Show I 1 from dickens Dic kons House household words keevers KEm VERS RS we are on the ibb threshold of af colonel colt colts f factory in the sombre and smoky region of millbank milbank under the thereof roof of low brick built barrack looking building we tire are told that we amny see bee what can cannot not b be seen under one roof elsewhere in till all england the complete com plate manufacture of vi a pistol from the he dirt deity y pip pi p of timber and rough bars of pilot steel till it ig fit for the gun smiths ia case to see the same thing in binning hamand amand li lit in other alces where fire firearms armi are made almost entirely by band labor iv we should have to walk about ft a whole day visiting many shops carrying on oil distinct branches of the not liot to speak of tb the toolmakers tool makers the little screw I 1 and piu pio makers all of whose work is done her we i e independent people says say ray my informant and are indebted to no one save the engine and fixed machine na bho inn in kers 1 I 1 I 1 j 71 this ati which is s just put pill into ny my hand bend will pick into int more than two hundred parti every one of which parts is mada by a machine blittle A little skill is required hi polishing polis bing the wood in ma making cases and lit in guiding the muc hilleg but mere mer strength of muscle which is so valuable in new societies would fini fiuk no market here for the I 1 steam en engine ine indefatigably toiling in the suffocating smell of tank oil down iu in the little stone bomb chamber below performs nine tenths of befall all the work that is done here bere N neat nat at delicata hadded little girls do the work that brawny smiths still do i ill in other gun shops most moot of them have been j semp stresses and dressmakers annach to factory i work but have been induced to conquer some little littie prejudice against it by the attraction of better than could to neAle needlework work i even the men hive have with scarcely an exception i dpn WH hitherto ignorant of no re coating sergeant ever brought a more group gnup into the barrack vard byard to he be drill drilled ed more adly to the fhe same wame duty than ahse two hundred bianas lianas ha no have been carpenters cabinetmakers cabinet makers ex butch butchers qs calt cabman cabmen men hitters gus gas fit porters pr or at least one representative from each of those trades are steadily di drilling illing and boring at iches wl nil d day a y in in upper rooms political economists tell us that th evalue of law ox will find its level as surely a as the seat sea and so perli perhaps zips it will but j is a sort bort of sea that does not right itself quickly jho prevent a great dealoe misery that iffat is balway y recognized recognised aul u I 1 deplored nut but for which the best eathem mathem ilir i ins of the school have not lot va yet been able to fibia ze medy for science with i her two cen tur ilis of pedigree pei gree has become a little aristocratic and does not hand bend her grinius down tp to many inci incidents lents or of it individual wretchedness which h folks cannot shut their ea 6 es to if men who haw learnt leartic 6 but ut one trade and have bave gown grown old in ill it could be as easily I 1 uto another when desirable di esi rable as aa these new gj its ill lie alethe working would go more inore 8 than it doisthe dos The girls giris here earn two to three shillings I 1 ll 11 per day the same the rhe men get froin three to eig eight ht el shillings 11 11 iligo per day of ten len ho haars hoars U rs while ons or two lrein being quick clever ena are pai pol l regularly I 1 I 1 12 I 1 I 1 shillings per day what I 1 is commonly called pi ce work li bisoi agot the system usually adopted here it lias 11 been en u found to tempt the tha meu men to hurry work at the expense of a plat neat finish ana andee the manager it prefers to fo give a workman six pix trial during r grinj which he learns his bis business of gun making by machinery and is also alao sure by the thai time to jiava shown what chat ingro lie he is worth only twelve ol oi throe people are arneri ameri I 1 wills cans oue one or tw twit b germans Gern ians the re rest stare ure eng ene ligh Lit listening ening to these facts as my conductor cornin un cates I 1 thein we pokes tuto it a long room hung t portraits of targets as they appeared after snug firing at them thein will ath colts revolvers all tile bullet marks course very near ilia bulls eye which I 1 am not presumptuous or de ae preci atory of the great colt invention in ting in some to the tha marksmen beyond tins this is 49 the store room lined with wooden racks up to t the celli ceiling jig which aro almost naked now wily only five pistols cfall the number that are made here six hundred I 1 a week being ang at this ibis m moment in I 1 store etore forniere for there Viere is a new government for I 1 the tha bulac und and as fast as they are finished the pistols are sent away packed in deep anses that look very largo large indeed considering that they tire are only for five fie and pistols each atch but the conical bal s and bullet u 1 et moulds powder elska aask i and p percussion cs caps take up more room than the pistols pistola themselves I 1 out ora the hot atmosphere and ands I 1 tile the all perva I 1 ding odor of hot lot oil