India / China: The 'Balling Room' in a Patna opium factory with hundreds of opium balls prepared for use in the China trade. Lithograph, W. S. Sherwell, c. 1850

In the 'Balling Room', where the opium paste is shaped into small spheres: 'Each ball-maker is furnished with a small table, a stool, and a brass cup to shape the ball in a certain quantity of opium and water and an allowance of poppy petals, in which the opium balls are rolled.

Every man is required to make a certain number of balls, all weighing alike. An expert workman will turn out upwards of a hundred balls a day'.

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Supplier: CPA Media Co. Ltd.

Credit:

Pictures From History

Theme:

OPIUM