1848.] The Matchlock of Koteli. 277 



On the manufacture of the Matchlock of Koteli. — By Capt. James 



Abbott. 



Finding my camp near the fabric of fire arms of Koteli in the Pun- 

 jaub, I paid a visit to the fabric, which occupies two villages, about 

 half a mile apart, and situate about 5 miles N. West of Sialkot. 



Having witnessed the process of forging a Damask rifled barrel at 

 ITeraut, I did not anticipate any novelty on the present occasion. 

 Moorcroft has most accurately described the same process in Cashmere ; 

 but as he gives no figures in illustration, his account may not be 

 perfectly intelligible to persons who are not familiar with the ordinary 

 process. 



The iron employed at Koteli is chiefly of the produce of Mundi, a hill 

 district of the Julundhur, from a sandstone formation. That of 

 Peshawur is also sometimes used. The iron appears to be well adap- 

 ted to the purpose, soft, ductile, and tolerably free from impurity. And 

 here it may be observed that the iron of India, not having undergone 

 fusion, having been separated from the ore by the fire of a fuel free 

 from sulphuric acid, and having been wrought into mass at the expense 

 of infinitely more labor of the hammer than the iron of Europe, is 

 generally pure and soft in proportion. The use of stubbs in this 

 manufacture has never been dreamed of. 



The first process is to hammer out a ribband of soft iron of the 

 breadth of 1 \ inches, being about 3-tenths of an inch thick at the one 

 end and tapering to a thickness of one-tenth at the other. This rib- 

 band at welding-heat is beaten around a cylindric bar, or mandril of 

 iron into a tube about 2\ feet in length, (See PI. XXVII. figure 1.) 



Three or four flat pieces of iron are then laid together and secured 

 in place by wire, (see figure 2.) They are heated to white heat, 

 and set upon the anvil edge upwards ; plates of block tin are laid upon 

 them, which melting fill up the interstices and adhere to the iron ; 

 sometimes about 2 rupees worth of silver are added. The whole at 

 white heat is then submitted to the hammer until the tin and silver 

 are incorporated with the iron. The mass is then worked into long- 

 slender square bars, of about one- tenth of an inch in thickness. 



These bars or square wires being successively heated arc by means of 

 a vice and pincers twisted gradually throughout their extent, one-half 