weass a yard andar deep in iron iron chips which maki 4 dry hard road in ili all weathers liers very destructive to leather into a long I 1 I 1 out outbuilding building lit in winch which the only genuine smiths ore at work here the very ven beginning ailing of the pistol is made if we except tha tho cut cutting and polishing of the stock eliare is little of theloise th enoise of the i smithy 11 here ere elee except I 1 the roaring of the fu furnaces fur ra nases uses A mall rattle rams the heerd end of a Jon gbur ossteel in r V to the fire and it out olit glowing with it heat eat I 1 strikes a bit dt ff the end asif it were a stick of ofa peppermint while ills his companion gi giving it al a couple of r akas spoil lie anvil drops a red reds s J i hot morsel f int uto J oSdie a die this die is a plughole plug hole bole f shaped something like it a horseshoe horse shoe at the booti foot ova of a i machine bearing a painful to al ai guillotine while they have been breaking 0 ofle the I 1 I 1 e bit of st steel eel a huge screw his llen been slowly lift j 1 ing rig up the iron hammer head which bich plays ill thea part of the ax in the guillotine and now no r the aap creati great 1 hammer drops and w with ith one stroke beats the piece of iron to the form lit of the die it has cool 1 ed to a black heavlow ond and is shaped something I 1 1 tike like the d sole of a 4 very narrow shoe but it must muar again and tile the hee end must be beat up at right angles to the donger part taking care that it ie be bent according to the grain of the metal without it will be liable to fuw flaw thus abit s the tha shield af aed A what miti may be called tha die body of the are made inah instant in biral birmingham ham the barrels of aro are made of old nails that have hae been knocked about and which we are melted rolda into sheets twisted j di beaten abort still they are am compared co comp ered to b be f tougher toncie and less likely to burst but bilt american agn know nothing about tin this s i they merely liet the end of tile the bars barg of cast steel again and eat it with steam ideary hammers for it not to as wire is arh drawn wn or to roll ra it as with ordin ordinary ary round j bars these hammers are fixed five in a fra frame kne I 1 where they quiver with a chopping noise too ridly to count the strokes over a little iron i i plate never never tone touching hing attl ough coming very close TOO into the ewt ot these the smith thrusts the red end of the bavand guides it till it is bon beaten ten square the next thammer nex hammer bots beats it smaller ant stu iq square kiare he next rt at heats brats it smaller and longer still but rounder the fourth hammer beats it quite rou round rid and the fiat strikes off the exact length for the barrel this thin gr gradual adwill process is absolutely pec feces s sary foi the steel will not bea bear being beaten mounil the firs tUme time and alteo althof five I 1 barrels may be thus I 1 forged forgea tn one minute the rapid stroked tr okes keo of these sham ham apra are said to make jl ft otate as tough as the birmingham plan which h seiki sei anto to be tome out by bv tho results tit the proof house houe on the sama floor the file barrels and evI cylinders inders after ling gnp are ense tinted blue by burning in ia hot amb emb embers en processes process ea are wall wath known across the yard strewn with chips of iron op again i and through the tool room where men are turning yeat great screws arl and other dother bolts and portions of mabbitt ery we mount to the first floor and enter a long room filled with machines and rather amther more redolent of hot rank oil considering that the flie floor support a long along vista of machinery in full action the place looks dean clean and neat and is not very noisy girls girla quietly attending to the boring I 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 and rifling of tile th im alx b having nothing to do but to watch tile tl lathe narrowly aud and drop a little oil upon the bobr now and then bhea meu men drilling cylinders holding locks tp steam files cutting trigg triggers tra slotting screws crews treating cold iron everywhere as it if it was soft wood fay M be cut to any without st straining mining a musolo muscle it would be difficult and tedious to describe these obese machi machinot nob minutely although they aro are very interesting to a spectator and cannot I 1 belie vebe seen elsewhere every one of fit them is a simple lathe but it is in in tile the various cutters borers and riviers that the novelty and ingenuity exist where tile the thing to je ae made is of eccentric alia sha pethe cutter cutler is u of eccentric shape also and although I 1 the superintendent denhof of each machine acqua acqui acquires res more or lose laas skill by practice tim it is lit in the per perfection action of these cutters and borer that the gua guayante iante for uniformity consists the horns borta of barrels cylinder must be mathematically straight and every one ot of the I 1 many parts must mastbe be exactly a 4 duplicate of another no onto ona pirt p belongs as aa a matter of course to any other part of one pistol buttach bu teach place piece may may be taken random from a lie heap p ana and I 1 fixed to and and wa wd the th other pieces until a complete weapon is