Nothing but the heat generated by _any_ fuel placed in furnaces sunk under ground outside the Tea-house is used. No motive power of any kind is employed. The apparatus is very simple. It is cheap to erect and very durable in character. As the apparatus with which the Teas up to the present time have been made is a rude and imperfect one, having disadvantages which must tell more or less on the excellence of the Teas so manufactured, and as, even with these disadvantages, the Teas are pronounced by the brokers _at least_ equal to charcoal-dried Teas, it is not too much to hope that with a perfect apparatus (one of which will be erected immediately) Teas will be improved in value by this new invention. The following will be shortly the advantages of this new process, even supposing the Teas are no better:-- 1. _Economy._--This will possibly be even greater than what is set out in the extract of the local paper below; for the fact that the Tea is never placed over charcoal until the whole is ignited, and has become “live charcoal,” is not there recognized, much of the caloric thus escapes. 2. Cleanliness and absence of charcoal dust. 3. Absence of the objectionable fumes of charcoal. 4. Immunity from fire in Tea-houses. 5. Greater speed in the firing process, and the saving of all the labour employed to make charcoal. 6. Reduced temperature in Tea-houses. If all the advantages are, as I expect they will be, attained, the life of a Tea planter will be more pleasant than hitherto. The following is the opinion of the new process expressed by the _Darjeeling News_ of 1st August:-- “It has long been a question, which all planters were desirous to solve, if the fumes of charcoal were necessary to make Tea, that is to say, if any chemical action was produced on the Tea by the said fumes, and if not, whether it would not be possible to do the firing in some other and far cheaper way. “The question has, we believe, been solved by Colonel Edward Money, and if so, for the invention is quite a new one, a boon of great magnitude will have been conferred on the Tea interest of India. We congratulate this district as being the birthplace of the improvement. “The apparatus at present in use at Soom, and which we have seen working, is a rough and crude one made on the spot. This, and the more perfect plans from which larger and better ones are to be made, are readily shown by Colonel Money to anyone visiting Soom; but until the invention is patented, it is not well to describe it in print. Suffice if we say the invention is a remarkably simple one--cheap to erect--durable in its character, and the working thereof unattended with any expense whatever, beyond the cost of the fuel (which may be of any kind), and which of course will be many times less than charcoal.