STUB-TWIST BARRELS. 427 



until, by their adhesion, the}' form a ball of apparently melting 

 metal. Daring this process, the bar has become sufficiently 

 heated to attach itself to the burning mass, technically called a 

 bloom of iron, and by its aid the whole is removed from the 

 furnace to the forge-hammer, by which it is reduced down to a 

 bar of iron now about forty pounds, the weight lost being 

 wasted in the process of welding and hammering. From the 

 forge it passes to the rolling-mill, where it is reduced to the size 

 wanted. By this mode of manufticturing, the iron and steel are 

 so intimately united and blended that the peculiar properties of 

 each are imparted to every portion of the mass, and the whole 

 receives the degree of hardness and softness required. The pro- 

 cess is admirable, and the mixture is calculated to produce a 

 metal the best fitted, under the circumstances, to answer the pur- 

 pose of manufiicturing gun-barrels of the best description. (See 

 Greener^ Spanish barrels, manufactured of the stubs of the nails 

 used in putting on the shoes of the mules and horses of that 

 country, formerly had a great and deserved reputation among 

 English Sportsmen — in fact, commanding prices far beyond any 

 guns produced in England, So great was the demand for these 

 far-famed barrels, and so eager was every one to possess them, 

 that it was not uncommon, so Blain informs us, for purchasers 

 to be found at twenty, thirty, and even forty pounds for a single 

 barrel. 



The labor bestowed upon the manufacture of these barrels was 

 exceeded alone by the operatives on Damascus arms, and to 

 such an extent was the hammering of the lusty smith carried, 

 that it was not unusual for a mass of stubs, weighing from forty 

 to fifty pounds, to be reduced by repeated beatings to a rod suffi- 

 cient only to make a single barrel. By this long and arduous 

 process the utmost ductility, tenacity, and purity were acquired, 

 which rendered these guns superior for safety and shooting- 

 powers to all other manufactures. Spanish barrels are no 

 longer sought after with the same eagerness as in former times, 

 owing to many circumstances that have operated to prejudice 

 the public against them, as well as the present, superior charac- 

 ter of the stub-twist manufactured by English artists, and which, 

 we imagine, cannot be excelled by any barrels coming either 

 from Spain or the East. 



