21 8 Manufacture of Steel in Southern India. [No. 123. 



supposed iron put into the crucible with the pieces of wood, and two 

 green leaves, was two pieces of natural steel, which I have found by 

 experiment in my blast furnaces to melt very easily. 



This natural steel has the property of welding, from which the 

 natives call it iron, and it must have been thus that they misled Dr. 

 Buchanan; while cast steel, the only one they are acquainted with, falls 

 to pieces like sand upon being heated to a white heat. 



From its property of welding, this natural steel is peculiarly valu- 

 able for making axes, bill-hooks, and tipping plough shares, and the 

 cheap rate at which it can be made (about 2 annas for 6 pounds) is of 

 considerable consequence to the poor and labouring class of natives, as 

 the only steel now procurable in India is sold at the rate of 3|- pounds 

 for a rupee. 



For coarse purposes, natural steel is imported largely into England 

 from Germany, and Styria, and it is probable that from the cheap rate 

 at which the above natural steel can be made in India, that it may prove 

 to be a valuable article of export from South India to Europe ; and as the 

 granitic tract of the Barramahal affords inexhaustible quantities of the 

 iron sand and fuel, there can be but little doubt of the possibility of the 

 manufacture. 



I have no intention of concealing the mode of producing the natural 

 steel ; but as my researches upon the subject are yet in a very crude 

 state, and as much further investigation by chemical analysis is neces- 

 sary into the composition of the iron sand, (which is a titaniferous 

 mineral,) the various scorias of the furnace, and the compositions of the 

 steel, and the theory of its formation, I shall reserve these particulars 

 for a more complete report upon the subject. 



Royacottah, 5th October, 1841. 



Report upon the Improvement of the Silk manufactured in Mysore and 

 the Salem Districts. By Captain J. Campbell, Assistant Surveyor 

 General. 



In the Salem district, silk is manufactured in small quantity, in 

 Bairkay and Bangalore, and in a few small villages. In Trippatore it was 

 formerly attempted to be introduced, but has failed for some reason not 

 recorded. 



