THE GUN MANUFACTURER.

THE PROOF HOUSE.

By guns, only muskets, rifles, and fowling-pieces are here meant, since the manufacture of cannons, to which the term guns is now commonly applied, is an entirely different business to that of making what are called “small arms;” the latter including, in fact, swords, pistols, bayonets, muskets, rifles, and some other implements of war. There are so many varieties of fire arms, and they are sold at pricesvarying so greatly, that it would be almost impossible to give any detailed description of each kind of piece. The finely-finished rifle or sporting gun, fitted with the last improvements, breech-loading or otherwise, and finished with marvellous perfection and accuracy, is worth four times as many pounds as the common muskets, made for exportation to Africa for the use of the natives, are worth shillings. We may, therefore, describe some of the ordinary processes of the gunmaker’s trade, and the various improvements will then be better understood when the reader has an opportunity of seeing finished guns, in which such improvements may be pointed out to him.

The barrels of guns are either plain or twisted; twisted barrels are made of long and very narrow strips of iron, one of which, being moderately heated to increase pliancy, is wrapped spirally round a cylindrical mandril in such a way as to form a tube, which may be slipped off the mandril at pleasure. As the rods are not usually made of sufficient length for one to form a barrel, several are usually joined end to end, those which form the breech being thicker than those at the muzzle end. By heating and hammering these pieces are welded into a continuous and very strong and tough tube.

Partially worn iron, called “scrap iron,” is best for these purposes. The twisted barrels which are known as “wire twist” are formed of narrow rods of iron and steel forged together, and then rolled out to the proper thinness.

Damascus barrels are composed of similar metal, but the rods are twisted on their own centres until the fibres which they contain have from twelve to fourteen turns in an inch by which the rods are doubled in thickness and proportionately reduced in length. Two such rods are welded togetherside by side, their respective twists being reversed. There are many modes of making twisted barrels, but these are the most common.

After being welded, the barrels are carefully examined, and, if needful, straightened by a few blows of the hammer. They are then bored in a machine with an angular plug of tempered steel, which is caused to revolve rapidly within the barrel, while a stream of water is directed upon the outside to check the heat caused by the tremendous friction. The outside is brought to a smooth surface either by grinding on a large grindstone, or turning in a lathe. The breech end of the barrel is bored with a screw-thread, to receive the breech plug, which closes it at that end.

Mandril, with Damascus Barrel in progress. Tool for boring Barrel. Testing Barrel.

The barrels are then proved by being fired at theproof-house, a large building where they are loaded with a charge five times as great as they will have to bear when in use. A great number of barrels are fired at once by laying them upon a strong framework of wood with their touch-holes downwards, and connected with a train of gunpowder which is ignited outside the building. A heap of sand is piled inside the building, opposite the muzzles of the barrels toreceive the bullets. Those which bear this test without injury are marked as perfect.

Guns used in field sports are often made with two barrels fixed side by side upon one stock. The barrels are made separately, and each with one flat side, that they may lie close together. They are secured together by ribs running between them from end to end.

The wooden stock upon which the barrel is fixed is generally made of walnut-tree wood. It is first shaped, and afterwards shod with brass or steel; the trigger guard and other fittings are let into the wood, and every part is furnished with the proper screws and fastenings.

With regard to the manufacture of rifles and other small arms in general, the author of the present work some time ago wrote a description of a visit to the factory at Birmingham known as the Toledo Works, and it may be useful to give an extract from that account of what he saw there.

The steel from which the swords are made is supplied in long pieces somewhat tapering at the ends, and having a square portion in the middle, which, being cut through, leaves material for two blades, the bisection of the square leaving a shoulder at one end to receive the iron “tang” by which the blade is afterwards fixed into the handle. The manufacture of these blades is almost entirely effected by the forgers, who hammer them into the required shape upon the anvil, a mould running down the centre of which secures the hollow which in swords extends for about two-thirds of the length from hilt to point. In a little street of smithies the musical clink is being sounded by a score of stalwart arms, either forging the rough steel into form, or hammering the formed blade into perfect shape and symmetry, an operation which requires it to be kept ata certain heat, lest the embryo blade should be injured in the process. Once perfected as to proportion, the hardening commences, and the blade is thrust backwards and forwards into the furnace until it has acquired a proper and uniform heat, at which point it is removed and instantly plunged into cold water. This process, which has obviously suggested the Turkish bath, renders it hard indeed, but at the same time so extremely brittle that we whisperingly suggest the propriety of contracting to supply our enemies with weapons, and neglecting to carry them beyond that particular stage of preparation, when they may be snapped with the fingers. Carefully supported, however, the blade is again subjected to the fiery ordeal until it attains a slaty blue colour, and a beautiful and elastic temper, which has been partially secured by the previous hammering. By the process of forging it has become about six inches longer than the pristine steel shape, and by the tempering it has attained a springy strength which enables it to be bent in a curve sufficient to bring the hand five inches nearer to the point than when the blade is straight.

