4 /5 Debi Slinger: Small but worth a visit as it’s right inside the RM Williams store. Then you can go outside and see it for real.
Here’s my description for the shot tower itself:
An icon within Melbourne Central that has a fascinating history.
While the tower has stood the test of time, the buildings around it have evolved several times over the years. On the day I went, duo artists, Craig &Karl had a colourful art installation that hung down from the roof of the dome, dangling around the shot tower itself.
The Shot Tower was a bullet making facility designed in 1889. It was the tallest building in Melbournes CBD until the mid-1940s, and has become one of the citys most enduring landmarks and is a significant building in Australias industrial history.
On a shot-making day, the shot maker would load the pig iron (in the form of lead bars) into a bucket on the second floor. Hed then take the 300-odd stairs to the top of the tower, where he would use a pulley to haul the lead to the top. There, hed fire up a gas ring vat and melt the lead, which boils at a reasonably low 118 degrees Celsius. Then he would ladle the molten lead into a colander and the lead would fall 132 feet into a vat of water on the second floor. By the time it hit the water, the molten lead would have cooled into spheres of lead shot, which were then shovelled into rolling machine dryers (each punched with holes for auto-sizing) on its way to being packed into bags, ready for despatch and use in shotguns, on scales, in pin ball machines and puzzle games-and even as ships ballast.
Some 25 million individual shot pellets could be produced every hour, but the Coop family didnt just make shot here.
There is also a museum, enter via the R.M. Williams store and follow the signs.
