Rivet
a short bolt with a flat or rose head, employed for uniting two plates or thin pieces of material. The stub end is swaged to prevent its withdrawal. When used for joining pieces of leather, as in making belting, an annular disk, termed a burr, is placed over this end previous to swaging, in order to give a greater bearing. Rivets are cut from round metal rods and formed by special machinery. In riveting iron plates together, as in boilers, tanks, etc., the rivet is made red-hot, and while a sledge is held against the head, the end is swaged down by striking directly with a riveting hammer, or a species of die called a snaphead is interposed. Riveting machines are stationary and portamary ble. The first does heavy work by presswo ure of steam and hydraulic power; the portable by steam or compressed air, producing blows like a hammer. They drive RIVOLI and head hot rivets in boiler work and structures better and more rapidly than hand work.