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The Shot Tower Traditional Cache

This cache has been archived.

OReviewer: As there's been no response to my earlier note, I am forced to archive this listing.

If you wish to repair/replace the cache sometime in the future, just contact me email, including the GC Code, and assuming it meets the guidelines, we'll be happy to unarchive it.

Thanks,
-OReviewer

More
Hidden : 2/15/2009
Difficulty:
1 out of 5
Terrain:
1 out of 5

Size: Size:   micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:


I drive by this Landmark on a daily basis and once I found out what it was I just had to drop in a cache. Enjoy.

It looks like a smoke stack with a lid on top, but it's really America's first shot tower built in 1808. Shot towers revolutionized the making of musket balls and other solid projectiles based on the principle that molten lead will form perfect round balls when poured from a high place.

Until this discovery, gun shot was made by pouring the lead into wooden molds. Plumber Thomas Sparks and a partner created a 142-foot-high brick tower with a 30-foot circumference at its base tapering to 15 feet at the top. It stands along the Delaware River waterfront at Carpenter Street in South Philly and is easily seen from Route I-95.

The molten lead was poured through a mesh with different sized holes for different sizes of shot. The balls fell into a large container of water. The tower produced tons of ammunition during the War of 1812 and the Civil War. Four generations of the Sparks family kept the tower in operation until 1903. The tower is now part of a city playground with a recreation center at the base. It's a prime example of Philadelphia's reputation for superb brickwork

You will be looking for a magnetic NANO. No need to enter the playground. Please BYOP.

The 1st NANO seems to have been WEED WACKED. Please replace the nano so that it is protected from further WACKING.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

nobir yrsg fvqr bs zbfnvp

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)