For Want of a Nail

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Can anyone help me identify the metal used in the nails used to make the ladder used by the bearded gentleman in the middle of this photograph? I have been puzzling at this for a long time now, and decided it?s time to ask for help.

Tommy (?Thomas?)
Tompkins Metallurgist,
retired Missoula,
Missouri, USA

(That’s an excerpt from the article “Exhalations from our readers,” published in AIR 14:2.)