SHOT. One of the seerets of the manufacture of shot, says the Baltimore American, is the mixing of the lead with a certain proportion of a combination of mineral substances called "temper." The temper is fused with the lead, and gives the metal that molten consistency which makes it drop. If it were not for the temper, the lead would be moulded by the sieve, and would form little pencils instead of round shot. When "BB" shot, for instance, are to be made, the lead is poured into a pan perforated with holes corresponding to that size. The little pellets come pouring down in a continuous shower, and fall into a tank filled with water on the ground floor. In their descent of 200 feet they become perfect spheres, firm and dense, and are tolerably cool when they strike the water, although the swift concussion makes the tank foam and bubble as if the water was boiling furiously. The shot
must fall in water, for if they should strike any firm substance they would be flattened and knocked out of shape. An elevator with small buckets, similar to those used in the flour mills, carries the shot up as fast as they reach the bottom of the well, and de-. posits them in a box sixty feet above the first floor. The water drips from tl)e buckets as they go up, and not much is poured into the receivers above, although it is intended to be a sort of drip ping machine. From this receiver the shot runs down a spout into a drying-pan, which greatly resembles a gigantic shoe made of sheet iron. The pan rests at an angle, which permits the wet shot to run slowly down to the chamber below, and the pellet's become perfectly dry as they pass over the warm sheet iron.