Tar barrel

“ We little imagined, that rainy afternoon as we sat on the piazza at Milton, that the leaves which one who may read this held in her hand would pass under the eye of a Cape Horn albatross on the Pacific Ocean.
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BURNING TAR BARRELS.
When the sailors have used up a barrel of tar, they have sport in putting kerosene in the barrel, lighting it, and dropping it to leeward. It blazes, vehemently, and while we sail away from it we cannot persuade ourselves that it is not moving rapidly from us. The swell of the sea causes it to disappear now and then, rising up occasionally very far astern. ”

“ The fire burns for ten days and nights, during which time it is never left, a man always staying beside the tervahauta to see no accident disastrous to the tar happens. As the heat inside increases, the tar gradually begins to drop through the wooden pipe into barrels below, and from sixty to two hundred of them may be extracted from one kiln load. Needless to say, one man cannot move the filled barrel and replace it with an empty one, so, whenever such a change becomes necessary, by means of a shrill whistle he summons a companion to his aid ”

“ Powder-barrels are made to contain 100 pounds each, the barrels being large enough to allow sufficient space for the powder to move when rolled, to prevent its caking. Also any hollow cylinder or tube, as the barrel of a gun. See Fire-barrel.
Barricade. An obstruction formed in streets, avenues, etc., so as to block up access to an enemy. They are generally formed of overturned wagons, carriages, large stones, breastworks, abatis, or other obstacles at hand.
Barrier. In a general sense means any fortification or strong place on the frontiers of a country. ”

“ An inner barrel, having a bore of .22 inch and a length of 17 inches, its upper end counter-bored, is inserted in the barrel and secured by a screw; the length of the block is such as to close the space between the chambered recess and the end of the inner barrel. A hole is bored through the side of the stock to communicate with the hole through the breech-screw. A dart is fired from this musket, which when fired into the target is extracted with a claw-tool. The men in firing stand at a distance of 15 paces from the target; and two men use the gun, firing alternately. ”

“ This diagonal line now is reflected by the mirror into the bore of the barrel, and then it is reflected again to the eye of the observer; for the surface of the iron on the inside of the barrel is left in a most brilliantly polished condition, by the boring and the operations connected therewith. Now the [Pg 9] workman, in some mysterious way or other, detects the slightest deviation from straightness in the barrel, by the appearance which this reflection presents to his eye, as he looks through the bore in the manner represented in the drawing. ”

“ If the bore of a barrel is made to taper from muzzle to breech, it will scatter. If made to taper too much from breech to muzzle, it will compress the shot, and by so doing mangle or deface them so that they will “shoot wild,” while at the same time the effect on the gun will be to spring the barrel, and, if it be thin at the muzzle, as generally made, there is danger of enlargement of the bore at this portion of it.
Choke-Dressing a Gun Barrel.—A very slight variation in the size of the bore of a gun-barrel at one of its ends often has a marked effect on its shooting. ”

“ There is one advantage derived from grinding barrels, namely, that the friction of the stone being continuous, the temper of the barrel is not so much affected as where the tool in the slide-rest is cutting a considerable portion at once; for all barrels are best, and superior to their compeers, which require least metal to be either ground or turned off their surface, as there is a density on the outer which is not in the interior portion. ”

“ What a mass of carts, drays, buggies, wheelbarrows, handbarrows, and many queer makeshifts for carrying goods—the strangest of all a large barrel set on an axle, and dragged or shoved by means of two long handles, the proud possessor's belongings turning round and round inside until they must surely be churned into a most confusing jumble. ”

“ You will frequently hear them heaping anathemas on a hard barrel, when floating it, and wishing the man who invented steel barrels “in the shades below.” Ask these men’s opinions, [198] and if they expect to have the job of filing the barrels, they will surely recommend you soft iron, stub-twist, or charcoal-iron.
Boring and grinding gun-barrels generally take place under the same roof; the borer occupying a very small shop, the grinder a large one. Two men and two boys are generally found in a shop. ”

