1840.] 



On Indian Iron and Steel. 



189 



to impurities in the body of the steel, or variations in its quality; and 

 it would seem an obvious suggestion to endeavour to equalize the qua- 

 lity of the steel by reducing it to the fluid state in a close vessel, so as 

 to prevent the dissipation of its carbun by exposure to the air at a high 

 temperature. This is, in fact, the process now followed in England for 

 making cast-steel, which is tl e only description of steel fit for fine 

 cutlery; and simple and inartifiinal as the process appears, it was only 

 discovered in England about the middle of the last century. 



The antiquity of the Indirin process is no less astonishing than 

 its ingenuity. We can hardls' doubt that the tools with which the 

 Egyptians covered their obelisks and temples of porphyry and syenite 

 with hieroglyphics were made of Indian steel. There is no evidence to 

 shew that any of the nations of antiquity besides the Hindus were 

 acquainted with the art of making steel. The notices which occur in 

 the Greek and Latin writers on this subject serve only to betray their 

 ignorance of it: they were acquainted with the qualities and familiar 

 with the use of steel, but they appear to have been altogether ignorant 

 of the mode in which it was prej ared from iron. The arms and cutting 

 Instruments of the am ients were all formed of alloys of copper and tin, 

 and we are certain that tools of such an alloy could not have been em- 

 ployed in sculpturing porphyry and syenite. 



Had the ancient nations of the west been in possession of the 

 process of converting iron into steel, there can be no doubt that they 

 would have used it in the fabrication of their arms, for in all parts 

 of the world where steel is made, it can be sold much cheaper than 

 copper. The price of steel in India is about one-fifth of the price of 

 copper, but the expense of transporting it from India to Europe and 

 Egypt by the ancient routes of commerce would have enhanced its 

 price so much as to restrict the use of it to such articles as required 

 to be possessed of a degree of hardness which could not be imparted 

 to any other metal. One certain fact has reached us regarding the an- 

 tiquity of the steel manufacture in India : Quintus Curlius mentions 

 that a present of steel was made to Alexander of Macedon, by Porus, 

 an Indian chief, whose country he had invaded. We can hardly be- 

 lieve that a matter of about thirty pounds weight of steel would have 

 been considered a present worthy the acceptance of the conqueror of 

 the world, had the manufacture of that substance been practised by any 

 of the nations of the west in the days of Alexander. We may judge 

 from the extent of the present, how much the cost of the article had 

 been enhanced by transport from the place of its manufacture to the 

 country of Porus. 



We know that a maritime intercourse was maintained from the remo. 

 test antiquity between the Malabar coast, the Persian Gulf, the coun- 



