History
of the American Shot Tower
By
Richard Hamilton
Page 1
Shot Towers in
America that are still standing:
Sparks, Philadelphia, PA
Peters, Kings Mills, OH
Remington, Bridgeport, CT
Winchester, New Haven, CT
Phoenix, Baltimore, MD
Jackson Ferry, Wytheville, VA
Dubuque, Dubuque, IA
Wisconsin Shot Company Shot Tower, Spring Green, WI (rebuilt)
Bristol, England, world's first shot tower.
1753, William Watts.
Water Color of Baltimore Shot Tower by Baltimore
illustrator
Aaron Sopher (1905-1972)
Early History in England and Europe and the story of William Watts British forces had been issued
lead shot for their
muskets but because of imperfections in What's the shape of a falling raindrop? We like to sketch raindrops with a tear-drop shape. Actually, they're spherical. Once they've fallen far enough, surface tension has pulled them into the shape with the least surface. That's a sphere. In 1782 an English plumber named William Watts saw possibility in that. He realized that if he dropped molten lead far enough through the air, it, too, would form into spheres. The surface tension of lead is a lot higher than that of water, so it forms very perfect spheres indeed. He saw that he had a new way to make buckshot. Watts went back to his brick row house in Bristol and began adding floors to it. It was already three stories high. He doubled that, He put some castle-like trim on the top and called the design Gothic. He wanted his neighbors to like the addition, but the real action was inside his strange new home. He knocked holes through each of the floors inside and put a water tank at the bottom. At the top, he poured lead into a sieve. The lead formed into spheres as it fell six floors. By the time the drops hit the water below, they'd started to solidify. The water caught and cooled them the rest of the way. Up to then, most shot was cast. That was very labor-intensive. Shot was also made by pouring lead into a sieve over a barrel. That really did give tear-shaped drops. Before Watts, no one had yet realized that a much longer fall would give spheres. Watts saw how he might greatly cut the cost of making high-quality shot. Then he gambled his home that it would work. And it did. Shot towers like his sprouted all over England and Europe. Yet the process changed little. Shot makers added an up flow of air, and they invented ways to sort out deformed shot. Yet Watts old patent still gave a pretty good description of 20th-century shot-making. In fact Watt's old house -- his original shot tower -- kept producing shot until 1968. Watt's invention teaches us the two essential elements of good invention. The first is perception. Watts gazed more closely at nature and saw what other people had missed. The other element is simplicity. Others had labored to control the process with their own hands. Watts had the grace to stand aside and let nature do the work for him. The real beauty of this process is that, in the end, there is no human process at all. |
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Early History in America In 1807, Thomas Jefferson had congress pass the Embargo Act of 1807 which forbade all international trade to and from American ports, and Jefferson hoped that Britain and France would be persuaded of the value and the rights of a neutral commerce. This was the end of importing lead shot from England, France and the rest of Europe where shot towers produced tons of shot for American export. European shot towers had sprung up all over Europe after the construction of the first shot tower by William Watts in 1783 in Bristol, England and the American colonies were major buyers. With this turn of events (Jefferson's embargo), shot towers began to be constructed in the colonies for American consumption. The first two were in Philadelphia (Sparks Shot Tower) in 1808 and the Jackson Ferry Tower in Wytheville, Virginia in 1807. Both these towers produced shot and bullets for the War of 1812. The Sparks Shot Tower in Philadelphia is the first "smoke stack" type tower in America. The tower produced tons of ammunition during the War of 1812 and the Civil War. Four generations of the Sparks family kept the tower in operation until 1903. The tower is now part of a city playground with a recreation center at the base. It's a prime example of Philadelphia's reputation for superb brickwork. The operation was completely above ground while the Jackson Ferry Tower in Wytheville, built one year earlier, has much of it's drop underground. The combined drop (above and below ground) of the Jackson Ferry Tower is 150' with the above ground rectangular tower standing 75 feet and the underground shaft another 75 feet. In 1774 Thomas Jefferson
purchased 157 acres of land including the Natural Bridge in the Shenandoah Early
shot towers where found in the New England states in the early 18th
century and flourished in New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia, where they
were used in the manufacture of lead shot for shotguns. Other
famous shot towers include the Collier
Shot Tower in St. Louis, Phoenix Shot Tower in Baltimore (1828),
the Chicago Shot
Tower, the Remington Shot
Tower in
Bridgeport, CT (1909), the Jackson
Ferry Shot Tower
in Wytheville, VA (1807), the Sparks Shot Tower
in Philadelphia (1808), the Peters
Shot Tower in
Kings Mills, OH (1895), the Selby
Shot Tower in San
Francisco (1864), the Dubuque
Shot Tower in
Dubuque, IA (1856), the St
Louis Shot Tower
in St. Louis (1830) and the Winchester
Shot Tower in New
Haven, CT. What's the future of American Shot Towers? The idea of a shot tower as a monument was never found to have the same attraction as those towers of light-houses or ones found at stone forts on the frontier, and many of them were torn down. However, in recent years, the towers in Baltimore (Phoenix) and Virginia (Jackson Ferry) have become great tourist attractions. The Sparks tower in Philadelphia has been preserved and is in wonderful condition. The most endangered tower is the Peters Shot Tower in Kings Mills, Ohio. Probably the most beautiful tower, it's days are numbered. Tragically, the Watts Tower (first in the world) in UK was destroyed in the 1980s. |
