108 On the Manufacture of Bar Iron in India. 



bar iron, 324£ pounds of charcoal and 287 pounds of ore 

 are used, and taking the value of charcoal at 2 annas for 

 100 pounds, and the ore at 24| pounds for 1 anna, which is 

 above the price in Southern India, we have 25 rupees a ton 

 for bar iron ; but in this the expense of labour for blowing 

 and charging the furnace, and of the labour at the refining 

 hearth and the forge hammer, are not included. However, 

 the French furnaces are also too large, and their produce 

 too great for an infant manufacture. 



13. Furnaces in which the ores of iron are reduced at 

 one operation to the malleable state, are called in England 

 " bloomery furnaces." Of these three kinds are known ; viz. 

 the simple furnace of the Natives of India; the Catalan 

 forge; and the German steuch often. I have stated in my 

 former paper, on the authority of Porter's Chemistry of the 

 Arts, that cast iron was generally made in these furnaces, but 

 of this I have some doubt, and as I know from experience, 

 that such furnaces can be advantageously used for making 

 blooms of malleable iron, I shall consider them as belonging 

 to this class. 



14. Bloomery furnaces present the advantage of being 

 able to make any quantity of iron which may be required, 

 with a very trifling outlay of capital. In the little Native 

 furnaces, a few pounds is the result, and in the steuch often 

 nearly a ton. The quality of the iron is also much superior 

 to what can be made from cast iron, and I have reason to 

 believe, that all the Danemora Swedish steel iron is made 

 with these furnaces. 



15. Bloomery furnaces are without doubt the best adapted 

 kind to an infant manufacture, and were used all over 

 England before the wood fuel began to be scarce ; and into 

 India, the use of them on a large scale, might be successfully 

 introduced, but the art of using them has been lost in Eng- 

 land. Brongniart has spoken favorably of the Catalan 

 forge, but as the persons who manage them are merely prac- 



