Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c23.s5.t3.8

c23.s5.t3.8

When the furnace is thus far prepared it is again suffered to dry, and in the mean-time, other appendages called by the Indian smelters *Gudaira*, *Pachar*, *Garrairi*, and *Akaira* (names which have no synonyms in the English language), are constructed; the Akaira in particular is a most extraordinary implement, (Diagram I, figs 4 and 5; and Diagram 2, fig 1+); externally viewed it is a clumsy mass of clay enveloping the wind tubes (Diagram I, fig 9) but when it is considered that the complete fusion of this mass, and the perfect completion of the smelting process must be simultaneous results, the implement becomes the most important of all the appendages; thus for instance if it is too small, or too large, its effect will immediately be perceived; in the former case the masset of crude iron will be full of impurity, and in the latter the iron will be consumed, and if it cracks during the operation of smelting, there is no remedy for such an accident—short of dismantling the furnace and commencing the work again.