Ml 



an*. 



while the tube ii pitting between the rollen, the treblett iliall always 

 be immediately between them, so a* to keep the bore open. The 

 adhesion of the hot meUl to the surface of the rolli or rollers U sulii 

 dent to draw the tube off the mandril By a uooetaion of rolling* the 

 barrel in elongated to the required length, and brought down to the 

 required degree of tenuity ; and if there be any surplus metal, it is cut 

 on* from the muule end. Uun barrels formed in this way are found 

 to stand proof better than those wrought by hand, because the heat is 

 more equalised, and, in consequence of the great elongation between 

 the rollers, any imperfections in the original mass of iron are dispersed 

 over a greater surface." 



All the processes hitherto described relate to the manufacture of 

 what are termed plain barrels ; but some of the most curious opera- 

 tions in the gun-maker's art relate to the manufacture of the superior 

 kind of barrel called twitted, of which there are many varieti 

 all of these the material of which the barrel U composed is rolled or 

 forged into narrow bars, about equal in thickness to the intended 

 substance or thickness of the barrel, and varying in width from about 

 three-eighths of an inch to an inch or more. One of these narrow 

 rods or ribands of metal, being moderately heated to increase its 

 pliancyi is wrapped spirally round a cylindrical mandril about the size 

 of the bore of the intended barrel, in such a way as to form a tube, 

 which may be slipped off the mandril at pleasure. As the rods are not 

 usually made of sufficient length for one to form a barrel, several are 

 usually joined end to end, those which form the breech being thicker 

 than those at the muzzle end. In this state the barrel is a coil of 

 metal somewhat resembling, on a large scale, the kind of spiral spring 

 employed by bell-hangers as a chuck-spring. It is then heated to 

 welding heat, and forged into a solid or continuous tube, partly by 

 hammering upon a mandril, and partly by what is termed jamjiii',;/. 'r 

 litrikiug the end of the barrel upon the 0oor, by which the edges of the 

 helical or spiral rod are brought into very close contact, and eventually 

 incorporated together. Many successive heats are, of course, necessary 

 in this operation, and the welding proceeds only two or three inches at 

 a time. 



The manufacture of the numerous varieties of twisted barrel is very 

 minutely described in Greener's works, entitled ' The Gun ; or a 

 Treatise on the various descriptions of small fire-arms,' and 'The 

 Science of Gunnery, as applied to the use and construction of fire-arms,' 

 especially in the first mentioned, which contains many curious details 

 upon the various kinds of iron employed. From these it appears that 

 considerable difficulty has arisen from the circumstance that, as the 

 progress of science has enabled manufacturers to produce articles of 

 common use of very inferior qualities of iron and steel, the common 

 wrap iron and steel, which consists of fragments of such articles when 

 broken or worn out, and which is much sought after by the makers of 

 gun-barrel iron, is very inferior to what was procurable a few years 

 since. Even horse-nails, that is to say, the nails employed for fixing 

 horse-shoes, and which when worn out are collected with avidity as 

 furnishing one of the best descriptions of scrap-iron, under the name 

 of hone-nail ttubt, are now difficult to be procured of the quality 

 required for making gun-barrels, since many of those used in this 

 country are now made of malleable cast-iron, and a few such 

 with others would spoil the iron for the purposes of the gunsmith. 

