Seems like there is always something I find out about, never dawned on me how they made shot back in the day.
Quote from link:

Before the use of shot towers, shot was made in wooden molds, which resulted in unevenly formed, low quality shot. Shot towers work on the principle that molten lead forms perfectly round balls when poured from a high place. Molten lead at the top of the tower was poured through a sieve or mesh, forming uniform spherical shot before falling into a large vat of water at the bottom of the tower.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparks_Shot_Tower

Here's one about an hour north of me.

https://www.cityofdubuque.org/712/Shot-Tower

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shot_Tower_(Dubuque)

Having grown up in CT that had a grandfather that produced ammo at Remington for a portion of WWII, I only knew about shot towers because of the one located in Bridgeport. He told stories about the many mishaps and people getting hurt or killed that he left the job and started building engines for the Corsair F4U and later engines for the M1 tanks.

Yeah, it's all good, if I had to make a perfectly round lead ball, I would of never thought to take molten lead and drop it through a screen then into water, I wonder how long it took to get the distance correct, now a days it can be figured out with a computer, and they use fancy machines .

here's some info: Lambeth Shot Tower

It was demolished in 1962 and ceased production before that in 1949.

They had one in Melbourne, Australia connected to a shopping centre. That's when I first learned about it.

There is one in downtown Baltimore right at the end of I-83.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BigCity, May 28, 2023 09:42 PM

We passed one in Virginia a couple weeks ago just off I-77 where it crosses the New River:

https://www.dcr.virginia.gov/state-parks/shot-tower

I saw an old one in Connecticut somewhere, decades ago. Maybe a Winchester or Remington factory? I can't recall where it was, but it was interesting to me as a kid.