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Glite Dictionary
shot tower

shot tower

9.9
A tall building used to make small round lead balls for guns by dropping hot lead into water
  • noun
  • /ʃɑt ˈtaʊər/
translation icon : torre de plomo
  • Engineers carefully designed each shot tower to ensure the lead cooled and formed perfect spheres as it dropped.

Examples

  • During the nineteenth century, shot towers were crucial for producing ammunition for hunters and soldiers.

  • The old shot tower in the city is now a historical monument open to visitors.

  • The old shot tower in Baltimore is a historic landmark.

  • Many cities had a shot tower during the industrial era.

  • During the nineteenth century, shot towers were crucial for producing ammunition for hunters and soldiers.

  • Engineers carefully designed each shot tower to ensure the lead cooled and formed perfect spheres as it dropped.

  • Many cities had a shot tower during the industrial era to manufacture lead pellets.

Surface Forms

shot tower singular
shot towers plural

Morphology

shot + tower

The compound follows a straightforward noun+noun pattern so a learner who knows 'shot' and 'tower' can infer it denotes a tower associated with shot (projectiles). However, the precise historical function — a specialised manufacturing structure for making lead shot by dropping molten metal — is specialized world knowledge and could be mistaken for a tower used for shooting, so the meaning is not fully predictable.

Etymology

Shot tower comes from a simple picture: people used a tall tower to make small round shot. Workers dropped hot lead through a screen at the top so the drops became smooth balls as they fell and cooled in water at the bottom, so the name means 'a tower used to make lead shot'.