formed that weapon being individualized by a number stamped upon man loana of its com coin i lament parts the of these mances is obvious in every case of revolvers lvere are placed when sold a number of such parts of a pistol as are gre most lia bleto acci accident dout and with those any adv or sailor may in a few minutes i r ilia his own weapon I 1 seventy odd out oat of a hundred or of taft th injured revolvers revolve rs picked up nam an the battlefield during the mexican war were ware repaired with bits 0 oi other pistols on file lie spot in the he top floor just above this men and women with blank black hands and fades fac ps are polish polishing at lathos lathes still moved or as everything i is s moved by the steam engine in the hot hott stone tone chamber below belew everybody gets a slice of his thirty horse power and rity my conductor says they have still plenty of power to spare as if beane aenni power I 1 were aai article like gas or wale to be ba laid on whenever it is is wanted wante from rom a distant re sevoir such uell lad indeed eitl it is though when carried hir fur as I 1 saw it by a belt aerow the yard much of the die force of course is wasted I 1 hwe here is our friend the butcher still wearing a hue bilie smock and very busy polishing ic cylinders YI inders his work spins so rapidly that red hotsur hot particles ti cleo of emery findra fly idge adge upon hi Is face w which it ich is speckled and abott spoiled d allover all over in rather rathe r a C comical manner he belsa gelsa gets hit in the eye sometimes for he will not wear spectacles which cadies great pain buano more than is oce b by I 1 I 1 th the 6 chips of steel trouble th the down stairs and which have to be taken out with a lubirl 1 or wh when enthey they stick in by scraping the eye with the file sharpest knife that can be found the blitcher bit cher is very quiet and intent uon 1 his file work as the manager eu enters with me gilt the A merican american cl se to us is si singing nging a song when we I 1 come it in and does not think of leaving off not he be the girls hive have tt a patt iral ral shame I 1 of hack black hands arid and faces though they cannot help themselves I 1 and look mora closely down at their work while the strangers are ara sear than the and tida girls below k all thi this time we have beem bean ng only the of little bits of a pistol JP Paus ausing ilIg a to see ee tiie the engraving of a ship in nil fall pail and other ornamental na work rk including the nin makers kers stamped starla d by great pressure oil en the he cyliA cylinder ider we a meat room where all alis minute portions are brought to fo be ex examined an lined R here e re by intuit meana to of grages but chiefly by the practiced practised eye oatha superintendent each cacti separate article la IA examined ato and rejected if in ili the slightest degree faulty from this room room the various varl parts arts are ser 1 ved out to tb the workmen who put 41 them together and turn out the taft complete revolver revolved I 1 severy revolver being equal tp to six six sip single le pistols pi 1 atols they are rarefy y spoken of as a braces most cus us tamers take rily a single revolver arad the tha namo of every purchaser boil g recorded and li u the number w which ch is marked oll anany pars weapon being noted at the same Rh some curio curious ais identifications ad occur several ance anecdotes dotes are related of persons who have hav been traced by th revolver in their possession posses slon in ili the i wrose ll 11 in florida the death of many poor fellows whose names ere nand who were fon found ud kif IM td was epi cei tidied to ili heir ir friends by publishing the number be r of aie the pistol in thir belt or gr grasped iu in the f ir stiff hands thet 6 is a revolver ty olver says my conductor which was brot mato me to repair some months since 1 1 recognized rec 0 I 1 zed it by the th number jn ii a moment sincero eio for one an ten from here long ing vand ayo andl I 1 think the maii who brough uw U w I 1 ai alfor for lie he asne to letch it away again in basea of perpetrated by bv a colts revolver I 1 the weapon on itself if evor ever one should be bead ad used would become a conclusive evidence bere rere is tha proving room where aher the pistols pig pla tolo a preparatory y trial before being sent bent up for the regular lar government proof it is vy b y no means the dirk dark mysterious iron piloted room in which I 1 alive been n taught to believe bl that guns no I 1 are proved but av ordinary ordin arv workshop with two square wooden pipes fiad d horizontally and opey opeo at t the he end breast high I 1 am invited to provo a pistol hy by firing ft fato theae pipa pip a w I 1 ani am told old aard a suffina iWa bent pr protection otee ciori joahn fi inease of a jarrol bursting hirsten hirst ln an it event evetie were taken toja toms aSure sure ne me of very rare 0 ci grenci after a I 1 find idt a mere novice TWY with 0 one e hand band thel six ai as rapidly as the eye can wink my comp companie anim has more to show roe me except the paths baths and reiding room supplied fa I 1 ly with newspapers for the benefit I 1 of the work I 1 yn met so I 1 iid id hico good day and go OU out t of the omell of hot rank oil 0 il to en enjoy joy more keenly the cool breeze that is |