185 



On Indian Iron and Steel. 



plied for four hours or thereabouts, when the process is stopped ; and 

 the temporary wall in front of the furnace having been broken down, 

 the bloom is removed by a pair of tongs from the bottom of the furnace : 

 it is then beaten with a wooden mallet to separate as much of the vi- 

 trified oxide of iron as possible, and while still red hot, it is cut through 

 the middle with a hatchet, in order to shew the quality of the interior 

 of the mass : in this state it is sold to the blacksmiths, who perform all 

 the subsequent operations of forging it into bars and making it into 

 steel. 



The process of forging the iron into bars is performed by sinking 

 the blooms in a small charcoal furnace, and by repeUed heatings and 

 hammerings, to free it as much as possible from the vitrified and 

 unreduced oxide of iron: it is thus formed into small bars about a foot 

 long, an inch and half broad, and about half an inch thick ; in this 

 state the iron is full of cracks and exceedingly red short; and were an 

 English manufacturer of steel to be told that cast-steel of excellent 

 quality could be made from such iron, he would treat the assertion with 

 great contempt. 



It is from this unpromising material, however, that the Indian 

 steel is alw^ays made ; the bars of iron just described, are cut into 

 small pieces to enable them to pack clo.se in the crucible : a quantity 

 of these pieces amounting to about half a pound, and from that to two 

 pounds, as the mass of steel is required to be of greater or less weight, 

 is then put into a crucible alone, with a tenth part by weight of dried 

 wood chopped small, and the iron and wood are then covered over with 

 one or two green leaves; the mouth of the crucible is then filled up 

 by a handful of tempered clay, which is rammed in so close as to ex- 

 clude the air perfectly. 



The wood which is always selected to furnish carbon to the iron, is 

 the Cassia auriculata^ and the leaf used to cover the iron and wood is 

 that of the Asclepias gigantea, or, where that is not to be had, that of 

 the Convolvulus laurifolius. As soon as the clay, used to stop the 

 mouths of the crucibles, is dry, they are built up in the form of an arch, 

 with their bottoms inwards, in a small furnace urged by two goat skin 

 bellows ; charcoal is heaped up over them, and the blast kept up with- 

 out intermission for about two hours and a half, when it is stopped, and 

 the process is considered complete : the furnace contains from twenty 

 to twenty-four crucibles. 



The crucibles are next removed from the furnace, and allowed to 

 cool ; they are then broken, and the steel which has been left to soli- 

 dify is taken out in a cake, having the form of the bottom of the cru- 

 cible J each cake is the produce of one crucible, and the steel is never 



