The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-04-20
AN ACCIDENT BROUGHT FAME.
fhe Way the Making of Shot Was
Discovered.

From the Chicago Post.
All dreams do not go by contraries.
If they did Plumber Watts, of Bristol,
England, in all probability, would have
remained a humble plumber to the end
of his days. But Watts dreamed a
dream and it brought him fame and
fortune. one afternoon, so the story
runs, Watts was engaged in repairing
the roof of Bristol church. In some
manner he lost his fOOthOld 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 experience of the
afternoon, hut 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 dreamnE-he went in search of
his lead, expecting to find it in one
piece, he was surprised to notice the
ground was covered with hundreds of
tiny clobules the metal evidently hav-
ing been 50 divided in falling. When
Watts Weakened this incident of his
dream would not leave him. He did
not for 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
hastened to the ground and his aston
| iShment knew no bounds when he found
| everything as it had appeared in his
! dream. The ground was covered with
| tiny globules Of bright metal. Watts
| was sharp enough to realize what he
| had discovered and was not slow to
| profit by il. 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 a church Drop shot is made
| i'm 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 becomes
| a
| tom of the tower is pool of cold water
| into which the shot falls. From there
it 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 a large upright tube through
which, from the bottom, is forced a
draught of cold air. This allows Of q
much shorter fall than where the old,
style tower is used. Another method
is to pour the lead through a sieve and
allow it to fall through glyccrine. The
density Of this LIQUID gives the same
resistance and does the same i'm round.
ing and separating the shot as does 2
much greater column Of air. The vary,
ing sizes of drop shot are made bS
sieves of different meshcs as well as
the distance the lead is allowed to fall
Drop shot forms a considerable feature
OF lead working and may he consid
cred one of the most practical and con,
crete things that ever came out of the
misty realms of dreamland In pass
ing il may be noticed that the inventor
Of lead pipe--Robert Seydell, Of Milton
discovered the process in a some
what accidental way. His method wa.
very crude, but it served others, no
oversCrupulous, to begin the develop,
ment Of the present lead pipe industry
Seydell was born in 1909 and died in
lS47, having during his comparatively
short life given many proofs of eXcep
tional mechanical genius, but reapinl
no marked profit from his skill.