Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c25: XVII. Aspects of Technology in Western India

Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c25

Language: English

XVII. Aspects of Technology in Western India

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(Dr Helenus Scott, M.D., to Sir Joseph Banks, President Royal Society, London (circa 1790-1801).)

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I had the pleasure of receiving a letter from you by the *Ponsborne* dated December, 1788.

I have according to your wish endeavoured to inform myself respecting the methods used by the natives of the country for cleaning cotton. Captain Dundas will bring you the only instrument they have for the purpose.

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I have for several years past been attentive to the methods used by the natives of this country for dyeing their cotton cloths and I think I have discovered the singular circumstance by which they are enabled to give that permanency to the colour which is so much admired. I am unable to give any theory of the operation of the chief substance they use and without which they can do nothing. It seems to all cases when a cloth is wetted with an infusion of it and a solution of alum, and then put into a vegetable colour to deposit something which has a strong attraction at the same time for the cloth and the colouring principle and which renders them ever afterwards inseparable. It seems to have the same effect on animal dyes, if I be not mistaken on some trials that I have had made with cochineal. The natives have many methods of altering the colour of vegetables or heightening their splendour simply by the addition of acids or of alum or of water in which...( Indecipherable in original.—Editor.) of iron had been infused or the recent excrement of some animal while it still retains much of the volatile alkali & c. But I know that to render these colours durable on the cloth (after separating a number of circumstances that only in appearance conduce to that end) they have no other method than the one I have mentioned. If this appears to you a matter of consequence as the cotton manufacturers are now in so flourishing a condition in England I shall at some future period communicate more particularly their method to you.

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It is extremely difficult to learn the arts of the Indians for the same caste, from father to son exercises the same trade and the punishment of being excluded from the caste on doing anything injurious to its interests is so dreadful that it is often impossible to find an inducement to make them communicate any thing. They in general care nothing for money if they have enough to buy their food and a little is sufficient for that purpose. As their knowledge of the arts is never communicated by writing nor printing nor their experience reduced to general laws by theory the difficulty of information is again increased.

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The theory you have sent me of a gentleman whose name you do not mention regarding the caves and statues of this country appears to me very ingenious...

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About 13 years ago on digging on the Esplanade of the Fort of Tannah in Salsette the workmen came to a stone box which contained plates of copper joined three and three by faring the same metal...

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These plates are made of good malleable copper and worked with considerable art...From all this we may conclude that at so distant a period of 700 years copper was not a scarce article among the Indians as in this instance they use it so plentifully, and that it was not a new one for it is here a pure metal and worked with skill.

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The people of this country from the pliable and human disposition of their minds increased by their climate and especially by their singular religion have always been able to assuage the fury of their conquerors and while they have remained a distinct body from those by whom they have been subdued, they have retained through all the revolutions of their government and perhaps from ages very remote a considerable degree of civilisation. I often think that their arts improved by the practice of so many years might afford matter of entertainment and instruction to the most enlightened philosopher of Europe. But seldom I believe have they been viewed by those whose knowledge and temper of mind and circumstances have enabled to make such enquiries with advantage. If I find it agreeable to you I shall now and then give you my observations on some of those objects of science.

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I do not flatter myself that I am well qualified for such an undertaking which requires an intimate knowledge of natural philosophy and chemistry and the arts depending on them. But I hope to meet with your indulgence. I might also plead in excuse of my errors that my time is entirely occupied with the fatiguing duties of my profession.

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I have sent you in the box that contains the machines for cleaning cotton a piece of the cinnabar of this country which is made in masses sometime of 100 lb weight at a single sublimation. I have very frequently tried to make cinnabar by the methods recommended in Europe but I have never been able to procure any so far, as the Indian at one operation. I should be glad to be informed if you wish to know the Indian method of making it...I find, too, that they make corrosive sublimate in this country but I never have been able to see the process.

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I shall at an after-period give you an account of the methods of preparing the lime or as it is called chunam of this country for buildings, terraces, aqueducts, works below the surface of water and for the bottoms of ships where it answers the purposes of copper.

