The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-08-11
HOW SHOT is DROPPED.
An Intersting Process That Is Cen
turtles Old.

turtles Old.
From the New York Mail and Express.
Dropping shot is one of the oldest of the
arts. 1t was done here in New York just
as IL was done centuries ago on the con-
tinent. In the main the processes are as
simple and as primitive as those of the
ancient arrow-maker in the land Of the
Dacotahs. Shot is made on the edge of the
Swamp about as it is made by the Mexican
neon But the trade has its secrets and
y certain Jealous pride of inheritance that
have operated to hedge 1t in from lntru-
The shot towers of Manhattan Island.
looming above the venerable buildings that
surround them, suggest the history OF an
earlier day There interiors are dark ana
grinninR and filled with strange shadows.
on either side the great brick Wills pierced
nv infreduent portfolios, slope upward IN
to- the blackness. Through the gloom men
are seen at work with ladies' of boiling
metal and caldrons that send up an AMEN
odor There are flashes and CLEANS at the
windows, where the light falls on the
leaden hall that is dropping, cropping iToil
it's lofty elevation.
Down In the depths the water boils and
shutters as the molten shot strikes IL. A
cool breeze blows in your face, ana you
discover that blast OF air. sprayed WIN
moisture, is ascending from below to meet
the dropping metal. There is clank OF
chain machinery as the shot is elevated
from the pool, to be finished in the nights
OF the tower. Sometimes merry glow en-
welcoming the furnaces shows spectral
forms, wreathed in fumes, bending over
kettles in which is brewing the potent
witch broth OF war. It Is all very quaint
and unlike. Many who pass at the street
stare with the vaguest surmise at the
slender tower, and wonder what manner
of thing is going on inside.
There are four shot towers in New YORK.
One Of them, and the largest, Is the dis
used pie of bricks at the foot of East
Fifty-third street 1t is 81 years old. The
other three are below the bridge on the
east side of the island, but only two or
them are often worked. The output OF
these two places New York at the head Of
the shot-producing cities Of the country.
St. Louis is its chief rival, although shot
Is made in half dozen other cities. The
foreman of one Of these shot towers show
ed Mail and Express reporter through
the building this week and explained the
different steps of manufacture.
You first visit the basement where the
alloy is being prepared. The raw lead Is
neither ductile nor hard enough to as
sumo the globular form or accomplish its
death-dealing errand. 1t has to be min
gled with arsenic in the proportion Of
eighty pounds of the poison to 200
hounds of the metal. Then the two are
cooked in caldron until they DOH up IKE
a fiery sorghum as the sooty-faced work
man stirs the metal with his steel ladle.
The arsenic is confined in bag and held
down under an iron cone in the bottom of
the caldron, so that only the fumes may
ascend through the boiling lead. 1T will
be eight hours before the fires will be
taken from under the alloy" explains the
foreman. You follow him to the roof.
Here is another kettle aRd a colander.
The latter has a sheet stssl sieve for its
bottom and the whole Is half foot deep
by a little over a foot in diameter.
Through it drops the molten metal that be-
comes a perfectly globular pellet before
It strikes the water in the depths of the
tower The kettle Is filled with a COM
pound made by melting eighty pounds of
the alloy with 500 pounds Of pure lead. The
workman ladies il into the colander, ana
it oozes out below into a thousand silVery
drops that pldnge at once into the abyss.
And really that is all there Is to shot
making, for the pellets the practically
ready for ones fowling piece after they
strike the water. So far the process does
not differ from that OF century ago.
But there are other steps and the fore
man explains them:
1T may be news to you, but you can
get as many as sixteen sizes of shot az
the same time from colander IN which
the apertures are all OF a size. The cen