HOW GUN-BARRELS ARE MADE. 215 



carbon again equal to the original quantity : thus, 

 steel once made will never, by any process yet known, 

 be reconverted back to iron of the same nature it was 



originally 



" The original barrel-welders, the real Damascus 

 iron-workers, were, like some of ours of the present 

 day, not the most conscientious individuals, nor the most 

 honorable. For, strange to say, — but it is not more 

 strange than true, — on examination of most real Da- 

 mascus barrels to be met with, we find the iron must 

 have been so valuable as to induce the workmen to plate 

 or vefieer the superior mixture over a body of the com- 

 monest iron : all large barrels are thus made, rifles 

 especially. I presume the moderns borrowed the in- 

 vention ; and it would be well if they made no more 

 extensive use of it than on rifle barrels." 



WlRE-TwiST AND DAMASCUS IRON. 



" The modern method of making wire-twist and 

 Damascus iron, being gradations from the same mate- 

 rial, are here described under one head : — 



" Alternate bars of iron and steel are placed on each 

 other, in numbers of six each ; they are then forged 

 into one body or bar ; after which, if for the making 

 of wire-twist barrels, they are rolled down into rods 

 of 3-8ths of an inch in breadth, varying in thickness 

 according to the size of the barrel for which they are 

 wanted : if for Damascus, invariably 3-8ths of an inch 

 square. When about to be twisted into spirals for bar- 

 rels, care must be taken that the edges of the steel 



