Design
The Wythe County Shot Tower is unique for several reasons. Unlike most other shot towers, which were constructed of brick, this shot tower was built of limestone. The 2.5-foot-thick solid stone walls not only made the Shot Tower an extremely strong structure, but kept its interior temperature cool and consistent, improving the quality of the shot it produced. Since the lead needed to free-fall around 150 feet to form proper shaped shot, the designers decided to use the natural terrain to reduce the height of the tower they had to construct. They decided to build the tower on the edge of a cliff, and dig a vertical shaft 75 feet deep, which reduced the height required of the actual tower to 75 feet. Access to the bottom of the shaft was made by a horizontal adit that opened up near the shore of the New River.
In a series of writings, letters, and business ledgers collectively known as the Austin Papers, Moses Austin refers to the necessary design elements of Shot Factory. The following quote is from hand written remarks by Moses Austin concerning the English patent for drop shot, dated August 1, 1791, "by experience I have found a much better mode to introduce arsnic and find the white much preferable to the yellow from it purity in strength. And that a material difference of the height is required in the Climate of America in the different seasons of the year".
Read more about this topic: Jackson Ferry Shot Tower
Famous quotes containing the word design:
“With wonderful art he grinds into paint for his picture all his moods and experiences, so that all his forces may be brought to the encounter. Apparently writing without a particular design or responsibility, setting down his soliloquies from time to time, taking advantage of all his humors, when at length the hour comes to declare himself, he puts down in plain English, without quotation marks, what he, Thomas Carlyle, is ready to defend in the face of the world.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A good scientist is a person with original ideas. A good engineer is a person who makes a design that works with as few original ideas as possible. There are no prima donnas in engineering.”
—Freeman Dyson (b. 1923)
“You can make as good a design out of an American turkey as a Japanese out of his native stork.”
—For the State of Illinois, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)