The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1894-11-08
SCENES IN A SHOT TOWER.
How Bullets Are Made and Where Ihey
Come From.

came bullets. The story goes that the
discovery was made long time ago by
the garrison of an ancient castle VINO
found it necessary to place grating at
an embrasure in the wall. While pour
ing the lead into the holes which held
the grating fast to the stone work some
of the metal escaped and fell into the
water of the moat beneath. The next
day, while some of the guards were
walking along the moat, they noticed
the bright and shining objects at the
bottom. Fishing them out of the water
they We're surprised to find that the
drops of lead had been turned to bull
lets. Where the castle was or the
name of the discoverer of this method
of shot-making remains in obscurity.
There are two large establishments
in New York where shot is manufac-
tured, not few at time, but where
tons and tons of pig lead are turned
into the little balls of lead which work
such havoc among the game of plain
and woodland and upon the battlefield.
These queer factories are known as
shot towers, and resemble great, tall
chimneys, rising one hundred and fifty
to two hundred feet in air. The only
difference one can see from the outside
is the small windows with which the
wall is dotted up to the top, which is
surmounted by conical-shaped cap not
at all like the coping stone of factory
chimney. All day long from the sum-
NIT of this cap there issues a tiny
stream of smoke, which makes it re-
semble the crater of some dormant vol
cano. On entering the structure one
sees on every side huge piles of pig
lead. In one corner is small but
powerful elevator of the simplest con-
struction, for it is just two platforms,
one six feet above the other, and about
four by two feet in measurement.
Standing on one of the platforms, and
taking hold of the cable to keep from
knocking against the grimy brick
walls, the elevator starts. 1t is like
entering a coal mine, only one ascends
instead of descending. Presently there
is an opening in the wall, and one sees
what appears to be a shower descend
ing through the hole in the center of
the tower. So it is-a shower of shot
falling from a height of one hundred
and fifty feet into the water below
All the way up at each landing one can
look at the steady downpour. When
the landing at which the men are at
work is reached it presents a novel
sight.
To one side there is the furnace with
the great melting pot from which the
melted lead is carried down by pipe
to an iron colander which is fitted in a
framework just over the center of the
drop hole. The holes in this colander
vary from $50 to 1850 of an inch in
diameter. A peculiar fact is that the
shot dropped from a colander will not
pass through the hole in it, as the shot
swell when cooling. If lead alone were
used to make the shot the pieces fall
ing in the water would not be round,
but would take an elongated shape,
something like grain of oats. Arsenic
is therefore mixed with the lead, and
the chemical properties are such that
the meta takes a true globule form.
At the melting platform there are but
two men at work. One attends to the
dropping colander and sees to it that
the colander is always kept filled with
the liquid metal. He does this by turn
ing a valve on the pipe which carries
the metal from the melting pot. He
also is constantly employed in skim
ming the dross from the surface of the
mass in the colander. Beside him is a
wheel around which runs an endless
wire to which a small cup is attached.
This cup runs down into the water into
which the shot is continually dropping.
When the operator wishes a sample he
sends the cup down and it brings up
some of the shot. This is so he can tell
how the metal is running. The other
man looks after the furnace and keeps
putting the pigs of lead and arsenical
metal into the melting pot.
The larger sizes of shot are dropped
from the greatest height, because it
takes the larger mass of metal longer
to cool before entering the water than
it does a small amount. The well of
water at the bottom of the drop hole is
bubbling and seething like the water
under the great falls of Niagara. This
well would soon become filled were il |
not that an endless chain to which are
attached small cups are dipping the
shot out all the time, depositing it on
a belt of webbing upon which it dries
off and passes to the machine which
separates the imperfectly formed from
the perfect shot. This apparatus is a
series of inclined boards over which
the shot roll. The perfect shot will
roll straight down the center of the
board, while the imperfect run off to
one side. At the bottom of the board
there is a little hurdle. Perfect shot
will jump this but the imperfect fall
into rcccptacle5 to one side. The little
balls Of lead then pass to the sortino
machine. which is a series of metal
barrel sleeves, each barrel havfno tha
size hole for the different sizes of Shot
From here they pass to the POLISHING
machine q LumJling barrel in which !,
S quantity Of plum11go. This rourls
he shot OF and turns them out smooth
md glossy. In the packing room there
S an automatic machine which WEIGHS
'ut twenty-five pounds of shot and DO
'osits 1t in canvas bags, which the !
.