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Virginia
Shot Tower The
Jackson Ferry Shot Tower was typical of others in the country that made
small spherical lead shot for The "drop process" was patented in England in 1769 by William Watts, a craftsman of Bristol, England. He profited handsomely from its prevalent use. The tower was built by Thomas Jackson, an English immigrant, in 1807. The tower and grounds were restored through the efforts of local organizations, individuals, and the Commonwealth of Virginia. |
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Phoenix
Shot Tower or later the Merchants Shot Tower
The
building is considered an engineering marvel because it took more than
one million bricks to construct; it was erected in less than six months
without the use of exterior scaffolding, and it stood as the nation's
tallest structure for nearly two decades. When the building was
threatened with demolition in 1921, a group of citizens bought it and
gave it to the city for preservation. Shot Towers were not uncommon in 19th century skylines. One of three in Baltimore was built on the corner of Fallsway and Fayette St. in 1828. The Phoenix Shot Tower Company of Baltimore constructed it without the use of scaffolding. Charles Carroll of Carrollton laid the corner stone. Molten lead was dropped from the top of the tower. As it fell, it formed balls. Water at the bottom would catch and cool the shot. The tower and surrounding plant was acquired by the Merchant's Shot Tower Company, who manufactured shot there until 1892. Union Oil bought the factory in 1921 with the intention of tearing it down and building a gas station in its place. Public outcry saved the tower, and the gas station was built along side it. In 1924 Union Oil gave the Shot Tower to the city. It was restored in 1976 and opened to the public as a museum. The Phoenix Shot Tower was a lead shot manufacturing facility that was in operation from 1828 to 1892. Molten lead was dropped from a platform at the top of the tower through a sieve-like device and into a vat of cold water. When hardened, dried and polished, the shot was sorted into 25-pound bags. Over 234 feet in height, the Shot Tower was the tallest structure in the United States until the Washington Monument in Washington, DC was completed after the Civil War. The Shot Tower was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1972. |
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Sparks
Shot Tower It looks like a smoke stack with a lid on top, but it's really America's first shot tower built in 1808. Shot towers revolutionized the making of musket balls and other solid projectiles based on the principal that molten lead will form perfect round balls when poured from a high place.
The
molten lead was poured through a mesh with different sized holes for
different sizes of shot. The balls fell into a large container of water.
The tower produced tons of ammunition during the War of 1812 and the
Civil War. Four generations of the Sparks family kept the tower in
operation until 1903. The tower is now part of a city playground with a
recreation center at the base. It's a prime example of Philadelphia's
reputation It looks like a smoke stack with a lid on top, but it's really America's first shot tower built in 1808. Shot towers revolutionized the making of musket balls and other solid projectiles based on the principal that molten lead will form perfect round balls when poured from a high place. Until this discovery, gun shot was made by pouring the lead into wooden molds. Plumber Thomas Sparks and a partner created a 142-foot-high brick tower with a 30-foot circumference at its base tapering to 15 feet at the top. It stands along the Delaware River waterfront at Carpenter Street in South Philly and is easily seen from Route I-95. The molten lead was poured through a mesh with different sized holes for different sizes of shot. The balls fell into a large container of water. The tower produced tons of ammunition during the War of 1812 and the Civil War. Four generations of the Sparks family kept the tower in operation until 1903. The tower is now part of a city playground with a recreation center at the base. It's a prime example of Philadelphia's reputation for superb brickwork |
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Walker
Shot Tower The 160 feet tall lead
shot tower is located on the banks of the Shropshire Union Canal in
Chester, UK. It was built just prior to the Napoleonic War in 1798 or
1799. It is still in perfect working order, although production has sadly ceased, it being uneconomic in comparison to today's modern shot. The tower used an interesting technology: previously, molten lead was poured into moulds and left to harden. The resulting shot was, however, not uniformly perfect, and the guns would occasionally jam and could explode in one's face. The tower method involves pouring molten lead through a sieve from the top of the tower. As it falls it forms perfect balls of shot, hardening as it falls and finally dropping into tanks of water at the bottom. The diameter of the shot is determined by the size of the sieve, with larger size shot needing further to fall to complete the 'rounding' process. It is a marvelous building, with its walls some three feet thick. The top of the tower can sway considerably in high winds, sometimes causing the falling lead to miss the tank of water at the bottom! It is because of this flexibility however, that the tower is still standing; had it been rigid it would undoubtedly have fallen by now! |
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Tasmania Shot Tower Taroona, Australia One of
the most beautiful shot towers in the word can be found on the bank of
