SHO 
too much ; or if too small, then it has not 
weight and strength to penetrate far, and 
the bird is apt to fly away with it. In or- 
der, therefore, to have it suitable to the 
occasion, it not being always to be had in 
every place fit for the purpose, we shall set 
down the true method of making all sorts 
and sizes under the name of mould-shot, 
formerly made after the following process : 
Take any quantity of lead you think fit, 
and melt it down in an iron vessel ; and as 
it melts keep it stirring with an iron ladle, 
skimming off all impurities whatsoever that 
may arise at top ; when it begins to look of 
a greenish colour, strew on it as much anri- 
pigmentura, or yellow orpiment, finely pow? 
dered, as will lie on a shilling, to every 
twelve or fourteen pounds of lead ; then 
stirring them together, the orpiment will 
flame. The ladle should have a notch on 
one side of the brim, for more easily pour- 
ing out the lead : the ladle must remain in 
the melted lead, that its heat may be the 
same with that of the lead, to prevent in- 
conveniences which otherwise might hap- 
pen by its being either too hot or too cold; 
then, to try your lead, drop a little of it 
into water, and if the drops prove round, 
then the lead is of a proper heat; if oihcr, 
wise, and the shot have tails, then add more 
orpiment to increase the heat, till it is foun4 
sufficient. 
Then take a plate of copper, about the 
size of a trencher, which must be made 
with a hollowness in the middle, about 
three inches compass, within which must be 
tiored about 40 holes according to the size 
of the shot which you intend to cast : the 
hollow bottom should be thin; but the 
thicker the brim, the better it will retain 
the heat. Place this plate on a frame of 
iron, over a tube or vessel of water, about 
four inches from the water, and spread 
burning coals on the plate, to keep the lead 
melted upon it; then take, some lead and 
pour it gently on the coals on the plate, and 
it wilt make its way through the holes into 
the water, and form, itself into shot; do 
thus till all your lead is run through the 
holes of the plate, taking care, by keeping 
your coals alive, that the lead does not cool, 
and so stop tip the holes. 
While you are casting in this manner, an- 
other person with another ladle may catch 
some of the shot, placing the ladle four or 
five inches underneath tlie plate in the 
water, by which means you will see if they 
are defective, and rectify them. Your 
phief care is to keep the lead in a jnst de- 
SHU 
gree of heat, that it shall be not so cold sa 
to stop up the holes in your plate, nor so 
hot as to cause the shot to crack ; to remedy 
the heat, you must refrain working till it is 
of a proper coolness ; and to .remedy the 
coolness of your lead and plate, you must 
blow yonr fire ; observing, tliat the cooler 
your lead is, the larger will be your shot ; 
as, the hotter it is, the smaller tliey will be. 
After'ymi have done casting, take tliem 
out of the water, and dry tliem over the 
fire with a gentle heat, stirring them con- 
tinually that they do not melt ; when dry, 
you are to separate the great shot from the 
small, by the help of a sieve made for that 
purpose, according to their several sizes. 
But those wlio would have very large shot, 
make the lead trickle with a stick out of 
the ladle into the water, without tlie plate. 
If it stops on the plate, and yet the plate 
is not too cool, give but the plate a little 
knock, and it will run again ; care must be 
had that none of your in)plements are 
greasy, oily, or the like ; and when the shot, 
being separated, are found too large or too 
small for yonr purpose, or otherwise imper- 
fect, they will serve again at the next ope- 
ration. 
Shot, patent milled, are thus made ; sheets 
of lead, wliose thickness corresponds with 
the size of the shot required, are cut into 
small pieces, or cubes, of the form of a die. 
A great quantity of these little cubes are 
put into a large hollow iron cylinder, which 
is mounted hoiizontaily and turned by a 
winch ; when by tlieir friction against one 
another, and against the sides of the cylin- 
der, they are rendered perfectly round and 
very smooth. Tlie other patent-shot are cast 
in moulds, in the same way as bullets are. 
SHRIMP, in ichthyology, the English 
name of two different species of the squilla, 
vAz. the common shrimp, and the smooth- 
nosed shrimp. See Squilla. 
SHROWDS, or Shrouds, in a ship, are 
the great ropes which come down both 
sides of file masts, and are fastened below 
to the chains on the ship’s side, and abaft 
to the top of the mast ; being parcelled and 
served, in order to prevent the niast’s 
galling them. The top-mast-shrowds are 
fastened to the puttock-plates, by dead 
eyes and laniards, as the others are. Some 
of the terms relating to , tliC shrovvds are ; 
ease the slirowds ; that is, slacken them ; 
and, set up the shrowds ; that is, set them 
stiffer. ,, 
SHUTTLE, in the mannfacture.s, an in-4/ 
striiment much used by weavers, in thf 
