51 
of themass ; in this state it is sold to theblacksmiths, 
who perform all the subsequent operations of forging 
it into bars and making it into steel. 
“ The proeess of forging the iron into bars is per- 
formed by sinking the blooms in a small eharcoal 
furnace, and by repeated heatings and hammerings, 
to free it as much as possible from the vitrified and 
unredueed 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 oould 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 always made; the bars of 
iron just described, are cut into small pieces to enable 
them to pack close in the crueible; 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 the crueible 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 crueible is then filled up by a hand- 
ful of tempered clay, which is rammed in so close as 
to exclude 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 Gonvolvulvs 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 ; eharcoal is heaped up over them, 
and the blast kept up without intermission for 
about two hours and a half, when it is stopped, and 
the proeess is considered complete ; the furnace con- 
tains from 20 to 24 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 solidify is taken out in 
a cake, having the form of the bottom of the cru 
eible ; each cake is the produce of one crueible, and 
the steel is never procured from a larger quantity. 
When the fusion has been perfect, the top of the 
cake is covered with strise, radiating from the centre, 
but without any holes or rough projections on it; 
when the fusion has been less perfect, the surface of 
the cake has a honey-comed appearance, caused 
probably by particles of scorise and un-reduced oxide 
in the bar iron, and often contains projected lumps 
of iron still in the malleable state. 
“ The crucibles are formed of a red loam, which is 
very refractory, mixed with a large quantity of 
charred husk of rice; they are made by taking a 
lump of the tempered clay in one hand, and giving 
it a rotatory motion, while it is hollowed out by the 
fingers of the other hand : each crueible serves only 
for one Operation. 
“ The natives prepare the cakes of steel for being 
drawn into bars by annealing them for several hours 
in a eharcoal fire, actuated by bellows, the current 
of air from which is made to play upon the cakes 
while turned over before it at a heat just short of 
that sufficient to melt them. It appears from this, 
that in order to insure the fusion of the contents of 
the crueible, it is found necessary to employ a larger 
dose of carbon than is required to form the hardest 
steel, and that this excess is afterwards got rid of by 
annealing the cakes before a current of air at a high 
heat, the oxygen of the air combining with and 
carrying off the excess of carbon in the gaseous form; 
without this Operation none of the cakes would stand 
drawing into bars without breaking. 
“ The only fuel employed by the natives of India 
throughout the different stages of iron and steel 
making is wood eharcoal. The magnetic oxide of 
iron, when separated from the quartz with which it 
is naturally combined in the ore from which the wootz 
steel is made, consists of 72 per cent. of iron and 28 
of oxygen. The native method of smelting the ore 
is so exceedingly imperfect that the produce from 
their furnaces in bar-iron does not average^more than 
15 per cent. 
“ I do not believe that the Indian proeess exercises ' 
any influence upon the quality of the steel; its only 
advantage appears that it enables the Hindoo to 
accomplish any object with the very imperfect means 
of applying heat within his reach, which it would be 
altogether hopeless for him to attempt were he to 
imitate the steps of the European proeess. 
“ It seems probable that the selection of particular 
kinds of vegetable matter to afford carbon to the 
iron, may not be altogether a matter of fancy. The 
Indian steel-maker of course knows nothing of the 
theory of his operations ; he is satisfied with know- 
that he can convert iron into steel by fusing it with 
what he calls " medicine,” and this medicine expe- 
rience has taught him must be dried wood and green 
leaves; and as different woods and leaves very 
probably contain carburetted-hydrogen in very dif 
ferent proportions, experience may have taught the 
Hindoo that he can make iron pass into the state of 
steel more quickly and with a smaller bulk of par 
ticular kinds of vegetable matter than with others. 
The Cassia auriculata is the only wood I have ever 
seen used for the purpose; it contains a large quan 
tity of the extract called catechu; the leaf of the 
usclepias contains an acrid milky juice; the leaf of 
the convolvulus is in no respect remarkable.” 
Madras Committee. 
Tiuenty-four specimens of ores and minerals; as 
follows :— 
1. Iron sand from Camachinna pullay, Chendra- 
gherry Talook, North Arcot. 
2. Gritty iron sand dug up at 2 yards depth at foot 
of hillocks in Cullacoorchy Talook, North 
Arcot. 
3. Coarse iron sand dug at 5 feet depth at foot of 
hills in Chaitput Talook, North Arcot. 
4. Coarse iron sand (uncleaned) consists of coarse 
grains and portions of quartz from Trenoma- 
lee Talook, North Arcot. 
5. Iron ore found in the village of Chillakanamathy, 
Bellary. 
6. Iron ore from Gootlecondah, Guntoor. 
7. Oxydulous iron, native loadstone, massive, rieh, 
Guntoor. 
8. Iron sand ore from Sathinathum, Guntoor. 
9. Oxydulous iron ore, magnetic with polarity, 
picked off surface of ground near Beypore 
Works, Malabar. 
D 2