The "stacking room" in an opium factory

These two lithographs by W. S. Sherwill show an opium factory in Patna, India, in about 1850.

This series of prints shows the different stages in the processing of opium at the factory in Patna, the centre of the British East India Company's opium plantations in Bengal. The raw opium was formed into a ball about 3½ lb in weight and wrapped in poppy petals to protect it from damage.

The balls were then dried on shelves and boxed into chests each containing 25-40 balls before shipping to China and Europe.

The top image is the "stacking room" and the bottom image is the "drying room." One can't help but be in awe of the scale of production depicted.

Both images come from the "High Society" exhibit in the Wellcome Collection, via Uncertain Times.  click pix for full-size image.