of the musket
is the operation of stocking. This is done in the old arsenal-building,
which, with the exception of one floor, is wholly devoted to this
purpose.

The wood from which the stocks are made is the black walnut. This was
formerly obtained in Pennsylvania, and was kept on hand in the
storehouse in large quantities for the purpose of having it properly
seasoned. During the last two years, however, Ohio and Canada have
furnished the greater part.

The wood is sawn into a rough semblance of the musket-stock before it is
sent to the armory. It then passes through seventeen different machines,
emerging from the last perfectly formed and finished.

A gun-stock is, perhaps, as irregular a shape as the ingenuity of man
could devise, and as well calculated to bid defiance to every attempt at
applying machinery to the work of fashioning it. The difficulties,
however, insurmountable as they would seem, have all been overcome, and
every part of the stock is formed, and every perforation, groove,
cavity, and socket is cut in it, by machines that do their work with
such perfection as to awaken in all who witness the process a feeling of
astonishment and delight.

The general principle on which this machinery operates may perhaps be
made intelligible to the reader by description; but the great charm in
these processes consists in the high perfection and finish of the
machines, the smoothness, grace, and rapidity of their motions, and in
the seemingly miraculous character of the performances which they
execute.

The entire action of the various machines is regulated and guided by
patterns, which are models in iron of the various parts of the stock
which it is intended to form.

The first machine in the stocking-room cuts the sides of the stock to
the proper form for turning. The second saws off the butt-end, and cuts
a diagonal line at the breech. The third is armed with two circular
saws, which cut the upper part of the stock to the form of the finished
arm. An iron pattern of the stock is placed in the machine directly
under the stock to be turned, upon which rests a guide-wheel,
corresponding in size and shape to the two saws above. The whole is then
made to revolve very rapidly, the guide-wheel controlling the action of
the cutters, the result being an exact wooden counterpart of the iron
pattern. The fourth machine forms the butt of the stock in the same
manner. The next simply planes three or four places upon t