Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c23.s1.1

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.