254 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [June, 



imagine the greatest drawbacks to the success of the new method must he in the 

 want of coal fuel, and of ready access to a market of sufficient consumption. 



Mr. Heath's specimens of the native process of making steel are interesting, on 

 account of the ignorance which still prevails in Europe on this subject. 



According to the author of the Treatise on Manufacturing Iron and Steel in Lard- 

 ner's ' Cabinet Encyclopedia,' our latest authority on such subjects, the right nature 

 of Indian steel seems to be still as much an enigma as ever : nothing having been 

 added to our knowledge since Dr. Pearson's paper on the Wootz steel, in the Phi- 

 losophical Transactions, Vol. XVII. There it is asserted that the steel is made 

 directly from the ore by fusion, and that it has never been in the state of 

 wrought iron. " The mass has evidently been fused," says Dr. Pearson, " but 

 the grain of the fracture is such as I have never seen in cement-steel before it 

 has been hammered or melted ;" and he suggests, that the variegated appearance 

 of articles manufactured from it, is owing to portions of the oxide of iron hav- 

 ing escaped metallization when melted up with the rest of the matter. 



Dr. Voysey however expressly describes the compact texture and brilliant 

 white colour of the iron used for conversion into steel ; and in confirmation we have 

 now from Mr. Heath, " the actual crucibles with broken fragments of iron bars, 

 (about one lb. in weight each) charged ready for fusion, along with uncharred wood 

 and green leaves ;" the wood used for the purpose is that of the cassia atiriculata, 

 and the green leaves are those of the asclepias gigantea." The cementation takes 

 24 hours, and the fire is then urged so as to fuse the steel. On breaking the cru- 

 cible it is found in a hemispherical button, radiated on the surface as from crystal- 

 lization. It has gained somewhat in weight ; it is very hard, and requires to he an- 

 nealed three or four times, covered with clay, and exposed to a red heat for 12 or 16 

 hours. This would be an argument that too great an absorption of carbon had tak- 

 en place, and that the metal was in fact cast iron. 100 grs. of Mr. Heath's wootz, 

 however, when dissolved in sulphuric acid,left but i$ grain of carbonaceous matter, 

 which is less than the usual proportion. 



The brittleness of the wootz steel has been notorious ever since Damascus blades 

 have been known in Europe and Asia. Tavernier describes the difficulty of working 

 up the metal in his day as precisely what is experienced in the specimens be- 

 fore us. " The steel susceptible of being damasked comes from the kingdom of 

 Golconda ; it is met within commerce in lumps about the size of a half-penny cake : 

 they are cut in two, in order to see whether they are of good quality, and each 

 makes half the blade of a sabre." He adds, that if the European methods of har- 

 dening this steel were followed, it would break like glass. Reaumur and others 

 have always alluded to the same difficulty of forging it. 



The cause of the brittleness may be in the over-carbonization, alluded to above ; 

 otherwise it must be sought in the wood used for the purpose ; this point has not 

 yet received elucidation, &c. nor from the unsatisfactory nature of all chemical 

 analyses of iron is it likely to be soon explained. 



Mr. Heath's chromate of iron ore seems to be of a very good quality, containing 

 little or no foreign matter. It is of a dark greenish-grey or nearly black color, 

 granular texture, in massive lumps, inclining to a octohedral form : not magnetic, 

 infusible, insoluble in acids : specific gravity 4.545 at 90°. 



Nitrate of potash requires more than a red heat to effect its decomposition : by 

 caustic potash it is more readily acted on, and discharges copious fumes of a green- 

 ish, yellow colour, found to consist of sublimed chromate of potash soluble in 