Many of the best bayonets are forged in the same way as the sword-blades, and, as in almost every manufacturing process, human intelligence has an unmistakable advantage over mere mechanical force, these possess some superior qualities. The greater number of bayonets, however, are made from a square bar of drawn steel, five inches and a half long by nine-sixteenths square. This bar is passed between a series of about sixteen pairs of rollers, which are worked by steam power, and so grooved as gradually to mould the blade to the required shape. Sixteen times the short steel bar undergoes the merciless pressure of a progressively-increased power, until its length is increasedfrom five and a half to twenty-six inches, when some portion is cut off from the point to leave it the regulation length.

The matchets, which are made from bevel-edged steel, passed twice through the rollers, are cut into the requisite shape by means of powerful shears.

Steam Hammer.

These operations are conducted in a large shed, where the rollers stand like awful combinations of infernal machines and patent mangles; where a boding and vengeful tilt-hammer, worked by steam, is tended by a man, who sits like a calm fate beside its crushing bulk, and supplies it with fresh victims; where the awful boom seems to shatter the very atmosphere, and deafness reigns triumphant. In obedience to a signal, however, the monster is suddenlystopped, and we are enabled to hear that the great two-pot furnace on our left is used for making the steel from those long laths of bevel-edged iron stacked against the wall; that the furnace is constructed with wide flues on each side and under the bottom, while the fire-grate occupies the centre between the two pots; that the pots themselves are some four feet deep, and two feet and a half wide, are airtight, contain layers of charcoal and iron covered with loam sand, will remain seven days and nights in the furnace, until their contents are white hot, and that at the end of that time the iron will have been converted into steel of a slaty-blue colour. The inexorable hammer resuming its work at this point, we follow the bayonet to its completion, and once more visit the forges, to witness the “shutting on” or welding the blade to a piece of iron, which ultimately forms the socket by which the bayonet itself is fixed on to the barrel of the rifle or musket.

There is yet another operation before the blades are taken to the finishing shop, one of the most important, too, since it is no other than grinding, a process which secures an exact and uniform thickness and increases their elasticity.

We are standing at the open end of a long, vast, and gloomy shed-like building, supported by iron pillars. On each side through the entire length a series of enormous grindstones spin round amidst sand and water, and the mud from both. Seated astride the bodies of wooden horses, whose heads seem to have been transformed into these wheels, the grinders seize upon the blades, and each fearless rider rising in his stirrups, or, what looks much the same, standing tiptoe till he no longer touches his saddle, throws himself forward, and presses the sword, matchet, or bayonet on the wheel, at the same timeguiding it deftly with its left hand, till its whole surface has been smoothly ground.

Along the whole line of whirling stones fly the lurid red sparks, and the grinders, with squared elbows, seem to curb the struggling and impetuous wheels.

After polishing, which is completed by wooden wheels bearing a coating of leather covered with emery, the swords and matchets go to receive handles, and the bayonets locking rings. The handles of swords are made of walnut-wood covered with the skin of the dogfish, while the hilt and guard are formed from a plain flat sheet of steel, in shape not unlike one side of a pair of bellows.

The solid socket of the bayonet is hammered into form, and afterwards stamped into shape with the rim complete, from which process it is conveyed to a shop where it is drilled by steam power. It then only remains to secure a smooth surface, by means of a revolving barrel, containing an instrument with a number of flanged blades, against which the socket of the bayonet is pressed. It is not a little remarkable to see the solid steel pared and shaved like wax, and no less wonderful to notice the simple machinery by which it is accomplished. The locking rings are stamped out by a lever and die, pierced by a punch, and afterwards “bored,” “faced,” and their shapes secured by a triple circular saw, worked by a lathe.

Mandril, with Common Musket Barrel in progress. Welding by Hand. Forging Hammer.

