ing or heat stresses that might be in the bars from mill
operations; also to insure a thorough even heat through a cross-section
of the steel. This heat also causes blanks with seams or slight
flaws to open up in quenching, making detection of defective blanks
very easy.

The quenching oil was kept at a constant temperature of 100 deg.F.,
to avoid subjecting the steel to shocks, thereby causing surface
cracks. The drawing of temper was the most critical operation and
was kept within a 10 deg. fluctuation. The degree of heat necessary
depends entirely on the analysis of the steel, there being a certain
variation in the different heats of steel as received from the mill.

MACHINEABILITY

Reheating for machine ability was done at 100 deg. less than the drawing
temperature, but the time of soaking is more than double. After
both drawing and reheating, the blanks were buried in lime where
they remain, out of contact with the air, until their temperature
had dropped to that of the workroom.

For straightening, the barrels were heated to from 900 to 1,000 deg.F.
in an automatic furnace 25 ft. long, this operation taking about 2
hr. The purpose of hot straightening was to prevent any stresses
being put into the blanks, so that after rough-turning, drilling
or rifling operations they would not have a tendency to spring
back to shape as left by the quenching bath.

A method that produces an even better machining rifle blank, which
practically stays straight through the different machining operations,
was to rough-turn the blanks, then subject them to a heat of practically
1,0000 for 4 hr. Production throughout the different operations is
materially increased, with practically no straightening required
after drilling, reaming, finish-turning or rifling operations.

[Illustration: FIG. 24. FIG. 25.

FIGS. 24 and 25.--Roof system of cooling quenching oil.]

This method was tested out by one of the largest manufacturers and
proved to be the best way to eliminate a very expensive finished
gun-barrel straightening process.

[Illustration: FIG. 26.--Details of the cooler.]

The heat-treating required a large amount of cooling oil, and the
problem of keeping this at the proper temperature required considerable
study. The result was the cooling plant on the roof, as shown in
Figs. 24, 25 and 26. The first two illustrations show the plant as
it appeared complete. Figure 26 shows how the oil was handled in
what is sometimes cal