Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c25.15

c25.15

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...