The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-04-03
A NATIVE IRON WORKS IN DARK


/ l.
| On nearing the village, little streaks
of smoke could be seen, and the tinkle,
| tinkle of hammers could be heard, ac-
companied by humdrum song On ap-
| preaching, every inhabitant seemed to
be a blacksmith children carrying char
coal; elder children. men and women,
blowing the bellows, accompanying and
timing the stroke with measured chant
and much apparent BANTER but, wheth-
er smelling iron or forging hoes or other
simple agricultural implements, fish
| hooks arrowheads or knives, the stock
! in trade was essentially the same.
| The bellows looked like two large,
| rude golf sticks, secured together, the
stick proper being about three inches in
diameter, and the striking end about ten
| inches in diameter by eight inches deep
A better comparison might be imagined
if two banjo heads were knocked to one
side one to the right and the other to
the left of the finger-board, and
strapped together. The blast hold, one
inch in diameter, ran up the length of
the finger board, and the open end Of
the banjo head had loose soft pigs skin
strapped around it to give lift of six
inehesNor Whereabouts, there being CEN
ter knob to hold on by; rude inlet
valve, consisting of square frame and
soft leather facing, was at the outer
rim, and a like outlet valve at the bel
lows end of the finger-board. Each
stroke gave an effective air-fow Of
about four hundred cubic inches, and
each blower made from thirty to sixty
strokes per minute
These bellows betokened probably the
improvements of some half-caste Por-
tuguese, as other bellows have no
valves, but blow into an enlarged fun
nel-shaped tuyere, drawing the air up
and down the tube alternately. These
latter are most common and very ineffl-
cient Monteiro says he never saw any
other bellows than the latter, and he
identifies them with the bellows of the
ancient Egyptians.
The fireplace was, In all cases, simple
cavity, scooped out Of the ground, and
the fuel was charred wood. The smoke
noticed in approaching the village, came
from burning wood heaps. Knives and
spear or arrow-heads were incased in
clay cases, containing charcoal and some
substance could not learn what--and
baked in the fire for number of days,
and then the fire was allowed to grad
ually die out. Unquestlonaly, there
fore, the natives must have had some
knowledge of a cementation process. or
an approach to it, for the improvement
t1,1 l,af. t,.Nr Et,,p to,,,
pering was effected by immersion in
palm oil. Whether smelling or forging,
the furnace was the same, viz, hole
scooped out of the ground, charcoal used
as fuel, and a mixture of clay added as
II f1ux for smelling. The heaviest smelt-
ings I saw in block were not more than
four or five pounds in weight; but much
heavier ones were occasionally under
taken, as the heavier anvils were appa-
rently smeltings run into moulds, and
were afterwards bedded into blocks of
hard wood, weighing about twenty-eight
pounds.
Malleable iron was derived from the
by repeated smeltings, and
finally by heating and relocating to a
spongy mass and working under the |
hammer. / did not see this process car
ried through; but it must be slow, te- |
dious one as I saw no native malleable
iron Jumps of any appreciable weight. |
| was surprised to find such resem- |
blance between the mechanism of our |
own -tongs and those used by the |
ron workers in Cazengo; butsone of the |
Roman Catholic priests Of Ambaca, |
whose acquaintance / made, assured me |
hat they were entirely of native origin |
In heavy smeltings number of bellows |
the fireplace, and led into