“ If you would make pitch of this tar, take two or three red-hot cannon bullets, and throw them into the pits, full of the tar, which you intend for this purpose: immediately upon which, the tar takes fire with a terrible noise and a horrible thick smoke, by which the moisture that may remain in the tar is consumed and dissipated, and the mass diminishes in proportion; and when they think it is sufficiently burnt, they extinguish the fire, not with water, but with a hurdle covered with turf and earth. ”

“ On igniting the train, a tremendous explosion takes place. The windows are then drawn up, the door opened, and the smoke dissipated. The twist barrels are found buried in the sand, the common ones are thrown forwards; some are found perfect, others burst to pieces. It is rarely that best barrels are found burst; more frequently they are bulged, or swelled out, in places which are faulty, or of a softer temper. Those that are found perfect, are then marked with the provisional punch of different sizes (but having the same impression) , according to the quality of the barrel. ”

“ Even if there be a small air space between the powder and the ball or shot cartridge it will affect the shooting. Every one using double guns should accustom himself to the use alternately of both barrels, not only for safety but for good shooting. A barrel is often said to be a poor shooter, when its bad qualities may be wholly ascribed to the air space produced above the powder by the recoil occasioned by firing the other barrel.
To Prevent Gun Barrels from Rusting.—Heat the barrel to about the temperature of boiling water, no higher, and then cover it with a good coating of copal varnish. ”

“ Harpoon gun-barrels, one inch and a half in the bore, having the metal at the breech end an inch and a quarter thick, will stand a proof which invariably bursts a thicker barrel; in fact, all experience tends to show that light wrought iron or steel barrels are stronger than unusually heavy ones. As all depends on the principle of condensing the fibres of the iron, ceteris paribus, the greater the condensation the greater the strength, and the less the condensation the greater the weakness. ”

“ Paragraph 2 - If a barrel on the roof broke, he can bring a container and put it underneath, as long has he doesn't bring an additional container to collect the liquid in the air that fell off the roof and another container to connect to the roof. If he's using one container, it is allowed even to collect in the air or to attach to the roof.
סעיף ב - אם נשברה חבית בראש גגו מביא כלי ומניח תחתיה ובלבד שלא יביא כלי אחר ויקלט לקבל מן הקלוח באויר לאחר שירד מן הגג, ולא יביא כלי אחר ויצרף אותו לראש הגג. ואם מציל בכלי אחד, מציל אפלו קולט או מצרף. ”

“ In order, therefore, to insure that every part of the surface is coated with a film of oil the cosmic should be warmed. Apply the cosmic first with a brush; then, with the breech plugged, fill the barrel to the muzzle, pour out the surplus, remove the breechblock, and allow to drain. It is believed that more rifles are ruined by improper preparation for storage than from any other cause. If the bore is not clean when oiled--that is, if powder fouling is present or rust has started--a half inch of cosmic on the outside will not stop its action, and the barrel will be ruined. ”

“ The barrel passes directly through the centre, and is kept cold by constantly throwing cold water over it. The fresh water runs out through the hole from which the nipple is unscrewed, and is caught in any suitable vessel; and the waste salt water through holes bored in the bark for the purpose. Many modifications of this plan might, of course, be had recourse to, but this will be found about as convenient as any. Barrels, or hooped vessels of any kind, are about the very worst that can be taken into a wild country, as the hoops come off as the wood shrinks, causing leaks and endless trouble. ”

“ The shooting powers of gun barrels are dependent on two circumstances—goodness of metal, and a proper shape of exterior: it cannot be too often repeated, that a gun barrel is a spring, to all intents and purposes; if you add metal, you add stubbornness, and destroy that expansibility, without the existence of which the barrel is, comparatively speaking, useless. Heavy, ponderous barrels do not propel a charge of shot with either that smartness or degree of closeness that a barrel more scientifically constructed does ”

