I have frequently been applied to by many masters in the trade for advice in the recommendation of a barrel-maker. It is at all times an invidious task to act as a selector for individuals, and to give praise to one man over another; more especially where the merits of workmen approximate near to each other. But in barrel-making, a man, to be a master of his trade, should not only be a good workman, breeching and filing well, but should possess a good eye in putting barrels together (for here everything depends upon the eye) and finishing them highly: these are only a portion of the abilities a barrel-maker should possess. Several of the London barrel-makers are exceedingly good workmen, for I have tried them all; but only converse with them, and you find the technicalities of the work is all they can discourse upon: the iron, the vital principle, is Greek to them; they know nothing about it, and care less. How can these men be guides in the right direction? They may have seen barrels welded; but, if so, it is only a matter of chance: even in Birmingham, where this can be seen daily, nineteen out of twenty know nothing theoretically. 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, and if they expect to have the job of filing the barrels, they will surely recommend you soft iron, stub-twist, or charcoal-iron. [Illustration] 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. There are four benches, to each a spindle, in which there is an oblong hole to receive the end of the boring bit. The barrel is secured on a sort of carriage, which is at liberty to traverse the whole length of the bench. A boring bit is then selected of suitable size; it is put into the spindle, and the point introduced into the end of the barrel. A sort of lever is then taken and hooked on to a kind of staple, or a piece of hooked iron (a number of which are fixed in one side of the bench the whole length), and passed behind the carriage to force it up to the bit; this is removed and fixed again, until, by forcing up the carriage, the boring bit has passed through the whole of the barrel. During this operation a stream of water is kept playing on the barrel to keep it cool. 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