Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c25.39

c25.39

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.