212 Memorandum on the Kunkurs & Iron Ores of Burdwan. [No. 3. 



Memorandum on the Kunkurs of Burdwan as a flux for smelting 

 the Iron Ores, and on some smeltings of Iron Ores by Mr. Taylor, 

 of that district. — By Henry Piddington, Curator Museum Eco- 

 nomic Geology. 



The question of Iron Ores and smeltings is just now engaging 

 much attention, and I have therefore thought it of use to publish 

 my recent, and former, examinations of the Kunkurs of Burdwan, 

 which will be found below, and I have been induced to do so by a 

 desire to make known the following facts. 



Mr. C. B. Taylor of Toposi Colliery in Burdwan has just sent us a 

 number of Iron Ores from that district, as reported at the Decem- 

 ber meeting, and with them a small quantity of the nodular Kunkur 

 of the same localities, and on a visit to the Museum, Mr. Taylor also 

 claimed as his work Nos. 41 to 45 of our series of washings and 

 smeltings of Indian Iron Ores, which are specimens of the raw and 

 roasted Burdwan ore, and of the same when smelted ; with two 

 spike nails forged from it. "What is essential to our present purpose 

 herein is, that Mr. Taylor had fortunately sent with the specimens, 

 the Kunkur which was used as a flux to the ore in his little ex- 

 periment, which was performed in a rude native built furnace. This 

 little series was presented by Mr. William Prinsep to the Museum 

 of Economic Geology. 



I thought it, then, well worth while to examine these Kunkurs of 

 Mr. Taylor's, for if good nail-iron can be produced with the common 

 Kunkur of Burdwan, the question of flux is set at rest until it is 

 exhausted, and it is said to be found every where and in considerable 

 quantities at the surface. The late Mr. Williams in his report says 

 at once, as indeed any English miner would be ready to do, that the 

 Kunkur is too earthy to serve as a flux, and he proposes to send to 

 Sylhet for Limestone, which thus becomes a formidable item in his 

 estimate of the cost of iron from this locality. 



Beginning with the most recent specimen, Mr. Taylor's Kunkur 

 of 1854, there are evidently two kinds of the concretion, and they 



