Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1885-04-11
How Shot are Made.

Every person VINO mas walked about
the lower part of this city, says the New
York Tribune must have noticed a high
round tower, as high as the roadway of
the Bridge, which rears itself high above
the surrounding buildings and has small
windows at different places. There are
several of these towers in this city They
are places built especially for the casting
and manufacture Of shot. The
tower rises to a heigth of 176 feet, and
is fifty feet in diameter at the base. 1t
diminishes in diameter as it ascends
being about thirty feet across the top. 1t
is divided into several stories. A circular
stairway made of iron extends to the
summit, giving access to the several
stories. Great heigth is essential for
casting, as the lead must cool In the
descent, and TINS assume a spherical
shape. If hot, it would hatten when it
strikes the water into which it falls.
The first method is making what is
called temper" This is q mixture Of
arsenic and lead. The mixture is melted
in large kettles, and is constantly
skinned and stirred. 1t is cast in bars,
the same as lead. When the temper is
made it is carried to the top floor, where
there are kettles and a furnace for
melting it. The temper is mixed with
the lead, as pure lead would assume
various shapes IN casting; but when
mixed with the temperin the proportion
of three tons of lead to one of temper, it
takes the shape Of glObules when it is
cast.
The casting pans are large, coIanders,
round pans with holes perforated in the
bottom. The casting is all done on the
top floor, and the COlander is suspended
over an opening in the floor, which goes
through the entire height of the building
to the ground, where there is a well Of
water. The lead is melted in large
kettles, and is dipped out and poured
into the colandeR with ladies which have
long handles. 1t OOZes through the holes
in the bottom Of the cOlander, and falls
through the opening to the ground floor
into the well. The shot Is taken out Of
the well by small buckets fastened to an
endless belt, which runs over q wheel,
which carries it from the well up to a
long hot metal table. Here the shot is
constantly stirred by men with long rakes,
and the heat rapidly dispels the moisture,
and the shot soon becomes perfectly
dry.
It is taken from the drying table" to
the "screeners" a series of tables with
narrow openings between them, the
tables being set at a slight angle. If the
shot is round and perfect, 1t rolls rapidly
/ along these tables, skipping the openings
until it reaches a box at the extreme
end, into which 1t falls. If 1t is imperfect,
! it cannot roll fast, and falls into the
/ openings, under which boxes are placed.
/ The shot then goes to the 'separators,"
/ which are a series Of drawers, not unlike
a bureau. which rocks backward and
| forward by machinery. The shot is
poured into the upper drawer, which
! has an iron bottom perforated with holes
of a certain size. The second has holes
of q smaller size and so on down to the
! lowest drawer, the bottom Of each drawer
! being perforated with holes of q size
smaller than those in the drawer above
it. The backward and forward motion
throws the shot from side to side, letting
all the shot the size of the holes or
smaller pass through into the second
drawer, while all larger than the holes
remain in the drawers. The same is
repeated down to the lowest drawer, so
that each drawer contains a smaller size
of shot than the one Immediately above
it.
The next Process is polishing" The
shot is put into irregular shaped iron
boxes, which continually revOlVe. When
the box is nearly full, powdered black
lead is put in. The irregular motion Of
the box throws the shot from side to
side, and the black lead is so ground
into it that it cannot be rubbed of. And
it is this that gives it the beautiful shiny
.aDDearance.