Iron in Ancient India c8.s1.20

c8.s1.20

Dr. Percy in his "Metallurgy" gives an elaborate description of the furnaces used and processes employed from the reports of the Geological Survey of India, from which we can learn how iron was manufactured in the middle of the nineteenth century as Percy's work was published in 1864. He writes: "The ores employed are magnetic oxide and rich red and brown hæmatites. Captain Campbell states he has seen specular iron ore used by the Konds of Goomsoor. The process of smelting varies somewhat in different districts; and this variation is due partly to local custom and partly to the fact that the art has most advanced where the population is most dense and civilized. The furnaces may be divided into three typical kinds. The first kind is employed on the west coast of India, in the Western Ghats and usually through the Deccan and Carnatic and is the rudest form of furnace in use in the less civilized districts and among the Hill tribes. The *second* and *third* are employed in Central India and the North-Western Provinces and resemble the simplest forms of the Catalan forge and the German Stückofen respectively: they are greatly in advance of the first and are capable of producing wrought-iron in considerable quantity as well as natural steel." (For details and diagrams consult the book).¹