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For works below the surface of water I think the Indians have an excellent method of preparing their chunam. In a few hours it acquires great solidity and especially the part of it that binds together the large stones which face the walls; for most trouble is taken with the chunam for that purpose. One of the chief ingredients is a kind of unrefined sugar which appears by Mr Bergman's experiments to contain more of the disengaged saccharine acid than refined. With this and some other substances the chunam is carefully mixed for a length of time and is occasionally wetted with a solution of the sugar in water. Does the great hardness that the lime so soon acquires below the surface of water depend on its attraction for the saccharine acid?...As far as I can learn no one has yet practiced a method similar to that used in this country...

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Bombay, January 19, 1792.

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I had the favour of your letter of the 17th March 1791 by the Essex, the last ship that arrived here from Europe. I was greatly flattered to find that what I had done was acceptable to you and that you give me encouragement to move into the subject which I proposed to you. The arts of India certainly afford the most interesting objects of enquiry. I have been always of that opinion and in the course of my stay in this country I have made many observations that in my opinion are worthy of being known. I hope by the *Essex*, which will sail in about six weeks hence, I may be able to begin the subject. Indeed, it is a field in which there are so many beautiful objects that one is distracted with the variety and at a loss to determine which is most worthy of his attention.

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I think at present that I shall conduct myself in this enquiry in the following order, or in one somewhat similar.

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*First* Their knowledge of medicine and surgery:

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In medicine I shall not be able to praise their science very much. It is one of those arts which is too delicate in its nature to bear war and oppression and the revolutions of governments. The effects of surgical operation are more obvious, more easily acquired and lost by no means so readily. Here I should have much to praise. They practice with great success the operation of depressing the crystalline lens when it becomes opaque and from time immemorial they have cut for the stone at the same place which they now do in Europe. These are curious facts and I believe unknown before to us.

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*Secondly* Their art of dyeing in which I have lately gotten much knowledge. Here I shall venture to recommend some substances as highly worthy of becoming articles in commerce and of being employed by our artists in Europe.

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*Thirdly* Their method of using lime in buildings & c. in which also some new substances must be recommended.

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*Fourthly* Their methods of making soap, gun powder, indigo, ink, cinnabar, vitriol and iron and copper, alum & c. & c.

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I shall at the same time send you plentiful specimens of all the agents in their arts and think myself sufficiently repaid if you think I have contributed anything to the interests of science. Should anything that I transmit to you appear to be worthy of being printed I can have no objection to it. I need not beg of you to let nothing appear which you in the least disapprove of. I am very sensible of the honour you do me in offering the Philosophical Transactions for this purpose...

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I have lately observed that the natives make immense quantities and at a very low rate a good fossile alkali by burning seaweeds. This appears to me also a valuable salt. I shall send you specimens of it. I think it would not cost here above 2-10 £ or 3 £ a ton.

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Bombay, February 7, 1792.

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I wrote you a few lines in much haste by the *Raymond* which sailed from hence about a month ago. I had not yet had leisure to do much in the subject I proposed to myself, but I hope to be able to send you my first attempt in a short time hence. I can not, however, defer any longer making you acquainted with the most useful substances that the Indians employ in their arts. You will afterwards see these uses more particularly mentioned when I describe their methods of preparing lime; of fixing colours, or of producing them.

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This astringent substance is the drupa of a tree which grows very plentifully in the neighbourhood of this island, though I have not hitherto had the good fortune to see it in flower. From a long acquaintance with it I am well persuaded that it would make a cheap and good substitute for galls in dyeing and in other arts. In fixing some colours it has hidden powers which galls do not possess as I have experienced in the dyes of this country.

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Your chemists will see at once the general nature of this substance and your artists will find how far, by such an agent, they can produce the effects to which they have been accustomed; but it is only future experience that can discover those properties by which it may differ from every other astringent substance.

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This drupa with vitriolated iron, makes a very fine black and I have frequently made writing ink with it that was good in every respect. This letter will give you a specimen of it...I have been at the expense of sending 3 tons of it at once...

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Bombay, January 8, 1794.

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You will think the paper on putting on noses on those who have lost them an extraordinary one. I hope to send you by the later ships some of the Indian cement for uniting animal parts.

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I enclose in one of the boxes a specimen of a kind of steel which is called wootz and is in high esteem among the Indians. It appears to admit of a harder temper than any thing we are acquainted with. I should be happy to have your opinion of its quality and composition. It is employed here for covering that part of gun-locks which the flint strikes, for cutting iron on a lathe, for chisels for cutting stones, for files and saws and for every purpose where excessive hardness is necessary. You must carefully observe that it can not bear any thing, beyond a very slight red heat, which makes its working very tedious to the blacksmiths. It has a still greater inconvenience. It can not be welded with iron or steel. It is only joined to them by screws and other contrivances. The blacksmiths who work in wootz generally consider it as a separate art and do not work in iron. When the heat is a little raised above a slight red heat part of the mass seems to run and the hole is lost; as if the substance consisted of metals of different degrees of fusibility...

