HOW GUN-BARRELS ARE MADE. 219 



figure is so extremely fine as to appear not to be larger 

 than the finest needle. I have seen barrels made in 

 Liege, superior in minute figure to any real Damascus 

 barrel, or sword either. Our workmen here say the 

 steel is better ; which I am inclined to think is true : 

 it is a branch of the gun manufacture they have long 

 excelled in. The very best ' Damascene ' workers 

 are to be found at La Chafontaine, a few miles from 

 Liege, where they dwell in as beautiful a dell as fancy 

 could wish, with a powerful hill-stream working their 

 boring and grinding mills, thus enabling them to send 

 their barrels into Liege, ready for the filer. I have 

 spent considerable time, and taken great trouble, to 

 produce in Birmingham iron equally good ; and I 

 have succeeded ; but, unfortunately, Englishmen are 

 so extravagant in their ideas of value, as to render 

 the constant manufacture of this iron here a losing 

 speculation. It can, however, be obtained from Bel- 

 gium now, under the amended tariff, at ten per cent 

 on the value. It can be purchased there, ready for 

 barrel-making, at a franc per pound ; and cheap it 

 is at that price : two and a half francs would not pur- 

 chase it here. 



" That Damascus iron is incompatible with good- 

 ness, I can and shall clearly prove. Experiment with 

 the testing machine shows a rod of wire-twist 3-8ths 

 square, containing 1.6875 solid inches, as equal to a 

 tension of 11,200 lbs. ; whereas a rod, when converted 

 into Damascus of n-i6ths of an inch in breadth, by 

 4-i6ths in thickness, containing 2.625 solid inches, 

 was only equal to 8,960 lbs. ; thus showing a clear 



