CHAPTER V.
GUN-MAKING.
In this chapter I shall briefly describe the process of the manufacture of guns of all qualities, commencing with barrel-welding; which, in importance, is inferior only to the quality of iron in the routine of good gun-making.
Birmingham, and the surrounding districts, are the only places in England where barrel-welding is practised. The superior advantage possessed in having coal nearly (if not entirely) free from the presence of the sulphuret of iron, which has always been found a considerable hindrance to the obtainment of clear and good barrels, is greatly in their favour. For a considerable period individuals in London contended with the Warwickshire welders; but being an unequal contest, it ended in favour of the provincialists. This is to be regretted, as there can be no doubt but that greater reliance could be placed on the material of the London manufacture. But a considerable drawback existed with the latter: they made only one sort of barrel, and that the best. Now it is requisite to have a fire fitted for the purpose of welding best barrels—tempered, as it were—and this can only be effected by some hours’ using, which is generally employed in the production of a number of very inferior barrels. As the London people made no common guns, and needed no inferior barrels, they welded their best barrels in a raw, untempered fire; and hence arose the admitted inferiority of their work. The late Mr. Fullard struggled long and hard in the competition; but with his death, barrel-welding ceased in the metropolis. Indeed it would have been highly imprudent and unprofitable for any one to have entered upon such a speculation; there being no certainty of success, but rather of the contrary. The Birmingham barrel-welders are wonderfully clever smiths: they cannot be excelled. If ridden with a curb, they do well; but no opportunity must be given them, or to a certainty they will “bolt” from the true path.
The metal rods are twisted by means of two iron bars, the one fixed the other loose. In the latter there is a prong or notch to receive one end; and when inserted, the bar is turned by a handle. The fixed bar preventing the rod from going round, it is bent and twisted over the moveable rod like the pieces of leather round the handle of a whip. The loose bar is unshipped, the spiral knocked off, and the same process recommenced with another rod. The length of all the spirals depends on the breadth of the rod: for instance, the stub-twist has sixteen circles in six inches long; a rod of five feet will make a spiral of only seven inches; while iron, of an inch in breadth, will make a spiral of as many inches long as there are twists: hence the reason why best barrels have more joinings than common ones of equal length.
The Damascus being rolled into rods of 11-16ths broad forms a spiral with the appearance shown in the accompanying [woodcut].
The fancy steel barrels and others, where the rod is formed of more than one piece, such as the stub Damascus, &c., is of rather greater breadth, like the [representation] below.