River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1886-04-08
shot Manufacture.


Every person who has walked about
the lower part of the city, says the
New York Tribune, must have
noticed high round tower, as high as
the roadway of the Bridge, which rears
itself high above the surrounding
buildings and has small windows at
places. This tower is in Centre street
near Worth street. and belongs 10 the
Colwell Lead Company. There are
4 several of these towers in this city.
/ There are places built especially for
1 the casting and manufacture of shot
/ The tower rises to a height of 176 feet,
and Is fifty feet in diameter at the base.
1t dlminlshes in diameter as It ascends.
1 being about thirty feet across at the
/ top. 1t is divided into several stories.
/ A circular stairway, made of iron, eN-
/ tends to the summit giving access to
/ the several stories. Great height is
essential for casting, as the lead must
cool IN the descent. and thus assume
a spherical shape. If hot, it would
/ ilatten when it strikes the water into
/ which it falls. The first method is
making what is called temper This
/ is 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 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 tenn
/ per in the proportion of three tons of
lead to one ton of temper, it takes the
shape of globulas when it is east.
1 The casting pans are large colanders,
round pans with holes perforated in
the bottom. The casting is all done on
\ the top floor, and the colander is sus-
pended 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 81 wheel.
and by this means it is carried from
the well up to a long hot metal table.
Here the shot is contantly stirred by
men with long rakes, and the heat
rapidly dispels the moisture and the
shot soon becomes perfectly dry Ii is
taken from the drying table TO the
''screener 5. a series of tables with
narrow openings between them, the
tables being set al a slight angle. II
the shot is round and perfect, il rolls
rapidly along these tables, skipping
the openings, until it reaches boE at
the extreme end, into which it falls.
Ii it Is imperfect. it cannot roll fast,
and falls into the openings, under
which boxes are placed.
The shot then goes to the "separa-
tors, which are series of drawers,
not unlike a bureau, which rocks back.
ward and forward by machinery. The
shot is poured into the upper drawer,
which has an iron bottom perforated
with holes of certain size, and so on
down to the lowest drawer, the bottom
of each drawer being perforated holes
of a 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 hOlesor smaller pass through
into the second drawer, while all lar
ger than the holes remain in the draw
er. 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 il the
beautiful shiny appearance