Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-02-10
SIGHTS IN A SHOT TOWER
Billions of Leaden Pellets Are Turned Out
Every Week.
Drop Through the Air q Distance Of
200 Feet-sorting, Polishing
and Packing.
From the New YORK News.


of the town before the advent Of the sky
scrapers was the old shot tower standing
within half a dozen blocks of Fulton ferry.
Today you can only see this latter struc-
ture from some nearby roof top, SO COM
pletely hidden is 1T by the forest Of high
office buildings. All the same, the indus
try pursued inside it's slender smoke
grimed walls has lost none of its complex
ity and none of its interest.
The building was erected for the purpose
OF manufacturing those small metallic pei
let's used by sportsmen, and of these it
turns out billions every week during the
winter. Up near the top Of the structure
are furnaces for melting the substance.
which Is poured in showers of globules
down through the shaft. These fall into
a well OF water at the bottom, out of which
they are then scooped, to be sorted into
proper sizes and polished for the market
Each individual shot must pass test and
be declared perfect before 1t is permitted
to go out of the establishment.
Among the numerous popular decisions
about the manufacture of shot" said one
OF the attendants to me, lis the notion that
the little metal balls are made spherical
by falling from a. height through the air.
The fact Is that the perfect shot could be
made by falling two feet just as well as
by dropping 300 feet-which is the height
of our tower-if only they could cool rapid
ly enough.
The Shot" he continued, when they
are let fall from the top of the tower are
as perfectly spherical as when they reach
the bottom. If they started in any other
shape they would not be made round by
their long 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 am
pie time to cool and harden before arriv-
ing at the bottom. AS for the water, its
purpose Is not to chill them, but to afford
yielding substance for them to strike.
If 1t were otherwise they would be fat
tened and made useless. The well In the
bottom of the tower described Is twelve
feet in depth.
Our tower Is not the only one in town.
he went on, though it is the tallest and
perhaps the best known. 1t has been called
the light house of the swamp. 1t Is not
unlike a light house in its construction,
only it is more slender and has no lamp of
course. at the top. 1t Is close upon 200 feet
high. AS you can see, there Is a spiral iron
staircase winding from the bottom to the
top around central shaft. To reach the
summit is laborious climb At height
of 40 feet is a floor with furnace for
melting the metal.
Thirty feet higher you see another floor
and a second furnace like the first. The
lower furnace is used for the smaller size of
shot. because they do not have to drop so
far in order to get cool. For big shot the
upper furnace is employed. A fall Of sixty
feet would be sufficient for small bird shot
The workman who tends the furnace, you
will notice. has half dozen utensils, which
look like saucepans with long handles. The
bottom of each saucepan is perforated with
small holes. There Is no other apparatus
for none is needed.
THE metal alloy makes its way through
the porous stuff on the bottom of the uten-
sill and forms little drop at every opening
i'll the perforated bottom. The drops fall
down the well. followed by others as fast as
they can form. Being liquid drops. they
are absolutely spherical when they leave
ma tn I'D
quantities of melted lead with his ladle as
fast as it is required, SO that the shower Of
metal drops is continuous. By the time
they have fallen 100 feet more through
the air they have cooled and hardened so
far that the impact of the water does not
alter their shape.
I'm the manipulation of the lead and
saucepan a skill is required which machine
cry could not supply. 1t is not necessary
to have pan with distinct size of per
forations to produce each size of shot de-
manded. Holes Of a given size can be made
to yield shot of several different sizes by
making the layer of the scum at 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 II is not possible to make all the
shot in given batch of precisely the same
size.
For example No 4 shot are made with
Il pan that has holes measuring 4-100 of an
inch in diameter. Three-quarters of them
will be of the right size, but from Is to %
per cent will be smaller larger than
No. 4.
The best time to make shot is when the
iron sides Of the tower are whitened on the
exterior with frost. In warm weather lead
an drops do not cool so fast as Is necessary
and are therefore fiattened when they come
in contact with the water A short time
ago a visitor came TO the tower to see how
the shot were made. Great showers of the
hot globules were raining down the long
shaft. Standing near the bottom, he thrust
out his hand to feel the leaden downpour.
Tho foreman grabbed the mans arm in
time to prevent him from being seriously
height the shot would have fairly rtddled
the mans hand as gatling gun might have
riddled 1t. They look harmless enough in
their downward flight. but 1 would rather
bottom Of the shot tower
From the we'll, endless chains of little
buckets dip up the new-made shot, and car
~ them to a floor above, where they are
poured upon an inclined table of heated
iron. AS they roll across this table they
are dried by the heat, and at the other end
or II they ran Into great bins. There they
remain until they are ready to pass through
certain further processes, which are re-
quired to prepare them for the market.
ION coming out Of the bins they go into a
revolving cylinder, covered with wire cloth.
Friction in this continuance removes from
them all corrosion and dirt. Then they are
conveyed by machinery to series Of wide
boards like steps, the difference in eleva-
ton between each two being slight. The
first and highest board Is slanted sufficient
ly to set the shot rolling to the end of the
steps. The other boards are horizontal.
Now, between each of these step-lke
boards you see a space az wide as three or
four fingers. The perfectly spherical shot
jump clear across these places but the i'm
perfect ones do not roll sufficiently well to
make the leaps. Falling out they are re-
jected. Those which pass the ordeal and
jump all the spaces are perfect shot, and
are deemed acceptable without any further
test shot Two.
BILE shape. but perfect roundness.
Now come with me to the finishing
room,'' remarked my guide and shot ex-
FOUNDER, as he led the way to another part
of the lower tower. Here" said he, "the
little pellets are put through series of re-
yolving sleeves with different sized holes,
by which they are automatically sorted
into all the different sizes known to the up
to-date sportsman. Then 1t only remains to
pack them in bags and send them to mar
ket. Before being sorted by the sleeves,
however, they are put into the machine
which tumbles them around with plumba-
go. otherwise known as graphite or black
lead-the stuff that Is put into pencils to
make them write In this fashion the shot
get fine coating Of black, which makes
them slick and gives them a polish"
False Teeth of Antiquity.
From the New York Herald. 1