Part I] Lindsay and Harlow": Lac and Shellac 61 
give a darker colour, brown or even dark purple. Molamma is a 
fine dark purple powder. 
The grain-lac is now taken to the blending room and mixed 
in the proportions necessary to produce the different grades of shellac. 
The molamma can only be used in making TN grade shellac and 
high class manufacturers discard it altogether and sell it to bangle 
makers. It cannot be used for high grade shellacs as it contains dirt 
too fine to be easily separated from the lac in the process of manufac¬ 
ture. Very great care is necessary in blending the different kinds of 
grain-lac, which are of by no means constant quality. Kusum grain- 
lac is always better than Baisakhi and Baisakhi than Katki ; but at 
the same time Kusum, Baisakhi and Katki all vary with the locality 
from which they were obtained and with the year and time of the 
year in which they were collected. Obviously, therefore, if manu¬ 
facturers are to keep their grades and marks or‘ uniform quality, 
great skill is required in the blending room. At this stage also 
most manufacturers add a little yellow sulphide of arsenic or orpiment 
( hartal) as a finely ground paste, thoroughly mixing it with the lac, 
which is then again dried This addition is made to meet trade 
requirements of colour. Grain-lac made from inferior or old stick-lac 
is known to be difficult to melt, and in this case rosin or colophony 
is also added to lower the melting point. The proportion of added 
rosin is generally 12 per cent but it is only used in TN manufac¬ 
ture. The rosin used is Canadian pure rosin; Indian rosin has been 
tried but is not satisfactory. Rosinous shellac is always sold as 
such and in view of trade requirements it can hardly be looked on 
as an adulterant. 
The blended lac is now taken to the firing room and poured dry 
into cloth bags (thaili) sausage-shaped and about 30 ft. long by 2 
inches in diameter. These bags are generally of cotton and, for the 
higher grade shellacs, closely woven ; or even two bags, one inside 
the other, are used to ensure closer filtration. The chief operator 
in the firing room is the roaster or Karigar, a skilled and highly 
paid workman. He is assisted by the shellac stretcher or Bhilwaya, 
also skilled, and the bag twister or Phirwava, an unskilled worker. 
The fire-place or bhatta is of Dutch oven shape about 3 ft. long, ft. 
high and 1 ft. in depth and contains a charcoal fire. Immediately in 
front of the bhatta is a smooth flat stone or dongi at one end of 
[61] 
