BULLET MOULDS. 349 



machines, similar to those at work in Woolwich Arsenal, the 

 invention of Mr. Anderson, chief engineer there, and with 

 them supply the demand which will be general throughout 

 the country, so soon as the volunteer corps have obtained 

 their arms. However, this is not as yet done, and existing 

 circumstances alone are those that have to be dealt with. 



" So long as the spherical form of bullet was used, the 

 moulds for casting them were very simple, the cheeks being 

 made to open, and the run-hole being placed at their join. Solid 

 bullets of any form were equally easy to run, the hole being 

 usually placed at the centre of their base. The moulds used for 

 running solid conical or conoidal bullets, the bases of which 

 were not rounded, were sometimes made solid ; but it is difficult 

 to cast a good bullet in a solid mould, on account of there being 

 no escape for the air. When, however, the Minie and other 

 hollow-based bullets were introduced, the moulds became of 

 necessity much more complicated, the addition of a " plunger" 

 to form the hollow in the bullet becoming indispensable. 



" In the moulds first introduced for making the Minie 

 bullet, the metal plunger, which was detached, was usually 

 fitted on to a wooden handle, and placed in the moulds at 

 the open end or base; and whilst the bullet was being run 

 the handle rested on a board, or table to keep the plunger in 

 its place. It was then withdrawn, and the bullet dropped 

 out of the mould by opening the cheeks. The lead was run 

 from the point, and the neck removed when the bullet was 

 cool, by means of a burr-cutter. 



" Several improvements were made on these moulds, one 

 of which united the burr-cutter to the mould, in the form of 

 a traversing steel plate, attached to its upper surface by a 

 pin, and in which a hole was counter-sunk, directly above 

 the apex of the bullet, and the lead run through it. When 

 the mould was full, this plate was struck and made to 

 traverse, and removed the neck from the bullet, before it 

 left the mould. Another improvement was a mode of 

 attaching the plunger to the lower surface of the mould, in 

 such a manner that it formed part of the latter, and was 

 always adjusted in its place by the same movement that 

 opened and closed the cheeks of the mould. By these modi- 

 fications the hollow-base bullet is as easily cut as the solid 

 one. 



