426 lewis' AMERICAN SPORTSMAN. 



the world. Stop a moment, however, my incredulous friends, 

 till you have learned of what a stub-and-twist barrel is com- 

 pounded, and how it is wrought into a gun, and then tell me if 

 you can expect to purchase one of these ^^rare gems''' (as we may 

 term them) on this side of the water, let alone on the other side, 

 for the paltry sum of twenty-five or thirty dollars, lock and 

 stock included. 



Old horse-nail stubs have, for a great number of years, been 

 considered the best kind of scraps for the purpose of making the 

 most superior gun-barrels. Numerous attempts have been made 

 to find a composition of scraps to equal it, but as yet without 

 success. When the practice of using old stubs was adopted, we 

 have no certain date. From the appearance of the oldest bar- 

 rels, I should venture to say tliat it was coeval with their in- 

 vention. It requires, however, no gift of prophecy to sa}^ that 

 their use will not long continue, from the difficulty of obtaining 

 them good, being only now to be procured from the Continent, 

 and that with increasing difficult\\ 



Before proceeding to manufacture them into iron, Avomen were 

 employed to sort and examine each stub, to see that no malleal)le 

 cast-iron nails or other impurities are mixed with them. They 

 are then taken and put into a drum, resembling a barrel-churn, 

 through the centre of which passes a shaft that is attached to 

 the steam-engine, which works the rolling-mill, bellows, &c. 

 When tlie machine is set agoing, the stubs are rolled and tum- 

 bled over each other to such a degree that the friction com- 

 pletely cleanses them of all rust, and they come forth with the 

 brightness of silver. The steel with which they are mixed 

 (being generally coach-springs), after being separated and soft- 

 ened, is clipped into small pieces, corresponding in size to the 

 stubs, by a pair of large shears, working hy steam. These 

 pieces are then, like the stubs, put into a drum, in order to be 

 divested of any rust they may retain, and are subsequently 

 weighed out in the proportion of twenty-five pounds of stubs 

 to fifteen of stoel, in quantities of forty-two pounds. 



After being properly mixed together, they are put into an 

 air-furnace and heated to a state of fusion, in which state they 

 are stirred up by a bar of the same mixture of iron and steel, 