 Wire-ueitl is the technical name given to an excellent kind of twisted 

 barrel, which by some ignorant dealers is supposed to be really 

 fabricated of wire. Such barrels are formed of very narrow rods of 

 compound metal, composed of alternate bars of iron and steel forged 

 into one body, and then rolled out to the requisite tenuity, when the 

 edges of the rods, which are brought to the surface of the barrel, will, 

 on the application of a corrosive liquor, which acts differently upon 

 the two metals, present a fibrous or wiry appearance. In forming a 

 barrel of such rods care is taken that the adjoining edges of the spiral 

 be alternately composed of iron and steel, so that the pattern may have 

 a uniform appearance, although the difficulty of welding is thereby 

 increased, banuucu* barrels, or rather such as are manufactured iii 

 this country under that name, are composed of similar metal, but the 

 rods are twisted upon their own axes until their component fibres or 

 larnimc have from twelve to fourteen turns in an inch, and the rods 

 are thereby doubled in thickness and proportionately reduced in 

 length. Two such rods are welded together side by side, their respec- 

 tive twist* being reversed. Barrels made of rods of Damascus iron 

 have a very pretty appearance ; but, as Greener observes, the metal is 

 considerably weakened by the excessive twisting of its fibres, on the 

 same principle, though not to the same degree, as a rope is impaired 

 by over-twisting. Of this point Greener gives illustrations in the 

 results of numerous experiments made by him on the cohesive strength 

 of various kinds of iron. ' Stall barrels are formed of horse-nail stubs, 

 cleaned to brightness by friction in a machine, and mixed with 

 fragments of steel, usually of old coach-springs cut up into little bits 

 resembling the stubs. These stubs and scraps are wedged compactly 

 into a hoop or ring, which holds them together while they are exposed 

 to welding boat in a furnace, and welded into a compact mass culled ,1 

 bloom, which is drawn out by rollers into the narrow strips required 

 for making twisted barrels. Greener states that the usual proportions 

 of this compound metal are fifteen pounds of steel to twenty-five 

 pounds of iron-stubs ; but he thinks the proportion of steel might be 

 increased with advantage. Attempt* to make barrels of steel alone 



GUN. U 



hare frequently failed owing to iU hardness. " It in not," he observes 

 in ' The Gun/ " sufficiently tenacious of ttoelf, from its fineness of 

 grain, to resist the sudden explosion of gunpowder." He states that 

 when steel barrels have been found to stand proof, their t-l 

 powers have been found very great, a circumstance which 

 encouragement to efforts for me makers have 



tried to make iron barrels with an inner tube or lining of sU-el ; but 

 this appears objectionable, because the two metals thus used, d.> not 

 spring together, although when combined as in wire-twist and stub- 

 iron they may be considered to act as one substance, uniting the hard- 

 ness of steel with, and compensating for its brittleness by, the t< 

 of the soft iron. These remarks were published in 1835, and in the 

 second work above mentioned, published in 1841, Greener states that 

 mueh progress had been made in the use of steel since ' The Gun ' was 

 published ; and of late years steel has been much used in rifle barrels, 

 especially in America, where most of the rifle barrels are mad < 

 the solid bar of steel bored out. The same thing is now ; 

 Mr. Burton for the military rifles, the difficulty howeur 

 welding on the cone seat Mali Damaieiu is a very beautiful ) 

 iron formed like the Damascus iron above described, but of stub-iron 

 instead of wire-twist, but it is open to the same objection on the 

 ground of over-twisting. 



We may here refer to a paper communicated to the Society of Arts 

 in 1825, and published in their ' Transactions,' vol. xliii. pp. 105-108, 

 which contains an account of the process employed at Bombay in 

 making gun-barrels and sword-blades in imitation of those made at 

 Damascus; from which it appears that these barrels are in 

 of iron hoops, obtained from European and chiefly from British casks. 

 The more they are corroded by rust, the more highly are they valued ; 

 and if they are not sufficiently oxidised they are exposed to moisture 

 until they become so. Being cut into lengths of about twelve inches, 

 they are formed into a pile an inch or an inch and a half hL i 

 edges being laid straight, so as not to overlap each other, and a 

 piece is so fitted as to return over each end, aud hold the pile together 

 while iu the fire. After being heated the pile is drawn or forg' 

 to a bar about an inch wide and one-third of an inch thick, which is 

 doubled up in three or more lengths, welded together, and again dnv. n 

 out as before, this operation being repeated three or four times 

 according to the degree of fineness required. The bar is then li 

 a small portion at a time, and hammered on the edge so as to fl- 

 out the contrary way to that of the stratification, by which ope: 

 the wire or vein is brought out on the face of the strap or riliand of 

 iron. "The barrel is then forged in the usual way, but," Captain 

 Bagnold states, " much more jumjilny is used than iu the English 

 method, in order to render the twist finer." " The most careful 

 workmen," he adds, "always made a practice of covering the part 

 exposed to the fire with a lute composed of mud, clay, and the dung of 

 cows or horses, in order to guard against any unnecessary oxidation of 

 the metal. When the barrel is complete, the twist is raised by laving 

 the barrel from one to five days cither in vinegar or a solution 

 sulphate of iron, until the twist is raised ; this process is called the 

 wire-twist." " To produce the curl," he further states, " the bars or 

 straps are drawn out to bars about three-quarters of an inch square, 

 and twisted, some to the right and others to the left ; one of each sort 

 are then welded together, doubled up and drawn out as before 

 upon the experience of the workman, am <duced 



by this drawing out, doubling, ami twisting." This latter process, it 

 will be observed, resemble.-! th.it of English workmen, as also does a 

 piece of trickery which Captain Bagnold mentions, consisting in rough- 

 filing a common English barrel, and welding a strap of Damascn 

 spirally round it, or applying several such straps longitudinally, and 

 welding them on ; a fraud which must be severely condemned as 

 impairing the barrel in a similar way to the attempted union 

 and steel above alluded to. It is important to notice, that the 

 Indian artists never work witli coal under any consideration, 1 > 

 solely charcoal from light woods. Coal, from its always containing 

 traces of sulphur, is highly injurious to the tenacity of the iron. 



Greener describes many nil of gun-barrel iron than are 



mentioned above, but these need not be further noticed, ev, 

 remark that tlu- inferior twisted barrels are usually formed of wider 

 rods than the better norts, aud are consequently weaker from the 

 necessarily oblique direction of the twist, and from the circumstance 

 that large rods do not get so thoroughly rolled as small ones, a 

 as from the inferior quality of the metal itself. He also de.- 

 numeroua ways, often very ingenious, in which frauds are 

 by unprincipled gunmakcrs, to avoid not only the increased cost of the 

 r kinds of metal, but also the increased charges for labour in 

 almost every department upon barrels of the best quality. In some 

 cases a strip of inferior iron will even be introduced into the heart of 

 rods or bars of Damascus iron, by which, owing to the different 

 .e powers of the two metals, the gun will be impaired more 

 than liy the diminution of strength mid intrinsic value. 



The great amount of welding required in twisted barrels require* a 

 very large fire, and Greener states that several hours should be spent in 

 forging inferior barrels before the fire can be brought to a fit state for 

 those of the best quality. Hence, he considers, the London barrel- 

 forgers do not attain such perfection in this operation as those of 

 Birmingham, because they do not generally make the inferior barrels 



