GIPE-PUNE-OIIOI2 - DSpace@GIPE

RATIONALIZATION IN INDIAN BUSiNESS ENTERPRiSE 241'
-of the T ata Iron and Steel Co. It is to be observed that
.although steel is being produced here just to •• investigate
the possiblities," the only product for which the
works has been installed in 1918 is pig iron. The funda­
.mental technological feature, however, consists in the fact
that not the coke derived from coal, but charcoal" distilled
•• from wood furnishes the raw material with which
iron ore is treated in the blast furnace. The capacity is
limited for the present to . about 60-65 tons of charcoal
.and 80 tons of pig iron per day.
Small as it is, the works would have perhaps failed
to. be economically worth while had it not been furnished
with labour-saving appliances in its different stages and
sections. For instance, there is a steel ropeway, three
miles long, operated by gravity, which brings the iron ore
down' to the foot of the hill which is about 24 iniles away
from the works. Then, again, a network of tramways,
some 100 miles long, has been constructed to transport
the fuel from the forests to the works. It is important to
note that it is on account of the absence of mechanical
conveyance and transportation facilities that the utilization
of raw materIals has not yet been an accomplished fact
in various parts of India.
At the next stage two important economies are noteworthy.
First, there are the power-saws with which the
wood is split and billetted to the required sizes and loaded
into the cars. And secondly, during the distillation
procel!ls in the carbonizing apparatus', known' as retorts,
the mechanism is so contrive:J. that the non-condensable
gases that are eventually formed as chemical resultants
.can be- burnt under the oven, thuS'serving to economiie
fuel.
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