Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c23.s5.t2: Charcoal

c23.s5.t2.1

Charcoal is universally used in India for smelting iron, as the natives have no knowledge of coal, nor could they use it with their present refineries, because they are totally inadequate to the reduction of highly carbonised metal; they are fully aware of the effect of certain kinds of wood on the quality of iron and know from experience those which are best suited for their purpose; but as they cannot always obtain the trees they prefer—they use a mixture for their smelting process, excluding only such as are notoriously pernicious; but in their refineries they use exclusively teak, mowa, or bamboo, to the last of which they give the preference; in their preparation of it, they are expert from habit and no men are able to make better charcoal; they usually allow a month for drying the wood after felling, and their method of piling it, for burning, is in conical heaps; the remainder of the process being exactly similar to the practice of Europe.