Making Rifles of Old Muskets

We extract the following complimentary notice of the inventive genius of A. M. Ball, Esq., of Harper’s Ferry, from the Scientific American:

At the U.S. Armory, Harper’s Ferry, A. M. Ball, foreman, of the millwrights, has invented and introduced a machine for rifle-grooving old muskets, so as to render them, when fitted with the proper lock, identical with the Minie gun. Each machine turns out daily from fifteen to twenty Minied muskets. He has also invented a breach-tapping machine for cutting the thread into which the barrel is screwed– an operation formerly done by hand. In economy of time and labor, and of course money, Government derives from these two inventions great advantage.