The number of workmen employed at the water-shops is ten hundred and forty.  The last time the writer had occasion to visit them was upon the recurrence of an important occasion to the workmen employed there, namely, pay-day.  A temporary wooden structure has been erected contiguous to the shops for the purpose of paying-off, and upon this occasion it bore, from time to time, various placards, announcing which shop was being paid, according as the paymaster arrived in succession at the various departments.  Within the densely thronged shops, and amidst the deafening noise of hundreds of trip-hammers, perambulated a herald, with bell in hand, and placard raised upon a pole, upon which was painted a huge capital letter, thus designating, in alphabetical order, the names of the workmen whose turn had arrived to affix their signatures to rolls for a month’s work, and receive in exchange a sheaf of Uncle Sam’s greenbacks.

The works at the water-shops are surrounded by a high wooden fence, and guarded by a small force of watchmen armed with muskets.  Should occasion require, however, a force of five thousand men, armed with the best of small arms, could be mustered at once from among the workmen in the armory and the citizens of the town.  Ammunition of all kinds is stored within the establishment, sufficient for all emergencies.

I stated the number of pieces used in the construction of a musket to be forty-nine; but this conveys no idea of the number of separate operations which are performed upon it.  The latter amount to over four hundred, no two of which are by the same hand.  Indeed, so distinct are the various processes by which the grand result is obtained, that an artisan employed upon one part of a musket may have no knowledge of the process by which another part is fabricated.  This, in fact, is the case to a very large extent.  Many persons employed upon particular parts of the work in this establishment have never even seen other parts manufactured, and in general the workmen understand only the process of making the portions upon which they are engaged.  The different parts are of various grades in respect to character and price, and are regularly rated, and the work done upon them is paid for by the piece.  It will scarcely be expected that I should describe all the processes included in the four hundred separate operations performed in the manufacture of the musket, and I shall therefore content myself with alluding to a few of the most important or curious among them.

The gun-barrel, after it arrives at the works on the hill from the water-shops, is taken to the old armory buildings to be rifled.  For this purpose it is placed in a horizontal position in an iron frame, and held there very firmly.  The instruments which perform the rifling are short steel cutters placed within three apertures situated near the end of an iron tube which is carried through the bore of the barrel by a slow rotary and progressive motion.