The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1882-03-01


Lead shot though sometimes made of lead
alone, are almost always formed of an alloy
of arsenic and lead the arsenic being intro
duced in the form of arsenious acid of the
sulphuret (orpiment). The object of the
addition of the arsenic is to render the hard,
brittle qualities of the lead, which is con-
taminated by iron and antimony softer and
more ductile and of the proper consistence,
when melted for taking the globulai
form. s.stfef
Up in the lofty apartment, from which
descends the stream of lead, stand two men,
their hands incased in thick bags and grasp
ing heavy iron ladies' with which they dip
out the molten mettls from the kettle and
pour it into the collenders, clustering as
the molten metal is the men dash their Ia
labor and rapid besides, for the lead runs
through the collender almost like quicksil-
yer; while if it is allowed to become little
chilled in he bottom of the vessel then the
holes are stopped, and the careless worlmen
have no easy job in cleaning them. Five
tons of lead are often thrown down in half
an hour in the establishment visited. The
collender is simply a copper pan, the bot
tom of which is perforated, and which rests
in an iron ring. In falling to the base of the
tower the particles Of senii-fluid lead, acted
upon alike over their whole surface by Q
current of air are made to assume the glob.
ular form, and by the time. they reach the
bottom they are sufficiently hardened by
cooling to bear the shock of striking
the surface of the water in the well
below.
The size of the shot is only approximate.
ly fixed by the sizes of the holes in the col
lenders. The mass is always larger than the
hole from which it exudes, and as the period
of dropping is not exactly uniform, perhaps
half dozen sizes are produced from the
same sieve. Again, larger sized shot re-
quire to be dropped from greater height
than small sized, and while in some cases
100 feet is sufficient, In Others an elevation
of 15O feet is hardly enough.
After the shot have reached the bottom
of the well, they are at once lifted out by
an elevator and thrown upon an inclined
drying table, over which they slide, falling
ultimately into wire gauze rotating cylin.
der. Here they are rolled and ground to-
gether and in this way the minute burrs up
ON them are removed. From the cylinder
another elevator lifts the shot upon screen.
ing table. This consists of series of planes
arranged at gradually decreasing heights.
Between each there is an interval The shot
being started at the end of the highest plane
will, II perfect, roll from one plane to anoth-
err, jumping over the intermediate spaces ;
if imperfect, however, the latter become
pitfalls into which, sooner or later, II tum-
bles and is carried off into q receptacle, the
contents Of which go back to the melting
kettle. The good shot, after passing this
ordeal, reach the separators. This IL for
convenience in future separating The shot
are next elevated to the top cylinder of a
SERIES arranged on an incline. They are
conical in form and inclined, and are cover
ed with perforated sheet brass. Each cyl.
inder serves as sieve for particular size
of shot, retaining that and allowing al small
err sizes to escape. The shot, as the cylin-
der revolves, traverse Its entire length, ard
then the small ones run out into the nsxt
cylinder below, and thus the sitting goes on
until each cylinder has picked out the
particular c.ass of shot to which it is adapt
ed.
The sizes of shot are standard The
smallest is known as dust, and then comes
No. ~, which is O.O5 inch in diameter 1889
shot going to the ounce. The sizes then in
crease by one-hundredth of an inch up
to twenty three hundredth, of which there
are twenty -four SHOT to the ounce.
The shot being now assorted, polishing
alone remains to be done. This is accom-
plished by placing the shot together with
plumbago in a box which is rapidly rotated.
This imparts the glossy black smoothness
demanded by sportsmen. The shot are then
weighed, bagged and are ready for COM
merce.
ty-two to thirty-two hundredth of an inch,
are moulded. The moulds consist of Sc
ries of pivoted bars, the outer pair of which
have handles. The upper edges Of these
bars are followed to form the moulds, SO
that when they are closed together, the OPP
posite halves of each cavity unite and it is
only necessary to pour the lead into the ap-
ertures. The shot are thus at once mould
ed to the proper size, SO that rumbling and
polishing only are subsequently required. =
~ Y. Star