the Derwent River in This stone shot tower was completed in 1870 by Joseph Moiré, a native of Kelso, Scotland. The tower is the only circular stone shot tower in the southern hemisphere. The tower contains 318 steps and 25 landings to the drop room at the top of the tower. This sandstone tower rises 66 meters (216 feet) above the banks of the Derwent River, affording spectacular views up, down and across the river. The tower is 10 meters in diameter at the base and 3.9 meters at the top - the walls a meter thick at the bottom thin out to .45 centimeters at the top. The (more photographs) is made from more than 8,000 individually curved and tapered sandstone blocks. |
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St. Louis Shot
Tower As St. Louis' industries
grew and the town was exploding with population along with outlining
settlements involved with the Westward Movement, it was only natural that
a shot tower was needed to fill the demand. Ferdinand Kennett saw the
chance for an enterprising person to become wealthy and with partners like
his brother Luther and James White it wasn't long that his dream was
fulfilled. By 1836 the Saint Louis Shot The company had become a co-partnership as it expanded with several silent and named partners, by 1854 Ferdinand Kennett had completed his dream and retired an exceptionally successful man. The St. Louis Shot Tower supplied large quantities of lead shot, trade balls, and small lead bars to the frontier, mentioning firms like Chouteau, Merle and Sanford, and Chouteau and Valle. A number of one pound lead bars, parts of lead bars and the 1/2 pound lead bars have been found in present day Nebraska, Wyoming and Colorado In a five month period the shot tower was
capable of producing: |
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Youle Shot Tower The hexagon smoke stack style Youle Shot Tower was built in 1823 on the banks of the East River, beyond Kip's Bay on Manhattan Island in the state of New York. The owner, George Youle, was listed as a dry goods merchant and builder of the shot tower in Longworth's New Directory for 1835-1836. His first tower, built in 1821 collapsed. His second tower was so strong that demolition was difficult a hundred years later. It was the third shot tower built in America after Jefferson's 1807 Embargo. The shot tower operated for years and was quite
productive, selling much of its inventory to hardware and When one considers the small size of the product manufactured and compares the size of the building and lofty tower devoted to its operation, the proportions are greatly distorted. The apparatus was merely a plate of copper with a number of holes punched in it and placed a few feet above a kettle of water in the tower, the melted lead was poured, descended and passing through the holes in the plate into the water, cooled and hardened all in one operation. Probably the hardest part of the manufacturing of shot was moving the material from the ground to the top of the tower and into the furnaces at that location, many accidents have been recorded at this area, thus workers in the upper part of the tower received more for their daily wage than those working at ground level. The idea of a shot tower as a monument was never found to have the same attraction as those towers of light-houses or ones found at stone forts on the frontier, a shot tower was a place of unbelievable heat, hard work and bad air to breathe. |
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Selby Shot Tower Selby Shot Tower owner Thomas H. Selby arrived in San Francisco from New York in 1849 and became its mayor twenty years later. By 1870, his 200-foot-tall shot tower at First and Howard was already as prominent a contributor to San Francisco's burgeoning industrial economy as it was to its skyline.
The Smelting and Lead Works became the city's most
prestigious industrial Ultimately, with 40 furnaces, the Selby works became the largest reduction establishment on the North American continent, consuming almost all the lead bullion produced in the United States. The plant, situated on Jefferson Street in North Beach, was on the extreme northernmost point of The City, extending out into the Bay and facing Alcatraz. Around the clock, smokestacks, the loftiest of which was 80 feet high, spewed out columns of dense black smoke creating a constant pall over the Bay to the east. At night, light from its furnaces revealed the plant's never-ending labor. At First and Howard streets, Selby constructed a lead-pipe and shot works. The structure, which for a quarter of a century was a noted tourist attraction, included a 200-foot-high shot tower for the manufacture of lead bullets. Molten lead, dropped from the tower, passed through a series of sieves into water below, creating shot. |
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Remington Shot Tower During World War I, Bridgeport exploded with activity.
Even before the United States entered the war, the city's manufacturers
found a ready market in the European combatants. A leader in the industry
was the Remington-Union Metallic Cartridge Company, which more than
doubled its plant size between 1914 and 1916. |
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Wisconsin
Shot Company Shot Tower Twenty
years before Wisconsin became a state, the discovery of vast lead deposits
brought a population boom to the area. Green Bay merchant Daniel Whitney
organized the Wisconsin Shot Company to built a shot tower. T. B. Shaunce
dug out the shafts with pick and gag (pry bar) and removed the earth with Molten lead was dropped from a building on top of a large cliff through sieves, and then collected through an exit tunnel at the base of the cliff near a branch of the Wisconsin River. and located in Southwest Wisconsin on 77 acres at the site of a 19th century lead-shot manufacturing operation. A 120-foot long shaft, connected to the riverbank by a 90-foot tunnel, where lead was dropped using the "Watts Method." The operation continued until 1860 when the country's turbulence due to state's rights and a faltering economy brought an end to the shot operation. |