16 PRELIMINARY NOTICE ON THE 



in the side of the hollowed stem, which is connected with a bamboo as 

 a pipe to conduct this air to the furnace. 



This action is continued alternately with the left foot and the right 

 foot on the bellows, the weight of the man being thrown from one to the 

 other, as each foot is alternately lifted. 



The return movement of the bellows is effected by the bamboo or 

 stick acting as a spring upon the leather. 



The air thus forced through the blowing pipes made of bamboo passes 



into the furnace through tuyeres of clay. These are, in some places, 



very carefully made and carefully baked before use; in others they 



are composed simply of a lump of moist and 

 Tuyeres. 



weU-tempered clay attached round the end of the 



bamboo, at the moment of commencing the operation of smelting.* 



In Cuttack, this form of bellows is used, both for the first reduction 



of the ore and for the subsequent cleaning processes. In Birbhoom, and 



other parts of the country, a totally different form, more like an English 



blacksmith's bellows, is used for the second process, and the si^e of the 



bellows employed in the reduction of the ore is very much greater also ; 



the weight of three men being employed to give force to the blast, 



instead of only one. 



In all cases, this contrivance, rude as it is, seems to give a sufficient 



and tolerably equable blast, not ill adapted to 

 The blast thus obtain- 

 ed sufficient and toler- the Small fumaces employed, which are composed 

 ably equable, 



solely of clay. 



* As showing how very similar these Indian processes are to those formerly in use in 

 some of the richest iron districts of England, the words of Dr. Plot, in his Natural History 

 of Staffordshire, published in 1686, are interesting. He was writing not long after the first 

 successful attempts to make iron with pit-coal and the introduction of machinery for 

 " slitting" and rolling. But speaking of the general improvements in smelting, he says — 

 "We shall find it very great, if we look back upon the methods of our ancestors, who 

 made iron in foot-blasts or bloomeries, by men treading the bellows, by which way they could 

 make but one little lump or bloom of iron in a day, not 100 weight, leaving as much iron in 

 the slag as they got out." 



