SHOT is the term applied to all solid projectiles fired from any sort of firearms; those for cannon and carronades being of iron, those for small-arms, of lead. The latter are known as bullets and small-shot. The shot used for guns at present vary.from tho 3-pounder, for boat and mountain artillery, to the 13-in. shot, which weighs about 300 lbs. as a shell, or 700 lbs. as an elongated bolt. Generally, shot are cast. There are simple practical rules for calculating the weight of spherical shot from the diameter, and sue verya„ which are often useful in reading, of artillery actions. Given the diameter in inches, to find the weight in pounds: Cube the diameter, and multiply the result by 14; reject the two right-hand figures; those remaining give the weight in pounds.—Given the weight in pounds, to find the diameter in inches: Multiply the cube-root of the weight by 1.923, and the result is the diameter of the shot in inches.
Small-shot is of various sizes, from swan-shot, nearly as large as peas, to dust-shot. It is made by dropping molten lead through a colander in rapid motion from a consith c able height into water. The lead falls in small globular drops. The holes in the colau dem vary in size according to the denomination of the shot, No. 0 requiring holes
in in diameter, No. 9, inch. The colanders are iron hemispheres. 10 in in diam eter, and are coated within with the cream or scum which is taken off the molten metal. A small portion of arsenic is melted with the lead, and the fusion in the colanders is maintained by those vessels being surrounded by burning charcoal. The discovery of, the advantage attending a long fall was made in England toward the end of last century. Previously the shot had dropped from the colanders at once into the water. The had was then so soft that tile shot were flattened the water. The fall through the air enables the lead to cool and harden before taking its plunge. The smaller sizes require Mess fall than the larger---100-ft. it. suffices for sizes Nos. 4 to 9—the larger sorts demand 156 feet. The highest shot tower is at Villach, in Carinthia, where there is a fall of 249 After cooling, shot, is sifted in successive sieves to separate the sizes. Misshapen shot are found by their inability to roll; and finally, the whole are polished by rotary motion in small octagonal boxes, in which a little plumbago has been thrown. See also CASE-SHOT or CANISTER-SHOT, and GRAPE-SHOT.