Taroona Shot Tower,
Aug. 26th, 2007 07:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xenithTaroona Shot Tower, built 1870 and closed in the 1900s. It's 48-60 m high and has about 300 steps in it. At the time it was built, it was apparently the tallest building in Australia, I think it was the first shot tower built in Australia & one of the oldest surviving ones in the world. They're used to manufacture lead shot. Off-hand, I think there are three left in Australia. The one in Melbourne Central, built in the 1880s, is probably the best known.
The Parks and Wildlife Site has a history of the tower, and the best description I've come across of the shot making process. So you go there for the details.
The basic process though: the ingots of lead, arsenic & antimony are melted in a cauldron, this is poured through a sieve and the droplets fall down the tower into a barrel of water. The distance they have to fall depends on the size of the drop, so there are two cauldrons -- one at the top of the tower, and one on the top floor of the factory.
The entrance is on the top storey of the factory (the black walkway on the right). In the front part of the building is a gift shop, with a little museum behind that (the top, lefthand window). The lower cauldron is here.
From the museum, a door leads into the tower.
The door opens open there a wooden platform. Looking down, there's the base of the tower where the water barrel sat.
Taking photos looking up is a problems because of the central lights.
There are 3 wooden "rails" above the stair level, (with netting attached to it now), so each "set" of 4 vertical timbers shows where the stairs are.
There's about 300 steps inside the tower. Seven or eight (it changes as you go up) wooden steps and then a little platform. Because they're narrow in the middle, the movement of your legs is uneven, in a noticeable way. If you did this every day, I wonder what effect it would have? I thought that coming down, with the other leg on the inside would balance it out, but it didn’t seem to.
Still fairly low here, but see how wide the sandstone wall is.
From about 2/3 of the way up, looking back down to the base. There's a bigger version of this photo.
This is with the flash. It's a better indication of the colour of the wood.
A bit higher now.
At the top is a small room with the second cauldron. There are 3 doorways that open onto a balcony (gallery).
I thought the view was rather disappointing. Maybe on a clear day, it'd be better.
That's South Arm, on the opposite side of the Derwent.
I like the view straight down though, especially the steps.
Near the top, the steps are steeper, narrower and higher. The platform between steps is at the bottom of the photo.
I kept going down past the platform & door, to the base of the tower.
This is where the water tub would sit.
Up there is the platform, where the door is.
The Parks and Wildlife Site has a history of the tower, and the best description I've come across of the shot making process. So you go there for the details.
The basic process though: the ingots of lead, arsenic & antimony are melted in a cauldron, this is poured through a sieve and the droplets fall down the tower into a barrel of water. The distance they have to fall depends on the size of the drop, so there are two cauldrons -- one at the top of the tower, and one on the top floor of the factory.
The entrance is on the top storey of the factory (the black walkway on the right). In the front part of the building is a gift shop, with a little museum behind that (the top, lefthand window). The lower cauldron is here.
From the museum, a door leads into the tower.
The door opens open there a wooden platform. Looking down, there's the base of the tower where the water barrel sat.
Taking photos looking up is a problems because of the central lights.
There are 3 wooden "rails" above the stair level, (with netting attached to it now), so each "set" of 4 vertical timbers shows where the stairs are.
There's about 300 steps inside the tower. Seven or eight (it changes as you go up) wooden steps and then a little platform. Because they're narrow in the middle, the movement of your legs is uneven, in a noticeable way. If you did this every day, I wonder what effect it would have? I thought that coming down, with the other leg on the inside would balance it out, but it didn’t seem to.
Still fairly low here, but see how wide the sandstone wall is.
From about 2/3 of the way up, looking back down to the base. There's a bigger version of this photo.
This is with the flash. It's a better indication of the colour of the wood.
A bit higher now.
At the top is a small room with the second cauldron. There are 3 doorways that open onto a balcony (gallery).
I thought the view was rather disappointing. Maybe on a clear day, it'd be better.
That's South Arm, on the opposite side of the Derwent.
I like the view straight down though, especially the steps.
Near the top, the steps are steeper, narrower and higher. The platform between steps is at the bottom of the photo.
I kept going down past the platform & door, to the base of the tower.
This is where the water tub would sit.
Up there is the platform, where the door is.
