The Shot Tower

Author:  Walter Minchinton
Source:  The Shot Peener magazine, Vol 07/Issue 3, Fall 1993
Doc ID:  1993125
Year of Publication:  1993
Abstract:  
Reprinted by permission of AMERICAN HERITAGE Magazine a division of Forbes Inc.,: Forbes Inc.,1991 How do you make perfectly round lead balls for shooting? With a truly simple technology that has hardly changed for centuries. Ever since the invention of firearms sometime around the thirteenth century, ammunition makers have confronted the problem of making spherical lead shot. One obvious early way was to pour molten lead into molds, but this was a laborious process that too often left an unaerodynamic seam in the shot. Another way was to pour molten lead through a sieve suspended several inches above a barrel of water; this often produced egg-shaped shot with a tail. For a long time no method was satisfactory, and the demand for shot, both for military purposes and for sport, continually grew.