Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c23.s1: Iron Mines of Jabalpur
Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c23.s1
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Iron Mines of Jabalpur
c23.s1.1
In the district of Jabalpur the best mines are at Aggeriya, Gatna, Baila, Magaila, Jowli, Imliya, and Baragaon, and the ore (No.12) of the first four, is micaceous, resembling in its less oxidated condition Iron Glance; at Aggeriya, Gatna and Baila it is interstratified with sandstone, and exploited from a small hill capped with laterite;¹ but at the other places, it is in fragments, buried in ferruginous gravelly clay, about five or six feet below the surface; it melts easily; and on actual experiment, 170 sers of ore, smelted by 140 of charcoal, produced 70 sers of crude iron *en masset*, in ten hours, which is equal to 40 per cent; the ore of Magaila is less oxidated than the others; it slightly affects the needle when heated, and sometimes crystallises; its streak is cherry red, and from its hardness, it is principally smelted for steel.
c23.s1.2
The same kind of ore (No.13) still less oxidated, is in great abundance, interstratified with *quartz sandstone*, and forms mountain masses, exhibiting a variety or contortions, as in the Lori hills; in this state, it is shining, splendent, and even glittering, but it is never smelted, because there is better ore on the same spot.
c23.s1.3
The ore of *Jowli* (No.15) is the *ochrey* variety of red oxide, it is almost a pure oxide, and affords a good pigment; it soils the fingers deeply, and its stain on cloth is difficult to wash out; it melts more easily than the former, and on actual experiment 185 sers, smelted by 165 of charcoal, produced 77 sers of crude iron *en masset*, in something less than ten hours, which is nearly 42 per cent; it is associated with a compact variety, (No.16 and 17) which appears to contain *specular ore*, from the blood red colour reflected from its small crystals when fresh from the mine; it lies near the border of a range of trap hills, and is clearly a deposit, or a vein, in the fissure of a rock resembling *hornstone* (No.18) which has probably been thus changed by contact with the trap.
c23.s1.4
South of the river Nermada near the village of *Dangrai*, the micaceous variety (No.19) is found in thicker laminae, interstratified with *quartz sandstone*, which separates into rhomboids; it is extracted by breaking the rock, but its iron is bad, and as it scarcely repays the expense and labour, it is rarely smelted.
c23.s1.5
The general character of the ore of these mines appears to range in the class, which the Comte de Bournon denominates *fer oxyde au maximum*; the *micaceous* kind is at times so highly oxidated, that it is nearly pulverulent, and the *ochrey* variety is almost a pure oxide; the compact species is rare, and fibrous *hematite* (No.19) is still more scarce; in every instance it is found near the surface, and all the varieties, except that of Magaila, yield excellent malleable iron.