DS harrel 
“men, it appears that in 1715 there were only two, 
ea Mardsch Grant, and John Simpson ; and Po 1741 
cael — only one in the vac Since that 
peri wever, encouragement been given 
To that art in Edi , there being at the ret 
sent time (1816) six master gun-makers, who employ 
about thirty workmen ; and there is one in a few of 
the principal towns in Scotland. This business has been 
carried on to a very considerable extent, in England, by 
private individuals ; and government, within these few 
‘oy has established extensive manufactories at Lewis- 
, and in the Tower of London, employing about 
500 workmen, who complete at the rate of 5000 stand 
of muskets every week: Expert workmen have been 
id seven — and upwards for their week’s la- 
The London gun-makers, who are employed in 
the making of fowling-pieces, rifles, and pistols, amount 
‘to about forty-three, and they have not less than 300 
people in their service. Birmingham is the place where 
all kinds of fire-arms are manufactured _ to the greatest 
extent ; although it is to be regretted that the effect of 
competition has introduced a superficial style of working, 
which is greatly detrimental to the character of the arti- 
cle, and to its extension as a branch of commercial ex- 
Porthe manufacture of a gun is performed by the follow- 
ing workmen, viz. barrel forger, borer and filer, lock for- 
ger and filer, furniture filer, ribber and breecher, rough 
stocker, screwer together, polisher, and engraver, in all 
ten different persons, few of whom can execute any 
other branch of the art but one. Most of the princi- 
' pal towns in England have one or two master guh- 
makers, but none of them on the business in 
all its different branches, except London, Birmingham, 
and Edinburgh. The makers of the first and last 
cities have the highest prices for their guns, single 
fowling-pieces being from 15 to 30 guineas, and double 
ones from 35 to 70 guineas ; indeed, to such a perfec- 
tion has this instrument been brought, of late years, 
by the British artists,*that it cannot be doubted but that 
they are greatly ne, toon to every other nation in Eu- 
rope; although we have learned that, at the Versailles 
manufactory, under the first consul’s special patronage, 
fowling-pieces were made at the high price of 800 
ineas. Instances, however, can be produced where 
ndon makers have had a thousand guineas for one 
gun. The variety and ingenuity in the construction of 
small arms, in order to gain peculiar advantages, are so 
various and extensive, that it would be very difficult to 
enter into any details upon the subject : We shall, how- 
ever, enumerate a few of the different kinds of guns 
which are in use: guns with one barrel to discharge 
from one to three Salls successively ; magazine guns 
that prime and load by one motion, and discharge from 
10 to 20 balls in succession; double guns, with their 
barrels placed perpendicular, horizontal, and to turn 
“round a centre ; , four, and seven barreled guns ; 
guns; muskets and carabines, &c. 
he gun barrel.—The meng shape, and bore of 
n barrels, have materially changed as the instrument 
Basen more generally used and better understood. 
Hence we find, in different countries and at different 
riods, their lengths fluctuating from six feet to 25 
inches, and their diameters from half an inch tu one and 
‘a quarter inch: They are generally cylindrical, but 
in some instances square, internally and externally 
with chambers at the breech to contain the powder, as 
_ is the case with all the Asiatic matchlocks of most an- 
cient construction, The Spaniards were the first people 
GUN-MA KING. 
559 
in Europe who excelled in the manufacture of barrels, 
Gun- 
remarkable for lightness and safety: Possessing finer iron _™*king- 
from their smelting their ores with wood; and being 
sensible that the more it is wrought by heating and 
hammering, the purer it becomes, they naturally resort- 
ed to the old nails extracted from the shoes of their horses 
and mules. Juan Sanchez di Mirvena, is the first that 
fi ged the barrel in ate pieces, in the reign of 
Philip IV. ; and so highly were the Madrid makers es- 
teemied, in 1720, that the French gave 1000 livres, or 
£48, 133. sterling, for the barrels of Nicholas Biz, Juan 
Beler, and Juan Fernendez. About the year 1650, we 
find Lazerino Cominazio, of Brescia, in high repute. 
France has also had her eminent workmen, such as 
Nicol le Clere, Des Champs, Jean Franc Renet, and 
Henry Renet, all of Paris, whose barrels are still much 
prized. The British are now, however, confessedly 
much superior to every other people in the manu- 
facture of this article. They have, of late, introduced 
many ingenious improvements, such as patent steel 
barrels, and narrow and wire-twist barrels, with a 
beautiful application of the fibres of the metal in weld- 
ing, so as to resemble exactly the Damascus steel 
of Persia, or what is seen in the finest arms of Indian 
workmanship. At first the European barrels were 
all of one diameter throughout, until within these 
30 years, that a London tradesman obtained a patent 
for a chambered breech, which, though it possessed 
peculiar merit, was nothing but a copy from the prin- 
ciple of the carronade, and both are obviously borrow- 
from the Indian matchlock ; hence his privilege of 
original invention being untenable, this construction 
became general in afew years, and still continues, with 
some slight variation, to the present period. 
In forming the common gun barrel, the workmen be- 
gin by heating and hammering out a bar of the best iron, 
into the form of a flat ruler, thinner at the end intended 
for the muzzle, and thicker at that for the breach, the 
length, breadth, and thickness of the whole plate being 
regulated by the intended length, diameter, and weight 
of the barrel. . This oblong plate is then, by repeated 
heating and hammering, turned round a cylindrical 
rod of steel, called a mandril, whose diameter is con~ 
siderably less than the intended bore of the barrel, 
The edges of the plate are made to overlap each other 
about half an inch, and are welded together by heating 
the tube in lengths of two or three inches at a time, 
and hammering it with very brisk but moderate strokes, 
upon an anvil which has a number of semicircular 
furrows in it, adapted to barrels of different sizes. 
The heat required for welding is the bright white heat 
which immediately precedes fusion, and at which the 
particles of the metal unite and blend so intimately 
with each other, that when properly managed, not a 
trace is left of their former separation. Every time the 
barrel is withdrawn from the forge, the workmen strike 
the end of it once or twice gently against the anvil in an 
horizontal direction ; this operation, which is called 
jumping, serves to consolidate the particles of the metal 
more perfectly, as well as to disengage the scoria from 
the inside and outside of the tube, and to obliterate any 
appearance of a seam. The mandril is then introduced 
into the bore, or cavity ; and the barrel being placed 
in one of the furrows or moulds of the anvil, is ham- 
mered very briskly by two persons; the forger all the 
while turning it round in the mould, so that every 
point of the heated portion may come equally under 
the action of the hammer. These heatings and ham~ 
merings are repeated until the whole of the barrel 
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