Prof. Royle’s Lecture on the Great Erhibition of 1851. 163 
which the Egyptians covered their obelisks and temples of por- 
phyry and syenite with hieroglyphics, were made of Indian steel.” 
There is no doubt, that the ancient Indian temples and fortresses 
were carved with steel instruments, as they are at the present 
day. That they made steel which was highly valued in the 
time of Alexander the Great, is evident from Porus making him 
& present of about thirty pounds of steel; and still earlier, in the 
Rig Veda, we read of chariots armed with iron weapons, of coats- 
of-mail; arms and tools of different kinds, and of bright-edged 
hatchets. 
Various descriptions of the manufacture of iron and steel have 
been given by observers in different parts of India; all of whic 
bear a considerable resemblance to each other. Some of these 
Mr. Aiken carefully noticed when he lectured on this subject in 
this very place; but Mr. Heath has, I think, given the best ex- 
Planation of the Indian processes. 
Mr. Heath describes the ore used as the magnetic oxyd of iron, 
consisting of seventy-two per ceut. of iron with twenty-eight of 
oxygen, combined with quartz, in the proportion of fifty-two of 
oxyd to forty-eight of quartz. It is prepared by stamping, and 
then separating the quartz by washing or winnowing. The fur- 
hace is built of clay alone, from three to five feet high, and pear- 
aped ; the bellows is formed of two goat-skins, with a bamboo 
hozzle, ending in a clay pipe. The fuel is charcoal, upon which 
the ore is laid, without flax; the bellows are applied for four 
hours, when the ore will be found to be reduced: it is taken out, 
and while yet red-hot, it is cut through with a hatchet, and sold 
to the blacksmiths, who forge it into bars and convert it into 
steel. In an old account which I possess, written on the spot, 
apparently in Mysore, it is said, that one pound and a half of 
ron is heated lower than red heat, and then beaten for about 
ree minutes with a stone hammer on a stone anvil, experi- 
ty having taught them, they say, that instruments of iron ruin 
€ proc 
turn with 
_ As soon as the clay used to stop the mouths of the crucibles 
r dry, they are built af in the form of an arch ina small furnace, 
rarcoal is heaped over them, and the blast kept up without in- 
ermission for about two hours and a half, when it is stop 
