Evening star., 1898-03-12

The Way the Making of Shot Was
Discovered.

Discovered.
From the Chicago Post.
All dreams do not go by contraries If
they did Plumber Watts Of Bristol, Eng
land, in all probability, would have re-
manned a humble plumber to the end Of his
days. But Watts dreamed a dream and it
brought him fame and fortune. One after
noon, SO the story runs, Watts was en-
gagged in repairing the roof of a Bristol
church. In some manner he lost his foot
hold and was slowly slipping down the
smooth states when he got a new purchase
and thus saved his bones, if not his life.
This mishap worried Watts and he spent
the remainder of the day speculating on
what might have happened had he gone
over the edge of the roof and dropped to
the hard turf below. Still vexed with these
unpleasant fancies he fell asleep and then
in dreams he several times repeated his ex-
perience of the afternoon, but with several
additional features. One of these was that
while he was sliding down the roof his
ladle of melted lead slipped out of his hand
and disappeared over the edge. When
still dreaming-he went in search of his
lead, expecting to find 1t in one piece, he
was surprised to notice the ground was
covered with hundreds of tiny globules, the
metal evidently having been so divided I
falling. When Watts wakened this Incl
dent of his dream would not leave him. He
ulu llOI LOT moment suppose lead would
act in such an unusual manner. but the
dream seemed so plausible that he was
persuaded to enact it in reality. So, with
his ladle, he went to the roof of the same
church and let the melted lead slide from
the ridge. Then he FASTENED to the ground
and his astonishment knew no bounds
when he found everything as it had ap-
peared in his dream. The ground was COW
cred with tiny globues of bright metal
Watts was sharp enough to realize what
ha rp6 nd
profit by it. He had found a simple way TO
make fine shot and he realized a fortune Of
10000 out of his dream.
Thus it happened that the first shot tower
was church. Drop shot Is made in the
same way today that Watts employed after
his first experiment. The melted lead is
taken to the top of high tower built for
the purpose. 1t is then poured through a
sieve and in falling through the air it be-
comes broken into small globules. At the
bottom of the tower is pool of cold water
into which the shot falls. From there II is
taken and placed in revolving drums.
where. by one shot rubbing against others,
it becomes round and smooth Several
devices have been used to do away with
the tower One of these is large upright
tube through which, from the bottom Is
forced draught of cold air This allows
OF much shorter fall than where the old
style tower Is used. Another method is to
pour the lead through sieve and allow il
TO IAN through glycerine. The density of
TINS liquid gives the same resistance and
does the same In rounding and separating
tne shot as does much greater column Of
air. The varying sizes of drop shot are
made by sieves of different meshes as well
as by the distance the lead is allowed to
fall Drop shot forms a considerable fea-
ture OF lead working and may be consid-
ered one of the most practical and concrete
things that ever came out of the n;stI,
realms of dreamland. In passing it NAV be
notlced that the inventor of lead pipe-Rob-
ert Seydell Of Milton. Pa.-discovered the
process In somewhat accidental way His
metnoo was very crude. but it served
others, not overscrupulous, to begin the
development of the present lead pipe in
dustry. Seydell was born In 1909 and died
IN Is4l having during his comparatively
snort lie given many proofs of exceptfonaI
mechanical genius. but reaping no marked
profit from his skill.