HOW GUN-BARRELS ARE MADE. 235 



fibres shall always run round the tube, so that the 

 greatest portion of strength may be obtained, together 

 with a beautiful figure. The cost of this arrangement 

 is considerable, as it involves a great waste of metal, 

 and occupies a considerable time to work and re-work, 

 — twisting, fagoting with the bars placed in various 

 forms, at acute angles to each other, at right angles 

 plaiting three or four rods together, as a lady does her 

 hair, cutting these into pieces, fagoting and welding 

 them into one, and, in short, undergoing an endless 

 routine of manipulations, which it would be strictly 

 unprofitable to detail, but are all productive of cost. 

 An ingenious man may work and improve metal of 

 this nature until its cost equals the price of silver ; 

 and, if judiciously done, improving it still, even until 

 he has wasted 90 per cent of the original material. 



" The ultimate characteristics and properties of iron 

 have, as yet, never been ascertained : it is capable of 

 being condensed until it becomes nearly, if not quite, 

 equal to the specific gravity of silver or lead. No 

 pursuit, mechanical or philosophical, presents so great 

 and so beneficial a research, to the whole civilized and 

 scientific world, as iron. I could twist and retwist 

 iron, until, from the beautiful and interesting results, 

 it would become with me a sort of monomania. I 

 wonder not at the variety of patterns in a Damascus 

 sword-blade : the mind conveys me to the scene, and 

 a regret arises that I did not live in those times ; yet 

 still it is but a mechanical arrangement, directed by an 

 ingenious mind, and the ultimate benefit, apart from 

 the beauty, is no more than imaginary. However, it 



