Current Science

Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access

Zinc, Steel and Rocketry:Western Mainstreaming of Empirical Indian Technologies


Affiliations
1 Department of Mathematics, Panjab University, Chandigarh 160 014, India
 

During the 18th century, the British, in their capacity as traders and colonialists, came across three technologies empirically developed in India over the years: zinc distillation, steel-making and rocketry. They were tested in Europe and incorporated into the industrial and scientific mainstreams without acknowledgement.
User
Notifications
Font Size

  • Jurgens, H., In Sanskrit and Orientalism (eds McGetchin, D. T. et al.), Manohar, Delhi, 2004, pp. 63–64.

  • Jensen, N. T., In Beyond Tranquebar (eds Fihl, E. and Venkatachalapathy, A. R.), Hyderabad Orient BlackSwan, 2011, pp. 325–351.

  • Hegde, K. T. M., An Introduction to Ancient Indian Metallurgy, Geological Society of India, Bangalore, 1991, p. 58.

  • Mellor, J. W., A Comprehensive Treatise on Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry, Vol. 4, Longman, Green and Co, London, 1957, p. 400.

  • Chen, H., Technikgeschichte, 2013, 80(1), 71–94.

  • Beckmann, J., A History of Inventions and Discoveries, Vol. 3, J. Bell, London, 1797, p. 75.

  • Hoover, H. C. and Hoover, L. H., Geogius Agricola’s De Re Metallica (translation), Dover, New York, 1950, p. 409.

  • Ellascombe, H. T., History of the Parish of Bitton, Part 2, William Pollard, Exeter, UK, 1883, p. 229.

  • Bergman, T., Physical and Chemical Essays (transl. Edmund Cullen), J. Murray, London, 1784, vol. 2, p. 314.

  • Cocks, E. J. and Walters, B. W., A History of the Zinc Smelting Industry in Britain, George G. Harrap & Co, London, 1968, p. 7.

  • Day, J., In The Industrial Revolution in Metals (eds Day, J. and Tylecote, R. F.), Institute of Metals, London, UK, 1998, p. 181.

  • Zhou, W., Martinón-Torres, M., Chen, J., Liu, H. and Li, Y., J. Archaeol. Sci., 2012, 39(4), 908–921.

  • Van Helden, A., The Invention of the Telescope, American Philosophical Society, 1977.

  • Scoffern, J., The Useful Metals and their Alloys, Houlston and Wright, London, 1857, p. 348.

  • Scott, H., J. Sci. Arts, 1817, 1, 195–211.

  • Pearson, G., Philos. Trans. R. Soc. London, 1795, 85, 322–346.

  • Mushet, D., Papers on Iron and Steel, John Weale, London, 1840, p. 666.

  • Srinivasan, S. and Ranganathan, S., India’s Legendary Wootz Steel: An Advanced Material of the Ancient World, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, 2004; http://materials.iisc.ernet.in/~wootz/heritage/WOOTZ.htm 19. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1824, vol. 16, p. 457.

  • Stodart, J., Asiatic J. Monthly Register, 1818, 5, 570–571.

  • Bulley, A., The Bombay Country Ships 1790–1833, Curzon Press, Richmond, 2000, p. 247.

  • Hadfield, R., Trans. R. Soc. London, Ser. A, 1933, 230, 221–292.

  • Give me the fruitful error any time, full of seeds, bursting with its own correction. You can keep your sterile truth for yourself’ – Vilfredo Pareto (1848–1923).

  • Van Nostrand’s Eclectic Engineering Magazine, 1870, vol. 3, no. 21, p. 280.

  • Schwarz, Cecil Ritter von, Uber die Eisen- und Stahlindustrie Ostindiens. Stahl und Eisen, 1901, vol. 21, pp. 209–211; 277–283; 337–341; 391–399.

  • These details on Heath are taken from Charles Dickens’ magazine Household Words, 1853, vol. 7, pp. 229–230.

  • UK National Archives IOR/F/4?1465/57537.

  • Reports by the Juries of the Industrial Exhibition, 1852, pp. 34–35, p. lxxv.

  • Allen’s Indian Mail, 1852, vol. 10, p. 292.

  • Roy, T., Indian Econ. Soc. Hist. Rev., 2009, 46(4), 579–613; Rungta, R. S., The Rise of Business Corporations in India 1851–1900, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1970, p. 276.

  • Heath’s letter, received by the Royal Asiatic Society in February 1839, was published as a paper in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1839, 5, 390–397. It was reproduced in ref. 18, p. 666.

  • Bessemer, H., Sir Henry Bessemer, F.R.S: An Autobiography, Offices of Engineering, London, 1905, p. 260.

  • Daniell, J. F., J. Sci. Arts, 1817, 3, 115–118.

  • Narasimha, R., Rockets in Mysore and Britain, 1750–1850 AD Project Document DU 8503, National Aerospace Laboratory, Bangalore, 1985, pp. 1–2. This is a detailed and definitive account.

  • Guedalla, P., The Duke, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1931, p. 87; relevant paragraphs are reproduced in Appendix 2 of this reference.

  • Kochhar, R., In Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures (ed. Selin, H.), Springer, 2016, pp. 3985–3989.


Abstract Views: 306

PDF Views: 76




  • Zinc, Steel and Rocketry:Western Mainstreaming of Empirical Indian Technologies

Abstract Views: 306  |  PDF Views: 76

Authors

Rajesh Kochhar
Department of Mathematics, Panjab University, Chandigarh 160 014, India

Abstract


During the 18th century, the British, in their capacity as traders and colonialists, came across three technologies empirically developed in India over the years: zinc distillation, steel-making and rocketry. They were tested in Europe and incorporated into the industrial and scientific mainstreams without acknowledgement.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv113%2Fi09%2F1792-1796