The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-08-14

| steel and iron industry for Hindustan. I
first heard of them through thte vice.
roy's minister of commerce and indus
try at Calcutta, and l have learned
more from D.. J. Tata, the son of J..
N Tota, here at Bombay. I met Mr.
Tata In his office and we talked for
an hour about these steel works. They
| have been started with a capital of
| sS,000,000 and are already we'll under
way. They are situated tbout i so miles
from Calcutta and not far from great
beds of iron and coal American man
ayers, metallurgists and engineers have
been employed and the enterprise is
being pushed for all it is worth. The
company has made a contract with the
government to take 10000 tons of steel
rails per annum for term of 10 years,
and the officials have also agreed to
build a railroad for them at cost of
81, 600, 900, to carry their ore to the
mills Mr.. Tata says that the company
will probably pay dividends within four
or five years. He thinks the profits
| Will be at least per cent and that the
business will steadily grow. He tells
me the plant will consist of two blast
| furnaces, six open hearth basic steer
| furnaces of 40 tons each, three lner-
shant bar mills and blooming and rail
mills 1t will produce 10000 tons of
| pig iron and $4,000 tons of finished
| steel per year.
| If these works succeed they will be the
!, beginning of an industry which may run
| high into the millions India is already
| importing something like SIS, 900 worth
of iron and steel. 1t annually takes $780,
| COO 900 worth of railway steel and rolling
stock, as well as machinery and hard
ware to the amount of $40, 100000 more
The government demands are enormous
| It's railways are longer than those OF the
United Kingdom, and 1t has 81 railway
shops, whose average force is 1000 hands
1t has arsenals and brickyards employing
| 1000 men, and it imports great quanti
ties of such materials as these works de-
mand. In addition to this, factories and
mills are now springing up over India,
and they all need machinery. There are
almost 1000 cotton mills, as well as jute
Pmills sugar mills and foundries, making
iron and brass. At present Great Britain
is monopolizing the importations. 1t
ships about all the machinery and mill
work, the most of the railway materials
and the greater part of the iron and steel.
If India can make her own goods of this
kind it will result in the employment of
millions of the natives and will increase
the wealth and prosperity of the coun-
try
Coal and Iron Deposits
| During my talk with Mr.. Tata I asked
him to tell me about the mineral re-
1--WE had to study them before planning
the steel works. My father, you know,
originated the idea. He took it up %
years ago with the hope of making this
great manufacturing nation. He had made
some study of England and believed that
its greatness came from Its iron and coal.
He wanted to see whether India had SINH
lar possibilities and hired prospectors to
go over the peninsular. He finally found
certain deposits which he thought might
pe used for pig metal. The coal, however,
was Of allow grade and it needed special
processes to fit 1t for cooking. He offered
prizes for the invention of such processes
and when they were discovered he pro-
posed to the government that 1t should
grant him concessions for starting the
industry, but he could get no satisfactory
answer. Twenty years later he again
took It up with Lord George Hamilton,
the secretary of state for India, and in
terested him. Lord Hamilton told him
that the government would be glad to aid
him in such an undertaking, and as a re-
suit he again began his investigations,
spending 100000 or SO upon them In the
last years Of his life. We have continued
his investigations.
what did you find?'' I asked.
Much that no one imagined existed"
was the reply. ne geoiogicai survey
had mentioned several iron deposits. We
reprospected them and finally thought
we had some large enough for our pur-
pose We sent to the United States for
experts, and among others secured
Charles Page Perrin to tell us whether 1t
would pay to work the mines The first
deposits we examined were not far from
Nagpur, and upon our arrival at that
place we went into the Mineral Museum.
As we looked at 1t Mr.. Wood. one of our
American mining engineers, observed
some fine ore labeled with the location Of
the deposit. We looked 1t up In the geo.
logical survey and found the ore was de-
scribed In three lines of Print.