190 



On Indian Iron and Steel. 



[Jan. 



try about the mouths of the Indus and the Red Sea ; and it appears 

 reasonable to conclude that the steel of the South of India found its 

 way by these routes to the country of Porus, to the nations of Europe, 

 and to Egypt. 



It appears then that the claim of India to a discovery which has ex- 

 ercised more influence on the arts conducive to civilization and manu- 

 facturing industry, than any otlier within the whole range of human 

 inventions, is altogether unquestionable. What a theme for a reflec- 

 tive mind is the consideration of what would have been the social con- 

 dition of the human race had the art of converting iron into steel still 

 remained undiscovered, 



A few remarks seem called for, regarding the distinguishing peculiar- 

 ity of the Indian process of steel-making. 



It will have been observed that it differs from the ordinary English 

 process, from the circumstance of the iron being put into the crucible 

 in the pure state, and without having gone through the process of 

 cementation or conversion into blistered steel. 



That iron could be converted into cast-steel by fusing it in a close 

 vessel in contact with carbon, was a discovery made by Mr. D. Mushet 

 about the year 1800. This was undoubtedly the original idea of a man 

 of talent, following the light thrown on the theory of steel-making by 

 the discoveries of modern chemistry. The substances Mr. Mushet pro- 

 posed to use, were charcoal-dust, pitcoal-dust, plumbago, or any sub- 

 stance containing the coaly or carbonaceous principle." Now this 

 specification unquestionably comprises the principle of the Indian pro- 

 cess, which adopts the use of dry wood, which is a "substance containing 

 the coaly or carbonaceous principle." 1 believe, however, that Mr. 

 Mushet*, in practice, confined himself to the use of charcoal-powder 

 in preference to dry wood, in consequence of the comparatively small 

 bulk of the former required to carbonate the iron, and the consequent 

 saving of space in the crucible. 



In the year 1825, Mr. Charles Mackintoshf took out a patent for 

 converting iron into steel by exposing it to the action of carburetted- 

 hydrogen gas in a close vessel, at a very high temperature, by which 



* Mr. Mushet took out a patent for this process, but, owing to causes entirely un- 

 eonnected with the merits of the discovery, it was never successfully carried into 

 practice. 



+ The patentee of the Indian-rubber waterproof fabrics. Mr. Mackintosh also took 

 out a patent for his process for steel-making ; but although I have seen samples of the 

 steel made in this way, yet the process was not found to answer on a large scale : it was ' 

 found impossible to keep the chambers in which the bars of iron were suspended air- 

 tight at the very high temperature to which it was necessary to raise them iu order to 

 enable the iron to combine with the gaseous carbon. 



