226 



Statistical Report on the Northern and 



[No. 38, 



minuteness by Dr. Voysey in the first volume of the Asiatic Society's 

 transactions, and also by Dr. Malcolmson in the Geological Society's 

 transactions of 1839. Both these Gentlemen visited the steel fur- 

 naces at Konasamoodrum, in the adjoining district of Neermul, 

 which supply the material from which the Damascus blades are 

 manufactured. The steel manufactured at these villages is very 

 inferior to the Konasamoodrum steel, and does not fetch half its 

 price. Yet the same teepoor is used for both, and the same care is 

 apparently bestowed, in the preparation, the only difference I could 

 detect was that the pure iron, which, along with the teepoor and the 

 bran, is placed in the crucible, is, in the case of the Konasamoodrum 

 steel, prepared from the yellow clay iron ore, found in the laterite at 

 Tatpilly : while at Ibrahimputnum and the other villages, any iron, 

 without reference to the ore from which it is smelted, is used. The 

 exact chemical condition of the metal under the form of steel has 

 as yet evaded scientific investigation which renders it probable that 

 the inferiority of the Ibrahimputnum steel may be attributable to this 

 one neglect. The Mogul, who rents the Konasamoodrum furnaces, 

 would seem to be of this opinion as he holds a strict monopoly over 

 the Tatpilly iron, insomuch that I had some difficulty in procuring 

 a specimen of the metal. 



In the steel furnaces five men are employed, the principal workman, 

 who has the care of the crucibles, which he is continually moving 

 about the furnace by means of a long iron rake, and four bellows-men. 

 The daily pay of the chief is two seers of rice, and two annas a day, 

 the others receive half the rice and money ; if the steel comes out of 

 the crucible at all blistered or unequal on the surface it is rejected as 

 worthless : there are two kinds of crucibles, the large and the small, 

 each of which contains a lump of steel of from one to two pounds in 

 weight, the cost of the furnace varies from four to six annas for the 

 smaller pieces, and from eight to ten annas for the larger. 



The workmen complain that the Hydrabad market is now lost to 

 them their steel being undersold by steel from Europe which is there 

 preferred for the manufacture of arms. 



The chief consumption is confined to the country about, where it is 

 used for hatchets, sickles, &c. 



At Lingumpilly and another village, both close to Aimulwarrah, 

 barrels for pistols and matchlocks, are prepared: all kinds of old iron, 

 old moat buckets, agricultural instruments, &c. are collected and form- 

 ed into rods of the thickness of a man's finger, these are then twist- 



