112 On the Manufacture of Bar Iron in India. 



useful account in making bar iron, and I hope to be able 

 to make public the result of experiments upon this subject. 



22. I have not had opportunities of ascertaining the ex- 

 pense of drawing blooms into bar iron, but I know that 

 even when forged with hand hammers, and the work very 

 carelessly done, that the expense is not more than 30 rupees 

 a ton ; but in the little forges which I have used, the waste 

 of metal is enormous, amounting to fully 50 per cent, on the 

 weight of the forged blooms. This great waste would be 

 altogether avoided by using proper air furnaces, for heating 

 the blooms and rough bars, and then it would be no greater 

 than in the English works, which according to Dr. Ure, is 

 only \2 per cent, at the utmost. 



23. Rolling mills and tilt hammers on the scale of the 

 English works could hardly be used in an infant manufac- 

 ture, but it is easy to construct a tilt hammer weighing one 

 or two hundred weight in the head ; to be worked by hand 

 by coolies ; and I have little doubt, the expense would be 

 so small, as to bear a comparison with that of finished bar 

 iron in the English works ; for I find that when the bloom- 

 ery furnaces are carefully regulated, that the blooms will 

 bear drawing out into § inch bar at one operation without 

 cracking at all, and are fit for any purpose without the 

 expense of three-fold re-heating and rolling out operation 

 requisite in the English works. 



24. The price of bar iron in the various part of India is 

 very variable, and appears to depend more upon the local 

 information of the Natives, and the number of their furnaces 

 which have been established, and kept in work, rather than 

 upon the supplies of fuel and ore, which occur in so many 

 parts of the country. In Bengal, the navigable rivers afford 

 the means of introducing English iron into the interior, but 

 the quality is so much inferior to the Native iron that even 

 in Boglipoor, the Native furnaces are still working profit- 

 ably ; although I have shewn that they cannot sell their iron 