The most important manufacture in the Toledo Works, however, is assuredly rifles, and, with the intention of following it through its principal processes, we return to the vicinity of the still inveterate hammer, where we are shown a rudimentary barrel in the shape of a slab of best wrought iron, twelve inches long, and weighing nine pounds and a quarter. This uninviting slab is heated in a furnace,and roughly bent into the tubular shape by means of our enemy the tilt-hammer, after which it is once more placed in a furnace of an enormously high temperature, with a small trap-opening. When sufficiently heated, the short rudimentary tube is taken out on a long round iron rod, fitted with a hand-guard, and looking like a huge burlesque rapier. This rod approximates to the size of the intended bore of the barrel, and is inserted, with the rough tube upon it, between two steam rollers, each of which is furnished with a series of corresponding grooves or cuts. The barrel, which is taken up at one end by a rod, is placed between thefirst pair of grooves, and, as the rollers revolve, is drawn out at the other side, a long, hollow, welded tube. This much more graceful and better formed tube is then consigned to another rod of smaller diameter, and to a corresponding pair of grooves; until, after the eighth repetition of the same process, the barrel has attained its proper dimensions. The next operation, which is called “lumping,” consists of welding a piece of wrought iron on to the breech end of the barrel, for the purpose of forming the percussion-lump, and is succeeded by “rough-boring.” This is accomplished by a long, sharp-ended bit, which, being placed in the end of the barrel, revolves at the rate of, perhaps, a thousand turns a minute by means of a pulley and fly-wheel, while the barrel is pushed on by a lever, and kept cool by means of water thrown upon its surface.

The “setting” of the barrel is next effected by means of hammer and anvil, the setting meaning simply rectifying any bend which it may have received during the previous operation. We are not a little interested in the setting, since the first intimation of it on entering the shop is the sudden discovery of a number of workmen gazing resolutely at an opposite window, through what look like attenuated telescopes. They are engaged, however, in one of the processes which require the greatest experience, as each of them is expected to detect the most trifling bias in the barrel. The “spilling-up,” or cutting the inside of the barrel to the proper bore, is similar to the rough-boring, except that only one edge of the bit is allowed to operate, the others being sheathed by a half cylinder of wood, called aspill; this ensures a smooth surface, and prepares for the “fine-boring,” which is six times repeated, the final surface being insured by keeping one edge of the bit perfectlysmooth, by which means the particles of steel drop in a fine and almost soft powder.

The outside of the barrel is next turned in a long lathe, which not only reduces the roughness, but, by a beautiful arrangement of cutting tools, gives it the required substance or “pattern,” for a light or heavy rifle.

The grinding of the barrels is effected by means of stones, larger than those used for the sword blades, but in a similar manner, and is preliminary to “filing,” which carries the barrel to the shop, where it is prepared for the lock.

Grinding Gun Barrels.

These preparations consist of “chambering,” or making the chamber which holds the pin; “breeching,” or cutting the worm intended for the breech-pin, that helps to hold the barrel to the stock by means of a breech-nail; cutting out the little slice into which the “sight” is to be dovetailed;machining the lump; filing the tail-pin, and making the square lump the proper shape for receiving the lock and stock.

We are not a little surprised to learn that every part of the lock is finished by hand, the cock being cut with a die worked by a heavy weight, and the smaller pieces being wrought with forge, hammer, and file.

Section of Breech. Section of Lock, &c. Bullet Mould. Nipple Key.

The great art in lock-making is to obtain a perfect spring, and those properly tempered are so elastic that, although when fitted in the lock, the two sides are so close as almost to touch, they will, when released, spread to two inches below the edge of the lock-plate. The lock and barrel are now ready for the stock, which awaits them in another shop, where it has been sawn out of walnut wood, and finished by carpenters’ tools. The barrel let into its groove, and the lock properly in its place, the stock is more perfectly shaped and rounded before “screwing together,” or the addition of the different parts of the “furniture,” heel-plate,trigger-plate and guard, trigger, nose-cap, rod, and bayonet.

We are now told that the rifle is “finished,” by which, understandingcompletion, we are not quite prepared to learn that it is to be taken to pieces.

We suddenly remember, however, that it is not yet a rifle at all, inasmuch as it has not been rifled. Everything is made perfect before this delicate operation is attempted, in order that no injury may be sustained by the barrel when the complete rifle is again put together. The process of rifling is similar to that of boring, except that a spiral cutter is substituted for the bit. Previous to the reunion of the barrel, the whole work is polished, and the stock stained and finished ready for completion.

“Finishing.”

The pistol barrels undergo the same processes as that of the rifle, except that, after being drilled, they are planed, by machines which carry them along a sort of bed undertools that cut them perfectly smooth, and accurately shape the octagonal barrels. These chisels move by means of screws over the entire surface as it is drawn backwards and forwards on the slide.

The revolver chambers are drilled out of solid iron, by a drilling machine or lathe, with a centrebit and an eccentric motion, which causes each barrel of the chamber-nest to become the centre in succession; while, by means of a slide, the motion can be made to suit either a large or small chamber. The recesses communicating with the lock and trigger are cut by reversing the chamber in the eccentric “chuck,” and using a different cutting-tool, while another alteration effects the drilling of the nipple holes.

THE END

R. CLAY, SON, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS, BREAD STREET

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