The pieces that fail are all carefully examined, to ascertain whether the giving-way was owing to a defect in the rolling, or to some flaw or other bad quality in the iron.  The appearance of the rent made by the bursting will always determine this point.  The loss of those which failed from bad rolling is then charged to the operative by whom the work was done, at a dollar for each one so failing.  The name of the maker of each is known by the stamp which he put upon it at the time when it passed through his hands.  As the workman gets but four cents for rolling a barrel, he loses the work done upon twenty-five for each one that fails through his negligence.  The justice of this rule will be apparent, when it is taken into account that that amount of cost has been expended upon the barrel prior and subsequent to the work done by the roller, all of which has been lost through his remissness.  Besides, he is paid so liberally for his work, that he can well afford to stand the loss.  This system of accountability runs through the entire work, and tends greatly to the promotion of care and fidelity in the various departments of labor.

There are forty-nine pieces used in making up a musket, which have to be formed and finished separately; only two of these, the sight and cone-seat, are permanently attached to any other part, so that the musket can, at any time, be separated into forty-seven parts, by simply turning screws and opening springs.  Most of these parts are struck in dies, and then finished by milling and filing.  The process of this manufacture is called swaging,—­the forming of irregular shapes in iron by means of dies, one of which is inserted in an anvil in a cavity made for the purpose, and the other placed above it, in a trip-hammer, or in a machine operated in a manner analogous to that of a pile-driver, called a drop.  Cavities are cut in the faces of the dies, so that, when they are brought together, with the end of a flat bar of iron, out of which the article is to be formed, inserted between them, the iron is made to assume the form of the cavities, by means of blows of the trip-hammer, or of the drop, upon the upper die.  About one hundred and fifty operations upon the various pieces used in the construction of the musket are performed by these dies.  Some of the pieces are struck out by one operation of the drop, while others, as the butt-plate, require as many as three, and others a still larger number.  The hammer is first forged, and then put twice through the drop.  Four men are kept constantly at work forging hammers in the rough, while but two are required to put them through the two operations under the swaging-machine.  Sometimes, however, the work presses upon the droppers, and they have the alternative either to work double time—­that is, night and day—­or to allow other hands to work with them; and as they work by the piece, and are anxious to earn as much as possible each month, they will frequently work