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 veneer 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." 



WIRE-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 



