Shot towers

The history of drop towers goes back to at least 1769, when a “drop process” was patented by Englishman William Watts, who was looking for a better way to make shot for muskets. Watts’ process was based on the principle that a liquid will form a perfect sphere while in free fall because of surface tension.

Watts ingeniously applied this concept to molten lead, reasoning that it would form perfectly round balls when allowed to free fall a certain distance. To test this theory, he extended his three story house to six stories and constructed a shot tower. And he was right: his shot tower produced lead shot that was far superior to that made from molds. Watts’ insight revolutionized the production of musket balls.

The procedure was simple. Molten lead was poured onto a copper plate containing holes of different sizes (in effect a sieve) that produced droplets of different sizes. The lead fell freely through a shaft, forming into spheres during the descent before landing in a water-filled kettle, which served to stop and cool the lead. The shot was then dried, polished and put into bags for distribution.

The Sparks Shot Tower in Philadelphia was among the first shot towers in the U.S. The tower was built in 1808 by Thomas Sparks and John Bishop as a result of the Embargo Act imposed by President Jefferson, which prohibited the importation of, among other things, high-quality shot. Sparks’ and Bishop’s 142-foot-high brick tower tapered from a base with a 30-foot circumference to a top with a 15-foot circumference. Known as the Sparks Shot Tower, it still stands on the Delaware River waterfront at Carpenter Street in South Philadelphia.

Another well-known shot tower still in existence is the Shot Tower in Wythe County, Virginia. The tower was built by local miner Thomas Jackson, who completed it in 1807 after seven years of construction. It’s shaft measures 150 feet in height, but only the top half is above ground (as can be seen in a diagram of the tower).

Today, there are only a handful of shot towers in existence in the U.S. And each one is majestic in its own right, as befits an architecture that soars.

Lob scouse

As Liverpool take on PSV Eindhoven this evening, I am reminded of a conversation I had with my friend Kati (of Bulgarian origin, brought up in Hamburg) regarding Lob Scouse.

Now I did tell her that it was a native Liverpool dish; “Lob” as in to lob in whatever leftovers you have and “Scouse” because that’s what dey are do aren’t dey?

Kati was surprised as “Labscause” is also a traditional German dish, specifically from the Hamburg region, where you throw in your leftovers (no hamburgers though interestingly) and cook up a hearty stew.

I suggested that this had come over from Liverpool on the merchant boats. I was wrong.

After much research I have discovered these things:

1. “Skaus” is a ancient Norse word for “stew”.

2. There is a dish which originates from Northern Germany (in particular Bremen and Hamburg) called “labskaus”and has been around since at least 1701.

3. The dish became a favourite with sailors during the time of the great ships and can be found in most restaurants to this day on Germany’s Northern coast.

4. The meal is traditionally prepared by boiling beef (or corned/tinned beef) in water and then mincing it with herbs, onions and sometimes herrings. Finally the base is stewed in lard and then finished off in a stock. The dish is garnished with any number of combinations including a fried egg, pickles, mashed potatoes and beetroot.

5. In the late 19th Century, Liverpool laid claim to being the “second port of the Empire” handling more goods than any British city outside London.

6. German merchant sailors arrived in Liverpool, from Germany’s Northern ports – including Hamburg of course – they were partial to a good labskaus of an evening, and the dish was adopted by the seafarers of Liverpool.

7. The English version Lob Scouse soon became prevalent in the kitchens of seamen, as the ingredients were easily sourced and relatively cheap.

8. Sailors from Liverpool soon became known as “Scousers” and this slang eventually spread to represent all Liverpudlians.

9. The ingredients and recipe for Lobscouse does vary from the original labskaus, but it’s purpose and popularity are equal.

10. The town of Hamburg and the city of Liverpool have more in common than mere football.

Well I never.

Elephant & Castle

Its name derives from the sign of a public house in the area, which shows an elephant surmounted by a castle. It is often asserted that the name is a corruption of Infanta de Castile, usually said to be a reference to Eleanor of Castile, the wife of Edward I (in Spain and Portugal, the infanta was the eldest daughter of the monarch without a claim to the throne). That would put Elephant and Castle in the same class of pub name as Goat and Compasses but, like the story of the way that name came into being, it’s almost certainly false.

Not the least of the problems is that Eleanor of Castile wasn’t an infanta (or at least wasn’t known as that—the term only appeared in English about 1600); the one infanta that the British have heard about from school history lessons is Maria, a daughter of Philip III of Spain, who was once controversially engaged to Charles I. But she had no connection with Castile. The form Infanta de Castile seems to be a conflation of vague memories of two Iberian royal women separated by 300 years.

The castle here is actually a howdah on the back of the elephant, in India a seat traditionally used by hunters. The public house called the Elephant and Castle was converted about 1760 from a smithy that had had the same name and sign. This had connections with the Cutlers’ Company, a London craft guild founded in the 13th century which represented workers who made knives, scissors, surgical instruments and the like. The guild used the same emblem. The link here is the Indian elephant ivory used for knife handles, in which the Cutlers’ Company dealt.

The real story here is actually rather more interesting than the one usually told, but a lot more British people have heard of an infanta from history lessons than know about the medieval emblem of a trade guild.