164 Prof. Royle’s Lecture on the Great Exhibition of 1851. 
and the process considered complete. The furnace contains from 
twenty to twenty-four crucibles. 'The crucibles are next re- 
moved from the furnace and allowed to cool; they are then bro- 
en and the steel taken out. The crucibles are formed of a red 
loam, which is very refractory, mixed with a large quantity of 
charred husk of rice. 
Mr. Heath, after remarking the astonishing fact that the Hin- 
doos had discovered the way of making steel at such early pe- 
riods, refers to Mr. Mushet’s discovery of converting iron into 
cast steel by fusing it in a close vessel, in contact with any sub- 
stance yielding carbonaceous matter, and then to that of Mr. 
Mackintosh, of converting iron into steel, by exposing it to the 
action of carburetted hydrogen gas in a close vessel at a very 
high temperature, by which means the process of conversion is 
completed in a few hours; while by the old method it was the 
work of from fourteen to twenty days. r observes 
ow, it appears to me that the Indian process combines the 
principles of both the above described methods: on elevating the 
temperature of the crucible containing pure iron and dry wood 
and green leaves, an abundant evolution of carburetted hydrogen 
gas would take place from the vegetable matter, and as its escape 
would be prevented by the lating at the mouth of the crucible, 
°o 
° ee, 
. 
wder. In no other way can I account for the fact that iron is 
converted into cast steel by the natives of India in two hours 
and a half, with an application of heat that in this country would 
be considered quite inadequate to produce such an effect ; while 
at Sheffield it requires at least four hours to melt blistered steel 
in wind furnaces of the best construction, although the crucibles 
in which the steel is melted are at a white heat when the metal 
is put into them, and ia the Indian process the crucibles are put 
into the furnace quite cold.” - 
By such simple methods the Hindoo prepared steel, which has 
long formed an article of commerce from the west of India to 
the Persian Gulf, and there is every probability of its being used 
in larger quantities if it were easily procurable in sufficient qual 
tities, as manufacturers here have expressed a desire to employ It 
In the arms which we have exhibited, as well as in the edges 
and points of the tools, we see its admirable fitness for the fabri- 
cation of tant instruments. 
| ong the arms we have a display of such as would appear 
to belong to different ages of the os but which are actually 
in-use in India at the present day; such as chain and scale a 
