Question

18) Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow: 1+2 3M
According to a report of the Geological Survey of India:
Iron smelting was at one time a widespread industry in India and there is hardly a
district away from the great alluvial tracts of the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra, in
which slag heaps are not found. For the primitive iron smelter finds no difficulty in
obtaining sufficient supplies of ore from deposits that no Europeon ironmaster would
regard as worth his serious consideration.
Questions
a. What do you understand by slag heaps?
b. Why did the process of iron smelting decline by the late 19th century

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Answer 1

Answer:

a) a large pile of material that is left when rocks that contain metal are heated to get the metal out.

b) The Indian iron smelting industry decline in the nineteenth century due to the following reasons: ... Iron smelters were asked to pay high taxes to the forest authorities for every furnace they used. This reduced their income. By the late nineteenth century, iron and steel was being imported from Britain.

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