“ Fitting Barrels Together.—When selecting a pair of gun barrels, preparatory to joining them for the purpose of making a double-barreled gun, it is necessary to ascertain if the barrels be of the same length, and have the same size at breech and muzzle, and also at points between the breech and muzzle. Nearly all shot-gun barrels are ground, or made some smaller at the centre of their length than at other portions. Any one who is not conversant with this may be somewhat surprised on placing a straight-edge along the side of a barrel, a common musket barrel, for instance. ”

“ The barrel fast gathered headway. It crossed the road like some live thing, to bring up against the farmhouse with a terrific smash.
Instantly the barrel fell into a dozen pieces as its staves caved in. ”

“ This time, instead of following my merchant through the town, I went direct to the barrel, and, hiding myself behind a bush near by, prepared to wait there all day and see what happened.
'I had not made myself comfortable many minutes before I saw two old men coming along the road from the town; so old were they indeed, that they could only creep along by leaning one against the other. Right up to the barrel they crawled, and then, to my surprise, they scrambled over its sides and disappeared. ”

“ Of course the barrel has a slow progressive as well as rotary motion during this process, and the tool itself, with the rest in which it is firmly screwed, advances or recedes very regularly and gradually, in respect to the work, as the process goes on, in order to form the proper taper of the barrel in proceeding from the breech to the muzzle. The main work however in this turning process is performed by the rotation of the barrel. The workman thus treats his material and his tools with strict impartiality. In the boring, the piece remains at rest, and the tool does its work by revolving. ”

“ The right-hand barrel of my gun for Turner himself; the left-hand barrel for the man next to him: such was the calculation; and then, if I still survived, I had the sword and the pistol left. Long deliberation under such circumstances is neither possible nor necessary. Both hammers were up, my finger was on the trigger, murderers were before, and the next instant I should have fired at any risk, and at any odds. ”

“ When this happens, invert the gun, pass the rod upwards, and the shot will fall out, when the rod can be withdrawn. The ramrod will also at times get firmly fixed in a foul barrel, and defy every ordinary effort to get it out. A little water, spirit, or any other fluid poured down the barrel almost instantly releases it. Should a gun or rifle miss fire, or be exposed for any time to damp, cut a small peg of dry, soft wood, hammer it well down into the nipple, cut it off flush, put on a new cap, and pull the trigger, when the weapon is almost certain to go off. ”

“ A bit, of larger dimensions, is next introduced and passed through; then others of still larger dimensions, until the whole of the scales or blacks are entirely bored out; or until the barrel has become so large in the bore, as to preclude any further boring with safety. If the scales are of great extent, the fault is the forger’s, and the loss will consequently be his. If the barrels be found perfect, they are sent back to the filer, or he comes to inspect them, in order to ascertain whether they be perfectly straight in the inside ”

“ Into this barrel she was plunged and under it the valiant horsemen rode as gayly as the English ride to a fox-hunt even yet, striking it tremendous blows with clubs and wooden hammers. If any life was left in the bruised and mangled cat, after the destruction of the barrel, the man who put an end to her by some spectacular novelty of barbarity was the hero of the day. ”

“ But what if the gun-barrel does become hot? The real trouble is not that the cartridge will explode prematurely, but that the barrel will expand as it grows hot, so that the bullet will fit too loosely in the bore. Inside the barrel the bore is rifled ”

“ It is on this that the mistaken supposition is founded, that short barrels will shoot as far as long ones. It is true that with a small charge, or very fine powder, the short barrel will kill at the distance of thirty yards, as well as the long one ”

“ ON GUN BARRELS.
Long and Short Barrels.—A long barrel may be preferable for several reasons: 1st. A longer distance between the sights is given and the back sight can be put farther from the eye, so that finer sighting is possible; 2d. A long barrel is steadier in off-hand shooting; 3d. It permits a slower burning powder to be used, so that the charge starts more slowly and yet allows the full strength of the powder to be used before it leaves the barrel, getting a high initial velocity with but little recoil. ”