they needed to be replaced.
Nowadays, people don't use date nails as much because they have other ways to keep track of things. But you can still find them sometimes and they're a cool way to learn about history and how people used to keep track of stuff.