Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1871-12-13
gEannfactnre Of Cartridges.

Manufacture Of Cartridges.
Frank fort Arsenal manufactures all the
metallic cartridges used by the army of
the United States.
Everybody knows what metallic car
fridge Is. Evory body has seen the familiar
copper cylinders with fat head on one
end, and a ieaden bullet fitted so tightly
into the other, and probably everybody
who has seen them has wondered how they
could be made so smoothly and sbaPely,
with never a seam aud flaw about them.
There Is no mystery about the process.
1t IS very simpie-when you understand
it.
In the first place, the copper is rolled
into sheets of the thickness desired for the
cartridge, and these sheets are cut into
strips Just 80 wide that two rows of car
tridges may be cut from them. The strips
are fed into pouderous machine which
brings a massive punch TO bear on them
and cuts out two copper disks about an
inch and quarter in diameter, very much
as our mothers used to prepare cookies for
our juvenile consumption, carving them
from a sheet Of dough with the sharp edge
of q lumber.
But cutting out disks Is only half the
work of this machine Directly under
the big punch Is a much smaller hole, and
through that hole the disk, which covers it
aud has a dea. to spare, must 60. A
smaller punch, with a solid head, comes
down through the middle OF the big one,
and almost before the new made disk has
bal IN of
from the parent sheet, it IS doubled up un
tremendously, and Is next seen dropping
into box below, in the shape Of copper
thimble All this takes less time than 1t
does to read about it, Tne punches de-
scend almost together. and their deliberate
thump-thump-thump, viii turn out
nearly a hundred thimbies . minute.
Bat our cartridges are still far from
being completed. They % now to another
machine. where girl Is continually plac-
ing them on a steel table from which a
steel finger continually takes them of, one
at . time, and shoves them under another
punch From this they emerge still more
attenuated, but not quite long enough or
narrow enough. A third punch brings
them still nearer 10 their destined shape, !
aud then-for even the ductiHty Of copper
will not endure everything-they 90 off to !
IN annealIng furnace. From this fiery
trial they come forth very pliable and
submissive indeed, and a fourth punch re-
duces them at once TO their proper i men /
sIons. An ingenious machine now guages /
and trims them-an i..-bred monster with /
a preliIection for slang. puts head on
TO um 1t Is perhaps superiuous TO re 1
mark that the attendant OF this machine
Is boy.
The perfect shells are now cleauSed from /
the oi. which has laci.itatol tleir passage |
under the punches. aad are delivered to . /
group of ialies whose business 1t Is TO give |
them their first equipment Of danger
Delicate machinery, guided by these ladies,
first an0ints a minute bit of copper called 4
the anvil, with half a grain OF Eliminating |
aud then inserts the same ex-I
actly IN the centre OF the Tat head Of the /
shell The mixtUrc is applied IN : wet
state, to avert the danger OF accidents,
and after receiving it the shells are laid |
away for a day TO dry.
Tn,s little anvil answers 10 tue old per-
sussion cap. The hammer OF the gun will
fall exactly on 1t, au1 its explosion will /
ignite the powder which Is next inserted.
For this, the shells are conveyed to
building, where they are laid /
on machine something ike table with .
a revolving top. Around the rim are holes
into which the shells fit and Jhus pass one
oy one, under huge iron funnel suspended
overhead This furnishes each with its
proper modicum Of powder, and IS they
pass from under it, plunger descends into
them TO ascertain if the powder Is properly
deposited. If all be right It makes no
,ign, but if the powder IS deficient in
quantity the planger ring bell to make
t known The same machine inserts a
mas been stamped out, trimmed
md creased in another part Of the room,
md closes up the case round II 50 tightly
Is to make complete water tight car
ridge. An ingenious arrangement reduces
he danger Of loading the cartridges 10 a
Al that could possibly be
lone by their explosion IN the machinery
las been done BY way OF experiment, with
,erfeetly harmless results.
The cartridges are now finished. They :
re PACKED in boxes, which are then coated
Tith sheilac, to keep out moisture, and are
eady to be shipped whenever called for.
Ia these piping times of peace the con-
umption of cartridges amounts to . bag
telle of eight or ten thousand a day, and {
5 the supply Is kept Just ahead of the l
emand, only about twelve thousand are !
urned out each day.
The works were run 1T no such easy
ate during the war They were Of i'm :
ted extent then, but what room they .
Torded was crowded with machinery and I
peratiyes, and the handsome engine which r
lrnished the motive power knew but little
est. Ia the pithy words of the master
We ran that engine night and
az, Sunday and Fonrth of July-only !
topped long enough to oil it.. They were
7orking mostly on percussion caps then, [
nd made million a day. Towards the 7
lose of the war, there was = demand for i
notallic cartridges, and when Lee sur !
endered, building was inpTOgress which
7as expected to supply that demand to :
ny reasonable amount 1t Is completed !
ow and is rated at one million cartridges q
day. The greatest number made of late
ears was during the Franco-Prussian war,
7hen Uncle Sam sold quantity Of old
rms to the contending powers and supplied
hem with ammunition for the same. The
rsenal produced 10000 cartridges q day,
Or some time, to fill this order.