Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c23.s5.t5: Smelting Furnace

c23.s5.t5.1

Diagram VII: fig 1 and 2 represent the front and back view of a small circular smelting furnace, which is very common in India—its measurement may be taken from the scale of the diagram either in parts or inches; the bellows are the same as fig 5: Diagram V, and the form of the interior or chimney is exhibited by dotted lines; fig 3 and 4 of the same diagram show another description of refinery used chiefly for decarbonising large masses for the manufacture of anvils & c. worked by two pairs of bellows—this refinery might be more extensively applied; such as for the manufacture of adletress* or other heavy work.⁶ Fig 5 is a small field blacksmith’s forge, constructed of the same kind of oval bricks, as those which are used for covering in the refinery, and luted together by clay; this apparatus may be constructed in half an hour; and is a useful field-smithy; fig 6 is a tube of clay, used in the refinery to preserve the ends of the bellows—fig 7 is a tube of the same kind used in the small circular furnaces.