MISCELLANIES. 



601 



Khorasan. 9. Sari Hindi. 10. 

 Korun Hindi. Tliere are swords 

 also like Persian gun barrels, 

 only plated or cased with the 

 sort of steel that takes the 

 Giohar ; but they are easily dis- 

 tinguished by carefully examining 

 the back of the sword. 



The art of founding the metal 

 of which the Persian blades are 

 made is lost, although it is still 

 met with in lumps, which show 

 from their form that they were 

 cast in moulds.* 



These moulds are worked into 

 blades for swords, daggers and 

 knives, but are sometimes not 

 sufficiently malleable for any pur- 

 pose, probably because the art of 

 properly working them is also 

 lost with that of their original 

 cast or composition, for it appears 

 not to be a simple of uncom- 

 pounded metal. 



Directions for renewing the water 

 of Persian gun-barrels. 



Take a barrel that has lost the 

 regularity of its water by use or 

 rust, and have it scrubbed bright 

 with scowering paper, or any 

 other means, until it has the ap- 

 pearance of common iron. 



Force a stick into the muzzle 

 of sufficient strength to hold the 

 barrel up, that the necessity of 

 touching it during the operation 

 may be avoided. A paste must 

 then be made of a kind of brira- 



* It may be doubted whether the 

 Persians ever possessed the art of 

 smelling the fine metal of Damascus 

 blades. It is not probable that so 

 lucrative a knowledge would have 

 become entirely extmct, whilst we 

 know that the Wootz of India is 

 brought to England in lumps cast in 

 hemispherical moulds.~£</. 



stone, called here Kibreet vl 

 Gemel, sal ammoniac, and com- 

 mon salt mixed with water in the 

 following proportions : of the 

 first, one hundred and eighty 

 drachms; of the second, twelve; 

 and of the third, fifteen drachms. 

 When it is of the consistency of 

 stiff clay, let it be plastered, or 

 laid on, so as to cover the whole 

 surface of the barrel an inch or 

 more in thickness ; but parti- 

 cular care must be taken, that in 

 making the clay adhere closely 

 to the barrel, not the least air is 

 suffered to intervene, because 

 wherever there is a globule of 

 confined air on the barrel, there 

 it will come in contact with the 

 composition, and consequently 

 not be acted on by the corrosive 

 quaUties of the clay. It must be 

 laid on wet, and suffered to 

 continue a sufficient time, more 

 or less according to the state of 

 the atmosphere. In the expe- 

 riment I made, it was exposed 

 to the air in the shade of a room 

 in the middle of summer for 

 twenty-four hours. The operator 

 told me, that in winter it should 

 be placed in a moderately warm 

 atmosphere. 



The art of composing (for it 

 is certainly a composition) the 

 steel of Persian sword blades is 

 undoubtedly lost, but I have been 

 told, that the iron of their gun 

 and pistol barrels is still manu- 

 factured in some towns of Persia 

 and Turkey. 



I was assured, that it is done 

 by entwining together certain 

 proportions of steel and iron 

 drawn out, to great length, and 

 again drawn out, and so on till the 

 two metals become incorporated, 

 which on undergoing the opera- 

 tion 



