Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1893-11-17
MAKING LEAD SHOT,
SOMETHING ABOUT A SIMPLE
BUT CURIOUS INDUSTRY.
Dropped From a High TOwer-The
Little Spheres Nodded by Nat
ural Forces - Sorting
Different Sizes.


men, end 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
poared in showers of g!obules down
through the shaft. They fall into a
we'll of water at the bottom, ont OF
which they are then scooped, to be
sorted into proper sizes and polished
for market. Each individual shot
must pass a test and be declared per
feet before it is permitted to go out.
Perfect shot could be made by fall
ing two feet just as we'll as by drop
ping a 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 bot
tom. If they started in any other
shape they would not be made round
bv 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 that they may
have time to cool and harden before
arriving Mt the bottom. As for the
water. its purpose is not to chill them
but TO afford yielding substance for
them 10 strike. If it we're otherwise
they would be hattened and made use
less. The we'll in the bottom of the
tower descyibed istwelve feet in depth
The tower may be likened to tall
and very slender light house. 1t IS us
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 a
height of 40 feet is a floor with fur
mace for melting the metal Thirty
feet higher is another floor and a sec
ond furnace like the first. The lower
furnace is used for the smaller sizes
of shot, because the 10 not have to
drop so far in order to get cool For
big shot the upper furnace is en-
ploved. A fall of sixty feet would be
sufficient for the vei. small bird shot.
The workman who tends the furnace
has half dozen utensils which look
like big saucepans, with long handles.
The bottom OF each saucepan is per
foreted with small holes. There is no
otLe- apparatus. Few manufactures
are mere 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
in s.x toas of lead the material will
not produce shot; it will only yield
oblong slugs Pure lead will not make
shot. It must haze with it a proper
tion of arsenic The latter has some
what the same effect upon lead as lard
or butter has on pastry; it makes 1t
brittle. To begin with, the metal is
put into pot with thirty pounds of
arsenic to each ton of lead. The mix
ture is heated to a cherry red, which
signifies about 2OOO degrees Fahren-
heit. The alloy thus prepared is made
into pigs of 100 pounds each. One Of
these pigs is melted together with 1000
pounds of pure lead, and thus is OBJ
tanned the material required for the
shot.
When the man at the furnace wishes
rs ascertain whether his molten stuff
is heated to the right temperature he
throws a little of it out upon cool
iron. If correct, it splits up into
lot of rolling globules resembling
mercury All being in readiness, he
skins off from the top of the melt
ing pot a quantity of the impure stuff
that floats on the surface. He puts
laver of this in the bottom of one of
the saucepans. When partly cool it
is of a putty-like consistency. 1t is
very porous.
Now, the operator holds the sauce
pan 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 its 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 wall, followed by others
as fast as they can form.
In the manipulation of the lead and
saucepan a skill is required which
machinery could not supply. 1t is
no. necessary to have a pan with a
dist.nct size of perforations to pro-
duce each size of shot demanded.
Holes of given size can be made to
Weld slot of several different sizes by
msking the layer of scum on the bot
tom of the pan thinner or thicker, or
by altering the temperature OF the
lead alloy. The holes are punched by
hand. At the same time, it is not pos
sible to make ell the shot in given
batch Of exactly the same size. No. 4