« Hokkaidō Centennial Memorial Tower
Alton Towers »

Google Sightseeing takes you on tour of the world as seen from satellite, using the free Google Earth program, or Google Maps in your web browser. Each weekday your guides James and Alex present new weird and wonderful sights as suggested by readers.

The editors: James & Alex

Shot Towers

Thursday, 24th July 2008 by James

The Phoenix Shot Tower in Baltimore was erected in 1828 and stands at 71.3m, which at that time made it the tallest structure in the United States, as well as the world’s largest free-standing masonry tower1.

The shot tower was invented by an Englishman in 1783, and soon spread across the globe as the preferred method of making lead shot for shotguns.

The process involves pouring molten lead through a copper sieve at the top of the tower, so that droplets fall the height of the tower, taking the form of tiny perfect balls during their descent. The lead then splash-lands in a water bath at the bottom, which sets the pellet.

These days shot is made using a centrifuge, so now only a handful of the once-ubiquitous shot towers exist worldwide.

The largest shot tower that was ever built is the 80.16m tall Clifton Hill Shot Tower in Melbourne.

Probably very impressive in 1882 when it was completed, but by the standards of today’s tallest towers, it’s tiny!

More info on shot towers at Wikipedia.

  1. Baltimore’s shot tower actually remained the world’s largest free-standing masonry tower right up until 1884 when the crown was passed to the Washington Monument. ↩

Rate This Sight! 1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars
(13 votes, average: 3.31 out of 5)
Locations: Australia, Maryland / Categories:

5 Responses to 'Shot Towers'

  1. 1. cookie monster says: July 24th, 2008 at 8:45 pm

    Couple more for you
    Chester Shot Tower

    Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth

    Cheese Lane Bristol

    Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth

  2. 2. russ says: July 25th, 2008 at 12:34 am

    some trivia for you all. this idea for making lead shot came to the inventor in a dream:

    “The dreamer was a plumber in Bristol, England by the name of William Watts, who, in his dream, visualised rain as perfectly round little spheres. Being a hunter and a plumber who knew his lead, Watts conducted an experiment of pouring molten lead through a sieve from the tower of the St. Mary Redcliffe church.”
    http://weldgen.tripod.com/bristol-history-com/id46.html

  3. 3. Felippo says: July 25th, 2008 at 11:18 am

    Here is another one in Bremen, Germany:

    53° 6′35.77″N, 8°51′28.91″E

    Placemark: Drop tower Bremen / Google Earth

  4. 4. nova72 says: July 25th, 2008 at 3:08 pm

    Here are BirdsEye views.
    Baltimore

    bremen, germany
    (Felippo’s here looks more like a ballistic missile in disguise.)

    Bristol

    Chester

  5. 5. cincinnatiphan says: August 5th, 2008 at 4:37 pm

    Another one is known around Ohio
    Peters Cartridge factory
    Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth

Leave a Reply

This form will auto-link URLs or you can use simple HTML, <a href="http://googlesightseeing.com">Like this</a>.

Link to specific places either as a Google Maps page or a decimal latitude and longitude written like this: lat/lng:55.949400,-3.200000.

If you've found an unrelated sight that you think should be posted in its own entry then use the suggestion form!