Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 March 1885 — Making Gun Barrels. [ARTICLE]

Making Gun Barrels.

The beautiful waved lines ard curious flower-like figures that appear on the surface of gun barrels are really the lines of welding, showing that two different metals— won and steel —are intimately blended in making the finest and strongest barrels. The process of thus welding and blending steel and iron is a very interesting one. Flat bars or ribbons of steel and iron are alternately arranged- together and then twisted into a cable. Several of these cables ate then welded together, and shaped into a long, flat bar, which is next spirally coiled around a hollow cylinder, called a mandrel; after which the edges of these spiral bars are heated and firmly welded. The spiral coil is now put upon what is called a welding mandrel, is again heated and carefully hammered into the shape of a gun barret Next comes the cold hammering. by which the pores of the metal are securely closed. The last, or finishing operation, is to turn the barrel on

a lathe to exactly its proper shape and size. By all th? twistings, weldings, and hammerings the . metals are so blended that the mass has somewhat the consistency and toughness of woven steel and iron. _A barrel thus made is very hard to burst— Manufacturer and Builder.