Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/364

 356 FOWLING PIECE Descent, its Laws and Facts applied to Human Improvement" (1843); "Love and Parentage applied to the Improvement of Offspring " (1844) ; " A Home for All, or the Gravel Wall and Octagon Mode of Building" (1849); and "Sexual Science" (8vo, Philadelphia, 1870). II. Lorenzo Niles, brother of the preceding, born in Oohocton, June 23, 1811. His early history is almost identical with that of his brother, whom he accompanied on his lecturing tours. He has also lectured alone in all the consider- able towns of the United States and the British American provinces. In 1863 he went to Lon- don, where he now resides (1874), and during 10 years past has lectured in all parts of Great Britain. Several of his lectures have been pub- lished in London, but not reprinted in the United States. In addition to the works writ- ten in connection with his brother, he is the author of the " Synopsis of Phrenology and Physiology" (1844), and "Marriage, its His- tory and Philosophy, with Directions for Happy Marriages" (1846). As a member of the firm of Fowlers and Wells he was engaged in pub- lishing "Life Illustrated," a weekly journal, and the monthly periodicals, the " American Phrenological Journal" and the "Water-Cure Journal," which has been superseded by the "Science of Health." III. Lydia Folger, wife of the preceding, born in Nantucket, Mass., in 1823, is a graduate of the Syracuse medical college, and has practised medicine. She also has lectured frequently on physiology and the diseases of women and children, and is the author of "Familiar Lessons on Phrenology and Physiology" (1847), and "Familiar Les- sons on Astronomy " (1848). FOWLING PIECE, a weapon used by sports- men for killing small game. It has always been, among dilettanti addicted to hunting as a pastime, the object of much extravagant and capricious fancy. Like bibliomania, the pas- sion for sporting weapons is often concerned with the extrinsic rather than the intrinsic merit of its object ; and weapons by particular makers are valued like the handiwork of the Elzevirs and Foulises, and for similar reasons. The barrels are the most important part of this weapon, and in their construction the maker endeavors to secure the greatest possible light- ness consistent with the requisite strength. Be- fore the invention of cast steel, and before the manipulation of that metal was well understood, wrought iron only was used. The iron ob- tained from the Catalan forges and bloomaries, so generally used a century ago, was, from the nature of the process and materials, of excel- lent quality. The old habit of saving and re- working scrap iron of all forms tended further to improve it ; and it is not surprising to find that, for gun barrels requiring the best iron, small scrap, like old nails, wire, and waste clippings of metal, should have been resorted to. Old horse nails (stubs) were viewed with especial favor, and popular tradition attached some mysterious virtue to the iron which had performed service in a horse's hoof; they were always saved by farriers with scrupulous care, and sold to the gun makers. The real utility of such material, aside from the quality due to repeated manufacture, lies in the fact that the damask, or shading of barrels, cannot be obtained without using small pieces of iron, which must be welded together, and drawn down into rods under the hammer, and, when twisted and worked into the barrel, must be etched with acids. In welding together these small frag- ments, a film of cinder forms upon the surface of each ; and in the subsequent forging, draw- ing, or twisting, this film constitutes a vein in the metal, and is made visible by its darker color and the greater facility with which it is dissolved by acids. When the value and prop- erties of cast steel became known, this metal was used in gun barrels, at first in small quan- tities, but gradually to the extent of three fourths ; and finally the highest grade of work- manship involved the use of steel alone. 1. Damask (or "Damascus") barrels are made of metal prepared in the following manner : Alternate strips or layers of soft wrought iron and steel are piled together, and drawn down into rods ^ of an inch square. These rods are then twisted to an extreme degree, until the original angles describe 16 to 20 turns around the axis of the rod in every inch of its length. They are again squared, and three of them are welded together laterally, and drawn into a rod about half an inch wide and a quarter of an inch thick. 2. Wire twist is piled in the same manner and with the same materials as dam- ask, but is drawn into rods three eighths of an inch wide, and of variable thickness. They are not subjected to torsion, like damask, but are hammered at once into the gauge required for coiling, so that the alternating layers of iron and steel may appear like a series of con- solidated wires, running around the barrel. 3. The stub twist is forged from a mixture of iron and steel, clipped into shreds, heated, tilted, and rolled into a small rod. This rod is cut into short lengths, which are piled, and drawn into a ribbon of suitable dimensions for coiling. 4. Stub damask is made from the same materials as stub twist, but the rods after the first drawing are subjected to a high degree of torsion, and two or three of them are then welded laterally to form the ribbon. 5. Char- coal iron, or carbonized iron, for barrels, is made from the punchings and clippings of plate and sheet iron, melted and cast into an ingot, which is rolled into rods, the same as stub twist. 6. Three-penny skelp is made by fagoting scrap iron, without steel, heating it in an air furnace, and forging it into small rods, which are cut up, and again tilted into the proper form. 7. Two-penny or Wednesbury skelp is similar to the foregoing, but a lower grade of scrap is used. 8. Sham-damn skelp is common wrought iron, forged at once into the ribbon, and intended only for the common- est article of trade. Of the foregoing varieties