Memo. No. 185, dated Patna, the 3rd November 1880.
From—C. L. GIRLING, EsQ., Superintendent and Engineer, Chest and Saw-Mil Department,
To—The Principal Assistant, Behar Opium Agent.

I BEG to forward the usual annual statement for 1879-80, on the working of the amalgamated steam saw-mill and chest department.

2. From the statement submitted it will be seen that the outturn plank. ing this year is more than that of last year by 54,351 superficial feet, equa] to 2,013 chests.
The outturn of the mill in 1878-79, was the sawing of logs equal tc 23,521 chests, whereas the outturn of this year, from November 1879 to Octobei 1880, is the sawing of logs equal to 25,531 provision chests, and 54,490 sets oi provision and abkari compartments.

3. No chests have been made this year owing to the heavy repairs required to the chests in stock to bring them as near as possible to the nem specification.

4. The new compartments slotting machine invented by me this year, which was mentioned in a former report, has done its work well; the slots are accurately cut, the work is done much cleaner, and the percentage from breakage is also greatly reduced. The old method of cutting the slots was for the workman to take as many pieces in his hand as could be conveniently held, the top piece being marked from a gauge as a guide to cut the slots, which was done by one circular saw, the workman having to shift the piece to be cut as many times as there were slots ; three hundred sets were as many as could be got through in a day by this method ; they were not cut well, but jagged and badly done, also a great many broken.

5. The new machine consists of a long spindle which carries five or six circular saws as the work requires. In the centre of the saws are fixed two 2i inch turned bars, which can be adjusted to cut the compart ments any depth. The compartments are brought to the saws in a cage which runs on the turned bars. All the workman has to do is to fill -this caal with compartments and keep it up to the saws until the cut is finished, which is done in three minutes ; we cut 1,000 sets per day by this machine.

6. I have a second machine under construction, which is entirely my own, for drilling the holes for the reception of dowels for joining,' the planks; it will also rabbet, plough, and square the edges of the planks. The reason I have constructed this machinery is to save hand-labour and the expense of more costly machinery which we should have been compelled to purchase for' making the chests under the new specification, as the whole of the provision chests have to be rabbeted and the abkaree chests ploughed and tongued. Formerly this was not done but simply a plain joint made ; I trust to have this machine working by 10th instant.

7. This year we have macle 330,982 clamps which have cost a follows :—

Total saving in this year's clamps of 330,982, equal to Rs. 3,054-11-0.

8. The pitch melting-house has been reconstructed this year. Instea of the old wrought-iron pots formerly used, we have used cast-iron one the same as those of the Ghazipur factory. But the setting of the pots is somewhat different. The pots, plates, and bars, are the same as those at Ghazipw:, but the setting is not the same as those at the other factory, which were set by the Public Works Department, and I am told that they consumed six maunds of wood daily, besides baskets which were not taken into account. They are now burning four maunds of coal. Our pots were set by me. At first I burnt four maunds for the first three or four days, after which I made a slight alteration in the flues, and reduced the fuel to two maunds of wood per diem, which I am now burning. By the old system of melting ten maunds of woody were burnt daily. The present system shews a considerable saving either when compared with the one at G-hazipur or the old system at Patna.