Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c22.9

c22.9

The ore runs in beds or layers, immediately under the first stratum of the ground (which consists as before said of gravel and sand) and is scarcely one and a half foot in thickness. These layers are of a small extent, and of all dimensions; seldom broader than two feet, and from two to four in thickness. The ore is very easily worked, as it consists of small round stones, which are in no way connected. It by no means derives its fusibility from the admixture of chunam (or lime) as does that at Letchemporam. Neither is any addition of other earths used, in order to promote that quality. Although it does not partake of the nature of any of the common iron ores in Europe, it comes nearest, to the haematites. It has for its properties, that of sticking on its fracture to the lips, when moistened; and is of so fine a grain, that it admits of being made into a very fine powder, which seems slightly to effervesce with acids. It appears to have very little of a silicious admixture, except some stones that consist entirely of a silicious aggregate cemented together with occhreacious clay, but these the smelters pick out as useless. Having no lodestone I cannot say whether the iron in it is in a state attachable by it; but might I be allowed to guess, I think it must exist in a semi-reguline state, which I find to my great satisfaction is admitted by some learned mineralogists which is an opinion that I merely offered as my own in my report on the Letchemporam works.