The Bloomfield times. [volume] (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1867-187?, 1870-11-29
First Shot Tower in America

N IHE beginning of the present GEN.
Il tury the people of this country were
entirely dependent on Europe, and par
ticularly on England for their supply of
the different kinds of shot-from buck
shot down to the smaller sizes. At a
time when almost every man had his
shot gun, as we'll as his trusty rife, and
INDUCED to some extent in the pleasures
Of the hunt-when game of almost every
kind abounded from the Delaware to the
Mississippi-when Fort Pitt was in the
Far West, and Chicago and St Louis were
almost unknown-save to the venturesome
pioneer and hardy hunter--to be liable at
any moment to have the supply of shot
cut off by a war with Great Britain,
which the threatening aspect Of the two
countries seemed to indicate, Was the oc-
casion Of much solicitude on the part of
many of the leading men of the day.
Early in 1908, John Williams Jope,
then residing in Philadelphia, and Paul
Beck, Jr, also of that city, conceived the
project of erecting shot tower and en-
gaging in the manufacture of shot, and
for this purpose formed partnership.
Jope went to England, and visiting vari-
Gus shot towers there, learned all that was
necessary for him to know, made drawings
of the different works, and returned to
Philadelphia. Being an ingenious me-
chanic, he made important improvements
in the mode of manufacture for which he
received patent dated July II, 1909
They built the shot tower near the
Schuylkill river, between Arch and Race
streets, in Philadelphia 1t was of brick
and was one hundred and fifty-six feet
high. Its diameter, in the clear at the
top, eighteen feet. One story work shops
were built outside of this.
The process of making shot was very
simple. Lead furnaces were built in the
different stories Of the tower and the
melted lead filtering through perforated
pans, fell into the cistern of water below
thus preventing their being fattened.
Of course, but one kind of shot could be
made at one time. The height each kind
had to fall was in proportion to its size
in order that it might have time to cool
perfectly before reaching the water below
the largest shot being cast at the top
of the tower, the next size on the floor
Immediately below, and so on down
through the smaller grades
Jope's improvement, in part, consist.
ed, in the language of the patent, "In
applying pans formed of copper, or other
fit materials, in the place of cylinders
heretofore used The circumference of
the pans to be about forty-eight inches
or of the size wanted, the bottoms flat
and the sides of a requisite height, from
three to four inches The pans are to be
pierced with holes suited to the size of
the shot to be manufactured. In
consequence Of the size and shallowness
of the pans, the melted lead, which is
poured into them, will filter or pass
through the holes quickly, without cool
ing, which gives them great advantages
over the cylinders in common use, as
thereby four Or five times as much shot
may be run off at the same time"
The method of separating the irregular
and badly shaped shot from the perfectly
round after being dried, was exceedingly
simple, and alss sub ject to Jope's patent;
-" For this purpose, fiat board, called
screening board, is used, from three
to five feet long, with shallow sides, lit
tie inclining to the lower end. The up
per end is closed. From the upper to
the lower end these boards gradually wi
den; they are moveable, and may be
worked by children with great ease"
These boards were held up at one end
on an elevation, forming an inclined plane
and vibrating in the hands of the girls,
the shot were poured over them-the
perfect ones running into a receiver
They were then put into revolving cyl
inder with black lead, and were thus
polished, when they were ready for pack
ing and shipment.
This shot tower was taken down some
years since and scarcely vestige of it re-
mains. Its builders, too, have passed
away and Jope, like many other origi-
nators of great enterprises, never reaped
the just reward of his ingenuity.-Leisure
hours