Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-07-29
AMnUEITIoN PoR GUNS AID HOW II
Is PREPARED

In preparing cartridges and bullets for
firearms, the work Is mostly press.work,
and permits the employment of unskilled
or slightly skilled labor to large extent.
Women are largely employed upon it,
sometimes contributing over one-half of
the whole number Of operatives. There
are five establishments in the United States
three In Connecticut and one each In
Massachusetts and Delaware. This refers
to the manufacture of ammunition for
small firearms, not including the msnufsct-
ure OF cannon balls and shells, nor of pow
der and lead shot.
The ordinary copper percussion cap was
patented in 1922 by Joshua Shaw, who was
in lS45 compensated by Congress in the
sum of $40, 600 for this valuable invention.
But brass and copper shell cartridges did
not come into use until some thirty years
ago, when their Importance in making gas
tight Joints IN breech- loading Systems be-
gan to be recognized. The prominence
which their manufacture has now attained
in this country in supplying foreign nations
with ammunition, IS due not only to the
ingenuity which has developed the me-
chanical methods employed, bat also to
the purity and ductility of the American
copper used in the manufacture.
The shells for cartridges are made from
copper and brass sheets by presses. After
inspection and gauging the shells are loaded
with powder and bullet. The loading ma
chinery is especially ingenious, the powder
being held in funnel. Snapped receiver and
dropped by charges into the shell, and, be-
ing pressed down by rod or piston, it is
so contriyed that if, from any cause, the
charge is too great, one bell rings, and if
the charge is too small another bell rings,
thus warning the attendants and insuring
the uniformity of the charge. One loading
machine, with two attendants, has ca
pacity OF 25,000 day.
The slug or bullet then inserted is some
times formed from cylindrical bars at the
rate of fifty per minute, or else is cast,
slug furnaces and apparatus being used,
two attendants each, and the capacity per
furnace being upwards of SO, 600 day.
The slugs are cast in haud-molds of eight
cen to twenty five at time. They are
then passed through swaging or bullet
forming presses, which are, or may be,
automatic In which case one man can at.
tend as many as nine machines-the slugs
being fed to them out OF hoppers or re-
ceivers. They are then jigged-a term
used to designate the placing of the bal-
let's in feed plateg-which is done partly
by hand, but assisted by machinery,
which imparts a vibratory motion to the
plates. This is preparatory to what is
called channel rolling, the iigging being for
the purpose of placing the bullets all up
right and in position, SO that they may be
placed upon revolving plate, which car
RES them through channel between cut
ters, which groove the bullet. 0ne such
machine has daily capacity of upward of
100, coo bullets, and one man attends three
machines. Certain grades of bullets are
now passed through an extra close. gauge
trimming press, and the bullets are gagged
and inspected.
The next operation is bullet-patohing, or
covering the rifle bullets with paper to pre-
vent the clogging of the grooves of the
barrel with lead. This ia sometimes done
by hand and sometimes by machinery.
In the bullet patching machine the bullets
| are fed to the machine by hand, and the
patch ia presented to the bullet and secured
by a minute drop of mucilage, fed auto
naticaIly, and is rolled closely around the
bullet, and She end is folded up by the
| friction Of flexible rolls, forty Eve or fifty
bullets being patched in { minute, and, In