BULLET-MAKING MACHTNE. 



157 



I have felt some little difficulty in classifying the curious 

 invention which will now be described, but, as it is used for the 

 purpose of making bullets, I have placed it in the category of 

 War. 



In the days of " Brown Bess," as the old musket used to be 

 called, precision of aim was not required, for no commander 



B 8 



SILK APPARATUS OF SILKWORM. 



BULLET-MAKING APPARATUS. 



dreamt of opening fire until the enemy were at comparatively 

 close quarters. In those days the bullets were spherical, and 

 cast in moulds. After a time, when the Enfield rifle displaced 

 the musket, and did double the execution at three times its 

 range, bullets were still cast, though their shape was altered, 

 and they took a sugar-loaf form instead of being spherical. 



The rifle -testing machine at Woolwich, however, soon 

 showed that at long ranges a cast bullet was nearly useless, one 

 part being always lighter than another, and air-bubbles often 

 taking the place of lead. After being cast, therefore, the 

 bullets were placed in a " swedge," or " swage," i.e. a machine 

 by which the lead was forcibly compressed until it was of a 

 tolerably uniform density. Even this process, however, did 

 not insure absolute exactness, and then a machine was invented 

 by means of which the process of casting was superseded, and 

 the bullets were pinched or squeezed, so to speak, out of cold 

 lead. 



On the right hand of the illustration is a plan of the inge- 

 nious apparatus by which the lead is supplied to the machine 

 which actually forms the bullets. The sketch is not meant as 

 a drawing of the actual machine, but is merely intended to 

 show the principle. 



