Making Things in the Mill

Making Things in the Mill. Weaponry. Water provided the power to saw, bore, mill, forge, cast and polish high quality rifles, carbines and bayonets at the Cook and Brother Armory during the Civil War., Gun parts needed to be interchangeable so that a broken gun could be repaired on the battlefield. This required accurate machinery and skilled workers. It took many separate operations to build a gun, and the tolerances of the parts had to be within 1/100 of an inch., Steps to Making a Cook and Brother Rifle in the 1860s, 1. Coursely sawn blocks of walnut or cherry wood were placed on a spinning lathe to shape the stock., 2. Holes were drilled and routed in the wood with milling machines so the metal parts would fit perfectly., 3. Brass was melted, poured into molds, then smoothed with rotating polshing wheels to make the trigger guard, buttplate, bands, and sling swivels., 4. The barrel was of forged iron-heated, twisted, cooled, then bored hollow with a vertical drill from below. The Cook brothers invented this style of drilling which allowed the scraping to drop out of the barrel as the drill turned., 5. Melted iron cast into molds formed the trigger, lockplate, sights, ramrod and bayonet socket., 6. The parts were checked vith gauges to ensure a good fit, then assembled., (captions) , Cook and Brotber Bayonet made in Athens in 1863 , Cook and Brother Musketoon made in Athens in 1863 , 1861 Cook and Brother $1 Bill