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Bombay, January 19, 1796.

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I sent on some days ago by *Captain Villet* two boxes. One contains the god Gunnes, the other I find contains 183 lb of wootz (or butt) and 9 pieces of brass containing many figures from the Hindoo mythology. You may keep for your own trials one cwt. of the wootz and give the remainder to Dr Johnson.

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In the little packet that contains this letter I send you a few of our newspapers where you will find some little essays that may afford you amusement. They certainly are not fit for the eyes of a critic. But we ought to meet with great indulgence separated as we are from the aids of science. You will also find the seeds that in my last letter I commend so highly as an agreeable and nutritious vegetable. In this packet too you will find a piece of *Caute*, the cement for noses. I hope soon to write you more fully on some subjects that appear interesting to me.

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Bombay, August 15, 1801.

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I received your interesting letter of the 23rd December last and as far as I am able at present I shall answer the different questions that you propose.

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The natives of Malabar have made iron from time immemorial. I send you in a box about one or two cwt. of their iron after one fusion...I also send you a specimen of their ore. I can not pretend to say to what extent we might procure iron in Malabar for it has hitherto been made there only for their own purposes...I send you a sketch of a Malabar smelting furnace taken on the spot by my friend Major Walker now one of the commissioners for that province, which will give you an idea of their method. It combines together the air and blast furnace and is found to be very sufficient for their purposes...Manufacture of iron by the expenditure of fuel would do no injury there to other arts...Some of the Malabar blacksmiths work admirably in iron. I have seen for instance a pair of pistols made by them which were not inferior in beauty nor probably in any other respect to the best that are manufactured in London.

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Copper as far as I know is not manufactured in India...

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You are not unacquainted with the general use that is made of the cannabis in this country for intoxication. I am assured that its effects are less injurious and still more agreeable than opium. Those who get into a long habit of taking it can never again relinquish it. The common way of using it is to mix it with tobacco and to smoke them together. At times they bruise the leaves and drink their juice. Would it not be worth while to ascertain the effects of the cannabis as a remedy for disease, for opium with all its excellent qualities has also its disadvantages...

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I have now I think mentioned all the heads of your letter but I beg leave to draw your attention for a moment to dammer a substance in universal use through the whole eastern world and of the greatest utility. It has often appeared to me very extraordinary that this unrivalled vegetable product should never have been brought into general use in Europe for on many occasions you have no sufficient substitute for it. We have kept our eyes in this country on diamonds and pepper and pearls while we have neglected the substances that would have improved our manufactures or created new arts among us. I take notice of dammer at present as you seem particularly desirous of getting substitutes in this country for the materials which are brought from the northern nations for our navy. Dammer dissolved in oil by heat is employed for covering the bottoms of ships, or in such as are coppered, for paving the seams of those parts that are above the copper. For those purposes it answers admirably well in this country as it does not soften by the heat of the sun. It is employed for covering wooden vessels for retaining water, or for channels that conduct it, for securing ammunition chests or powder barrels from wet and for many purposes of a similar kind. Although it is sometimes used as a varnish for terraces and other works made of lime, yet it does not last long for such purposes for the lime assisted by moisture decomposes it. It would be endless to specify the uses for which dammer is daily employed in this country. In order to apply it, it must as I have said be dissolved in oil by heat and applied while still liquid and hot. On cooling it becomes hard. I send you two specimens of dammer. The whitish kind is by far the most esteemed though the other sort is employed for many purposes. There can be no doubt but that you would find *dammer* in this way an excellent substitute for pitch and tar and for many purposes much superior to them.

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Mr Philips in his rope work here has lately tarred our hemp and made it into rope that is supposed to be equal to any thing of the kind in Europe. He wants nothing but encouragement to do it on an extensive scale.

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I may observe to you that I have lately learnt that there is a glutinous vegetable substance the produce of this country which has been employed (I fancy by the natives) as we employ tar, for securing the ropes from the effects of the weather. Mr Philips has seen ropes thus prepared. He says they are excellent.