Large-Scale Iron and Steel Production in the Coromandel:The earliest and Longest Survived Porto Novo Iron Works (1830–1859)

Iron production was self-sufficient in 18th century India and the excess was exported. Iron smelting, usingmodern techniques, commenced with the efforts of Farquhar and Motte in Calcutta, who cooperated in establishingan iron foundry in Panchet in Bengal. But this effort of Farquhar and Motte was short lived. TheTata Iron and Steel Company Limited and Indian Iron and Steel Company Limited (IISCO) were launched in1907 and 1918 respectively. IISCO merged with the Steel Corporation of Bengal, established in 1939, andoperated under a different banner in the late 1940s–early 1950s. In the 1800s, many individual ironsmithsoperated in the Madras Presidency producing wrought iron, some of them using cone-shaped furnaces. Anassociation was formed in Madras with an objective of establishing a charcoal-fired iron works in 1830, becausethe iron ore that occurred naturally in much of the Madras Presidency was then detected. Consequently,one ex-Madras Civil Servant, Josiah Heath, ventured to establish a large-scale iron–steel works inParangipéttai (Porto Novo), 220 km south of Madras, naming it the Porto Novo Iron Works, which wentthrough turbulent phases during its performance. The remarkable aspect is that the Porto Novo Iron Workswas the singular large-scale iron and steel factory in the whole of India in the 1830s. Nothing matched with the Porto Novo Iron Works in size and production capacity, which also included state-of-the-art methods ofproduction of that time. The Porto Novo Iron Works serviced the needs of India and Britain for iron and steel for close to 30 years, although after 1849, it changed names to Indian Steel & Iron Company and East India Iron Company. In 1887, its prominent 150' (c. 50 m) tall chimney functioned as a beacon stand for theships faring along Porto Novo coast. The indiscriminate exploitation of wood for charcoal and other energyrequirements was one nasty practice the British Government encouraged to support Heath’s enterprise,which resulted in the loss of precious wood in the vast tracts of the Madras Presidency.