416 lewis' AMERICAN SPORTSMAN. 



WELDING BARRELS. 



The process for making common gun-barrels is very simple, 

 and is clone in the following manner : A bar of iron is heated 

 and hammered out into a thin flexible rod, resembling a good- 

 sized hoop, of a length and thickness proportionate to the size 

 and weight of the intended barrel. This rod is beat thinner at 

 the muzzle end than it is at the end intended for the breech. 



This being arranged, the hoop is heated and turned round a 

 mandrel (a rod of tempered iron, much smaller than the intended 

 bore of the barrel), with the edges overlapping each other the 

 half of an inch or so, and when welded together have the ap- 

 pearance of being manufactured or bored from a solid rod of 

 iron. After being turned round the mandrel, the overlapping 

 joints of the hoop are welded together by heating three or four 

 inches of the tube at a time, and beating upon an anvil furnished 

 with several semicircular furrows suitable for the various-sized 

 barrels that are manufactured. This is the modus operandi 

 adopted for forging common barrels, such as are used for ex- 

 portation, and of which trash, immense quantities come to this 

 country through the hands of our Ilardwaremen. 



The foro^insf of stub-twist barrels, and other barrels of a better 

 description, is quite a different operation, and requires far more 

 labor and skill. The rod of iron is first heated to a red heat, a 

 few inches at a time, and, one end being made stationary in a 

 vice or other suitable contrivance, the other is seized by an in- 

 strument with a handle similar to an auger, by means of which 

 it is twisted round a bar of iron (the mandrel) much smaller 

 than the intended bore. By this operation the fibres of the 

 metal are twisted in a spiral direction, wduch is known to resist 

 the explosive force of powder much more than when they all 

 run longitudinally. The hoops or rods of the best stub-twist 

 are generally about half an inch or less in width, and conse- 

 quently there will be over two spirals in every inch of barrel, 

 when the twisting process is complete, as the joints are not made 

 to overlap each other, but are forced to unite by a process termed 

 jumping, after the bar is entirely twisted. The greater number 

 of spirals to an inch, the more labored and perfect is the manu- 



