The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-08-24
MAKING LEAD SHOT.
Something About a Simple but Curious In
dustry.

QuSCTy.
This is the season of the year when
makers of lead shot are Obliged to shut
down their. business almost entirely, be-
cause of the heat. Not half dozen
blocks from the New York city hali
slender iron tower rises high into the air.
It's purpose is the manufacture of small
metallic pellets for the use of sportsmen,
and of these it, turns out billions every
week in cold weather. Up near the top
of the structure are furnaces for melting
the substance, which is poured in show
ers of globules down through the shaft.
They fall into well of water at the
bottom, out of which they are then
scooped, to be sorted into proper sizes
and polished for market. Each indi-
vidual shot must pass test and be de-
clared perfect before it is permitted to go
out.
Among the many popular decisions
current is widespread notion to the
effect that shot are made spherical by
falling from a height through the air.
Various stories are told of the manner
in which this fact in physical science was
originally discovered. One of them refers
the invention to dream, in which
shoemaker beheld molten lead falling
in the shape of globular pellets into
water. Another attributes the invention
to tinsmith, who by accident dropped
some melted metal from the roof of
church which he was repairing. What
ever basis in fact these anecdotes may or
may not have it is certain that no proof
whatever exists in the idea referred to.
The fact is that perfect shot could be
made by falling two feet just as well as
by dropping distance of 200 feet, if only
they could cool rapidly enough.
The shot, when they are let fall from
the top of the tower, are as perfectly
spherical as when they reach the bottom.
If they started in any other shape they
would not be made round by the tumble
but would be merely slugs when they
got to the water. But it is necessary
that they shall drop long distance in
order to cool and harden before arriving
at the bottom AS for the water, it's pur-
pose is not to chill them, but to afford
yielding substance for them to strike.
If it were otherwise they would be
fiattened and made useless. The well in
the ,bottom of the tower described is
twelve feet in depth.
The Shot Tower.
The tower may be likened to tall
and very slender light house. 1t is ITS
feet high. The spiral iron stairway
winds from the bottom to the top around
a central shaft. To reach the summit
is laborious climb. At height of
14O feet is floor with furnace for
mel ting the metal Thirty feet higher
is another floor and second furnace
like, the first. The lower furnace is used
for the smaller sizes of shot, because
they do not have to drop SO far in order
to get cool. For big shot the upper fur
mace is employed. A fall of sixty feet
would be sufficient for the very small
bird shot. The workman who tends the
furnace has half dozen utensils which
look like big saucepans with long han
dies. The bottom is perforated with
small holes. There is no other appara-
tus. Few manufactures are more simple
than that of lead shot.
The metal for making shot has to be
very carefully prepared. Tin is com
monty found as an alloy of lead, but
if there is so little as one pound OF tin
iii six tons of lead the ma terial will not
produce shot; it will only yield oblong
slugs 1t must have with it proportion
same effect upon lead as lard or butter
has on pastry; it makes it brittle. To
hegi,. with the metal is put into pot
with thirty pounds of arsenic to each
ton OF lead. The mixture is heated to a
cherry red, which signifies about 1000
degrees Fahrenheit. The alloy thus
prepared is made into pigs of 100 pounds
each. One oil these pigs is melted to-
getbcr with 1,0c0 pounds OF pure lead,
and Jhus is oStnined the matarisl re-
quircd for the shot.
Not long ago q sensation was MADE IN
the newspapers by writers who asserted
that game killed with shot that Were
The effect Of this mineral on the metal
is to cause the latter when melted to
form itself naturally into globules, Ike
quicksilver. When the man at the fur
mace wishes 80 ascertain whether his
molten stuff is heated to the right tenn
perature he throws a little of it out upon
ecoI iron. If correct, it splits NJ into "a
LOFT of rolling globules resembling mer
curry All being in readiness he skins
off from the top Of the melting pot a
quantity of the impure stuff that floats
on the surface. He puts layer of this
In the bottom OF one Of the saucep ms
When partly cool it is of putty-like
consistency. 1t is very porous.
How the Operator Works.
Now the operator holds the saucepan
over the central shaft, which is boxed in
with planks all the way to the bottom
of the tower. Looking down, one can
see faint simmer Of the water in the
we'll far below. The workman with his
| ladle pours some of his pure lead alloy
into the pan. 1t makes it's way through
the porous stuff on the bottom of the
utensil and forms Little drop at every
opening in the perforated bottom. The
| drops fall down the well, followed by
others as fast as they can form. Being
liquid drops, they are absolutely spherical
when they leave the saucepan. a'he man
| keeps on adding melted lead with his
ladfe as fast as it is required so that
| the shower of metal drops is continuous.
BY the time they have fallen 100 feet
or more through the air they nave
cooled and hardened SO far that the i'm
pact of the water does not alter their
| shape.