History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c13.s2.t4.84

v1.c13.s2.t4.84

During the year 1990 the author had a chance to witness the construction and operation of the ancient reduction furnace at Bishunpur where ‘Vikās Bhārtī’ was trying to get this process revived as a rural technology. The two old men of ‘Birjia’ tribe who had seen the operation of iron smelting furnace in their younger days were persuaded to make a furnace and try to revive the technology. The remains of a number of furnaces has been found at Bishunpur, and these furnaces are supposed to be working 50 to 100 years before. *Fig.29* shows the line diagram of the furnace constructed at the ‘Vikās Bhārtī Centre’ with the twin bellows (*Bhāthi*) in position. The furnace has 500 mm internal diameter at the bottom and 150 mm at the top and its height is 800 mm. Its 150 mm thick wall was made from a locally available clay and it was allowed to dry for few days. The shrinkage occurring during drying was patched-up by pressing the clay and applying a fresh coating.