At a recently held auction at Sotheby, UK, Tata Steel acquired a desk weight with the engraving – ‘First rail rolled from Tata Steel by the Tata and Iron & Steel Co Ltd, Sakchi, India – March 18th 1912,’ says a company press release. It is expected that this piece of Indian Steel history will soon arrive at Jamshedpur in India and will be kept at the company’s Centre for Excellence, the statement added.
A section of the first steel rail track rolled at Tata Steel in 1912 at the company’s Jamshedpur plant was cut up to be used as a desk weight.
The memento was presented to Robert Crewe – Milnes, 1st Marquis of Crewe (1858 – 1947) by Tata Steel in 1912.
This precious piece of history of the steel company became part of “The Duchess” Indian collection consisting of property and precious objects from the Estate of Mary, the Duchess of Roxburghe.