THE BARREL. 221 



time weld the edges of the bent rods by the blow of the 

 forge hammer at a white heat. The welder commences with 

 a stout spiral of sufficient thickness for the breech ends, 

 heats it to his mind, and then, removing it from the fire, 

 gives the end a smart blow against the anvil, known by the 

 technical term "jumping." This is repeated till the welding 

 is complete, when a second portion is put into the fire, and 

 the two ends being brought into contact so as to fit, which 

 requires considerable practice, a "jump" on the anvil welds 

 them together. By repeating this operation again and 

 again the proper length for the barrel is obtained, and then 

 the tube is made as perfect as possible at this stage by 

 hammering it at a proper heat on a mandril, the external 

 surface being made circular by placing it in a groove corre- 

 sponding to its intended form. After this hammer-hardening 

 by means of light hammers is adopted for the purpose of 

 consolidating the texture of the iron, and then the twisted 

 barrel is completely forged. For forging the plain barrel 

 the smith takes two bars of iron, bends each of them over a 

 mandril into rather more than a half circle ; then heating 

 them to a welding heat, he places both upon the mandril 

 with their edges overlapping, and welds them together by 

 repeated blows of his hammer. 



The boring and grinding are effected by the person who 

 is called the "barrel-maker," though certainly the smith 

 might more properly be entitled to that appellation. Of 

 these barrel-makers London contains several, and indeed 

 every gunmaker would probably assert that he employs a 

 workman of this class, though in many cases the same man 

 works for several masters. It must be remembered that 

 when forged the barrel is only a rough tube, the internal 

 bore being smaller than it is intended to be when finished, 

 and allowing of the removal of a considerable quantity of 

 metal. The first thing to be done is to convert the interior 

 into the nearest possible approximation to the form which it 

 is intended to maintain permanently, and this is done by 

 boring it with a machine called a " bit." This instrument 

 may either be used by the hand, when it is fixed in a stock 

 and made to turn in the interior of the barrel, or it is placed 

 in the spindle or "chuck" of a frame, which has also a 



