1855.] Report on tlie Kooloo iron Mines. 195 



vicinity of other districts umprovided with fuel. In one word, it is 

 already something to be able to enter into the limits of the possible 

 in this part of India, it is even a great deal ; but to be successful, 

 there are conditions to fulfil, which must not be lost sight of. These 

 conditions consist in the art of making charcoal. 



At first sight the carbonization of wood seems so easy an operation, 

 that the most limited intellects can direct it, following the old system 

 of routine, established by the vulgar. These ideas have been the cause 

 of many errors, and of failure in many industrial enterprizes. It is 

 indispensable that, in this country especially, where the scarcity of 

 wood, fit for the manufacture of charcoal, is sensibly felt, we 

 should endeavour with care, to bring into use the perfected opera- 

 tions that science can furnish to increase a production, so necessary 

 to industry ; but to succeed in this manufacture, it would be 

 necessary that the direction be entrusted to a European, who 

 should have acquired by experience the knowledge, theoretic and 

 practical, of the art ; the advantages resulting from such a rational 

 direction would be, as I will prove, of the greatest importance. 



The wood for carbonization, the most generally distributed over 

 this country, is the pine. It is then on this wood that I am 

 going to establish the comparative results furnished by experiments, 

 which are equally applicable to the oak. The experiment which 

 has been taken as a starting point for the improvement of the 

 manufacture of charcoal, consists in the determination of the 

 quantity of carbon which 1 00 parts of wood simply dried in the 

 air contain. 



It resulted from this experiment that the mean of this quantity 

 was 28 parts : this datum compared with the results obtained 

 by the ordinary defective means, of which the average quantity 

 was only 15 to 16 per cent., impressed on the mind the import- 

 ance of finding means for improving the process, and enlightened 

 by previous experiments, performed on small proportions, we arrived 

 by the help of simple modifications, founded principally on the 

 manner of conducting the combustion, to obtain from 25 to 31 

 of charcoal. In practice that is the highest number attainable, 

 and the number 31 can only be obtained by an intelligent superin- 

 tendence, during the whole time of the operation. These are the 



