STUB-TWIST BARRELS. 451 



then taken and put into a drum, resembling a barrel-churn, through 

 the centre of which passes a shaft that is attached to the steam- 

 engine, which works the rolling-mill, bellows, &c. When the 

 machine is put in motion, the stubs are rolled and tumbled over 

 each other to such a degree that the friction completely cleanses 

 them of all ^ust, and they come forth with the brightness of 

 silver. The steel with which they are mixed, (generally coach- 

 springs,) after being separated and softened, is clipped into small 

 pieces, corresponding in size to the stubs, by a pair of large shears 

 working by steam. These pieces are then, like the stubs, also put 

 into a drum, in order to be divested of any rust they may retain, 

 and are subsequently weighed out in the proportion of twenty-five 

 pounds of stubs to fifteen of steel. 



"After being properly mixed together, they are put into an air- 

 furnace and heated to a state of fusion, in which state they are 

 stirred up by a bar of the same mixture of iron and steel, until, 

 by their adhesion, they form a ball of apparently melting metal. 

 During this process, the bar has become suSiciently heated . to 

 attach itself to the burning mass, technically called a bloom of 

 iron, and by its aid the whole is removed from the furnace to the 

 forge-hammer, by which it is reduced to a bar of iron of far less 

 weight than the oi-iginal mass, the weight lost being wasted in the 

 process of Avelding and hammering. From the forge it passes to the 

 rolling-mill, where it is reduced to the size wanted. By this mode 

 of manufacturing, the iron and steel are so intimately united and 

 blended that the peculiar properties of each are imparted to every 

 portion of the mass, and the whole receives the degree of hardness 

 and softness required. The process is admirable ; and the mixture 

 is calculated to produce a metal the best fitted, under the circum- 

 stances, to answer the purpose of manufacturing gun-barrels of the 

 best description." 



Spanish barrels, manufactured of the stubs of the nails used in 

 putting on the shoes of the mules and horses, formerly had a great 

 and deserved reputation among English sportsmen, — in fact, com- 

 jnanding prices far beyond any guns produced in England. So 



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