The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1875-01-21
How Shot are Made.

You have all seen shot, and if you are
a boy you have probably used II a good
many times, to the terror of mother and
sisters and the imminent risk of your
own lives or somebody else's, but how
many of you can tell how they are
made? To look at them one would not
imagine they had to go through such a
long and intricate process to make them
the smooth, round, lnnocent-looking
but death-dealiBg, things that they are.
The melted lead is taken to the top of
this high tower and poured through a
colander or sieve, the drops falling
down in real leaden rain, nearly 200 feet,
cooling as they go, just as drops of rain
harden into hailstones, and falling into
a tank of water below. Now this might
seem a simple and easy thing TO do, and
so IL wonld be II that were all there was
to If. But it is not. The drops of
melted lead in falling have a tendency
to cool at the bottom first, and so in
stead of hardening into q round ball the
upper part would stretch ont like the
tail of a comet. Then, again, liquid
metals crystalline in hardening, each
particular metal having its own form,
and it happens that lead crystallizes
into cubes instead of globes, so that
unless the drops can be made to form
into spheres as soon as they leave the
colander they will harden into cubes
and comets and all sorts of things be-
fore they reach the bottom; so it was
necessary to search around and find
something else which crystallized in a
different form in order to counteract
this tendency. It was found that ar
senic was the very thing. So now a
snail quantity Of arsenic is mixed with
all the lead and the little drops form
into globes as soon as they leave the
colander and most of them harden into
that shape. Some are imperfect, how
ever.
They are lifted from the water in lit
tie cups fastened to revolving shaft,
which also empties them upon metal
plates, where they are dried by steam,
and then the good and the bad are sepa-
rated from each other. In order to do
this polished iron plate is tilted at
certain angle, and the little balls are
made to roll down it. The perfect ones
roll so fast and so easily, and get such
a momentum, that when they come to
the jumping-of place they make
bound and go clear over into bin fixed
for them about a foot away, The i'm
perfect ones, the comets and such like,
find their tails in the way, and go so
much slower that when they come to
the end they have only just force
enough to drop down into a receptacle
at the bottom, and then are melted over
and go through the same process again.
But the good ones are not finished
yet. They are next put into keg-like
cylinder along with some plumbago-
and, by the way, this plumbago comes all
the way from the island of Ceylon on
purpose-the cylinder is set to revOIv-
ing very fast, and In short time they
come ont beautifully polished and all
ready to be screened. The screening
is to separate the different sizes from
each other, for several different sizes
are made, ranging from buck. shot down
to q tiny little ball no larger than cab
bage- seed, and of which it must take
several to do much execution.
They are now ready to put up for
market, and this is not the least inter
esting part Of the whole. Little bags,
large enough to hold twenty-five pounds,
are hung Just below some long iron
tubes through which the shot runs and
falls into the bags, and when just
twenty-five pounds have run in valve
closes, and not another grain can get
through. So you see they weigh them
selves. Then they are piled into
heap and are ready to be sold, and to
go out into the world upon their mis-
sion of destruction.
Upon the lower story of the building
is an immense engine of three hundred
horsepower which turns all the ma
chinery and does a large part of the
whole work, a mighty servant that
labors night and dav, only stopping to
rest for few minutes once in a while,
never gets tired nor out of humor,
never grumbles nor scolds, never strikes
for higher wages, and only asks to be
fed and attended to with proper care.
This is a very imperfect description
of a very curious and interesting pro-
| cess. To understand it thoroughly one
must have some knowledge of machinery
and of chemistry, and then he can
spend a delightful day in going over the
immense building and searching out its
/ intricacies.