shot tower

plural shot towers

1. A tall building in which droplets of molten lead fall into a pool of water in order to form lead shot.

   In January, 1844, Ferdinand Kennett began the erection of a shot tower on Elm, between Main and Second streets.

   1878, Joseph A. Dacus, James William Buel, A Tour of St. Louis; Or, The Inside Life of a Great City, page 337

   2 more examples

   In 1808. Paul Beck built a taller shot tower on the Schuykill River that remained in operation until after the War of 1812, but competition with the Sparks shot tower forced it to close by 1828.

   2013, Ronald R. Switzer -, The Steamboat Bertrand and Missouri River Commerce, →ISBN, page 318

   There is no shot tower in St Petersburg, nor has there ever been one, judging by historical maps, descriptions, engravings, drawings and photographs of the city, starting in the 1860s. There are domes, spires, bell towers and chimneys of various heights and shapes, but no shot tower. A feature of the urban landscape of nineteenth-century industrial British and American cities, shot towers are conical structures up to seventy metres tall, designed for the manufacture of ammunition.

   2015, David Attwell, J. M. Coetzee and the Life of Writing: Face to Face with Time, →ISBN