Iron in Ancient India c9.s3.15

c9.s3.15

The well-known traveller Dr. Buchanan who visited Southern India in 1800 also gives a similar account of steel-making.¹ " In each is put one-third part of a wedge of iron, with three rupees' weight of the stem of " tayngada " or cassia auriculata and two green leaves of the " hugivany " which is no doubt a convolvulus or an Ipomea with a large smooth leaf; but never having seen the flower, I could not in such a difficult class of plants attempt to ascertain the species. The mouth of the crucible is then covered with a round cap of unbaked clay and the junction is well luted." The crucibles are then dried and heated in a charcoal furnace fed with hand-bellows. The operation is conducted in four hours. When the crucibles are opened, the steel is found melted into a bottom with evident marks on its superior surface of a tendency to crystallization, which shows clearly that it has undergone a complete fusion. The steel is subjected to heat a second time in closed crucibles until the metal is obtained in a suitable condition.