The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-10-28
RY A SECRET PROCESS.
man TURNED INTO INSTRUMENTS
OF DESTRUCTION.

en- the Invention OF the MeLnOQ OF
Manufacture.
From the Philadelphia Times.
The manufacture of shot is an interest
;r1 and instructive process, and it is safe to
.aS, that not one of the thousands who use
- from the sportsman who fires the little
Iosden pellets to bring down his game to
che thrifty housewife who uses it to clean
her hotties. knows Of the ingenious methods
ennloyed in turning the pig lead into the
shot Of commerce.
The oldest shot tower in America is in
this city, in the vicinity of Second and Car
,,anter streets, it having been opened for
business July 4, 1905 and here shot is man.
u,actured at the rate of from 25,o000O0 to
10000. 900 an hour-from 100000 to 100000
every minute
Entering the low building surrounding
the shot tower one encounters first the
weighers, who are putting the shot up into
hays of different sizes.
Il will be interesting to examine one of
these bags, containing about twenty
mounds. The largest size drop shot weighs
twenty-five pounds pellets to the ounce.
bag holding twenty pounds would
therefore contain 500 pellets, while in a
bag of the smallest size shot tine number of
peilets would be l ,061, 100.
Suddenly the guide opens the door lead
ing into the tower proper and there is heard
A constant rushing noise as of falling water.
Into large tank, in which there is six feet
Of water, steady shower of lead is falling,
which is being dropped from the highs
above.
II is impossible to look up to see whence
ehourar ori0ipatac and affair nj, n
of 100 feet by means of circular stairway,
the secret Of shotmaking Is revealed.
Here a man is standing at boiler con-
tanning the molten lead, and which is being
continually fed by helpers. He is pouring
the liquid metal into perforated pan or
colander in front of him, and it drops
down in silvery rain into the tank of
water beneath.
One thing is essential, however, before
the lead is dropped. When the pig lead is
thoroughly heated scum forms on it,
caused by the anthony and arsenic with
which the pigs are prepared. This is called
dross and is carefully SKINNED off and pre-
served.
Some of this dross is placed in the pan
before the lead is poured into it. The
lead makes its way through the dross and
escapes through the holes in the pan into
space.
here, but the degrees of heat, the amount of
dross, the quantity of lead have all to be
carefully considered. An inexperienced
hand could do incalculable damage here,
simple as the process seems.
There are several stories afloat as to the
origin OF this method of shotmaking. They
are both pretty stories, but should be taken
cum grano sails. One account says the dis
covery was an accident, as was the dscov-
49, a
Some time during the last century an
English mechanic named Watts, who was
employed in cutting up pieces OF lead for
the purpose of molding into shot, is said TO
have imbibed too freely of the cup that
cheers and inebriates-got SHOT" in fact.
He dreamed Of the last thing he would be
likely to dream about under the crcum-
stances, namely, water.
He saw it rain heavily, and suddenly the
rain became lead and the ground was COW
cred With shot. Watts awoke with the idea
is said to have proved the correctness of
his idea by making the experiment in a
neighboring tower.
The great unreconcilable point in the
Watts story is that no reference is any,
where made to the essential pool of water
In which the pellets are dropped to cool.
Certainly, if the hot lead fell on the hard
ruined.
The ctber account gives the indispensable
water into which the hot metal must fall il
it does very little else. The story goes that
in one Of the old time wars, when a host
was preparing 90 storm castle, and while
the beSiegers were scaling the walls, the de-
tenders poured hot lead ever them.
This lead, broken up into hundreds of
pieces by the fall, dropped into the moat
surrounding the castle walls. Years after,
when the noat was ernptied out, numbers
of spheroidal pellets were found, and the
idea of SHOT making was thus secured.
However this may be, shot is being man
utactured to-day as it was a century OF
more ago, and the present generation can
lay claim to very few inventions that have
IN any way improved the manufacturing
facilities. While the dropping process de-
tailed above forms the pellets, it does moth
ing else, and here the interesting details of
tina finishing of the shot begins.
It's q remarkable fact that during the
entire process OF manufacture, from the
time the leaden pigs are put into the melt
Ing kettles until the shot is put up into bags,
finished and ready for the market. no hand
touches it.
The method throughout ia an entirely
mechanical ore, and by series OF the most
Ingenious, yet withal simple. contrivances
the shot is passed from one part of the
building 60 the other, during which time
The imperfect shot Is thrown out, the per-
tect pellets sorted into various sizes, pol
ished and dropped into bags ready to be
weighed
Through the water into which the lead is
dropped there passes an endless chain, TO
which innumerable small cups or buckets
are attached. These passing along the bot
TOM OF the tank gather up the shot and pass
IL over hot slabs, on which it is dried.
From hero it passes to another part of the
building, in which is located the screening
tables, which are the most recent invention
used in the manufacture.
Inc manufacture is now complete, and
when the shot is put into bags and weighed
IL IS ready for the numerous uses to which
it is put.
Nearly every body knows that shot frat
assumes its spheroidical shape by the molten
leao dropping from great hight into cold
water. The very fact of the shot tower, its
night and construction would lead to this
superstition, and tits probably this fact that
Goes not lead the manufacturer to deny
even the existence of this method.
AS rule be denies everyth else. The
public he believes are interested in shot
only SO far as the price it may cost per
pound, its regularity in form and uniform
lty in weight.
these screening tables are a succession OF
very thick plate-glass slabs, one slightly
Oelow the other, and inclined at an angle
suHclent 20 give the perfect shot momentum
enough to be carried into the asserting