In the evening, the eleven boys, with Kamne as their leader, came back out of breath carrying rattan baskets. The first thing they did when they came back was to look for dried fish to feed themselves.
At the same time, Rurik was already getting together with Lilia who had a bulging belly.
Since his father had arranged a marriage, Rurik naturally became Lilia's brother-in-law. According to the tradition of this region, he should directly call her sister. In this community where the concept of generation is relatively weak, Lilia always regards Rurik as her younger brother, and she can also talk to the boy who can speak ancient Slavic fluently with many thoughtful words.
Lilia did have something she needed Ryurik to give her advice on.
The two relied on the handle of the step ladder in the blacksmith's Novgorod-style wooden house, and looked sideways at the small stove in the blacksmith shed and the huge stove that had just been built with an awning under the soft light of the setting sun.
"It's such a big furnace. Look, before the fire is lit, Kawei throws ore into it. Isn't it a little too hasty?"
"I'm afraid he can't wait." Rurik shrugged.
"My dear, I still want to hear about you in the north. Also, Kawei..."
After all, they are a couple. Although Lilia is only seventeen years old now, caring about her husband has become an instinctive reaction.
"What's going on with him at Elon Orava Fort? What's the matter? I arrange for him to blacksmith every day, and there's nothing else to do except this."
"Oh! I was worried about him. I was relieved to see that he was fine. But the stove was really too big. I was really afraid that he would..."
"Get burned? Well, blacksmiths always take risks."
However, Lilia was not referring to the risk of being burned: "Rurik, I know that when the stove was being made, the kid Kamne personally drilled in the refractory ore. You know what I'm worried about, if the stove burns , once you accidentally fall in, you will..."
"ah!"
Lilia immediately looked into Rurik's eyes: "It's so dangerous! He said he had to use pliers to grab the smelted iron ore. He was risking his life, but I couldn't stop him. Rurik, maybe they What we are doing now is the best smelting method, but I still want you to do something."
"What to do? Oh, I can indeed do something." As he spoke, Rurik continued to look at the flames coming from the tall stove: "Lilika, I have been imagining a brand new stove, a kind of stove that everyone can use." A stove I’ve never seen before.”
"Then do it! I just want my child not to lose his father due to an accident."
Lilia's words made Rurik think of many things. Steelmaking is a dangerous thing in any era, and if a steelmaking worker has an accident at work, he may die violently. Steelmaking itself is accompanied by huge risks, but steel is the underlying material cornerstone that lays the foundation for the development of human science and technology. What's more, for the Ross tribe, Rurik intends to make his tribe a powerful existence with a huge amount of steel.
Rurik composed himself: "Lilia, I think your husband is touching an area he has never experienced before."
"what is that?"
"We'll just have to wait and see."
Lilica forced a smile and continued to caress her huge belly: "My hometown White Tree Manor has received your iron tools, and life will definitely become better. Now the little blacksmith in my belly is about to be born, Rurik. , you are my child’s uncle.”
uncle? It would be more appropriate to call me uncle! After all, her sister Svetlana is her father's official wife.
When Rurik thought about it, they could usually use the same word to describe their uncle, uncle, maternal uncle, foster father and even uncle.
"Oh, that's a good thing, I hope you have a boy."
"A boy, of course. I also want him to be a blacksmith. Rurik, give him a name."
Rurik was sure that Lilia was not joking, and he had to take it seriously.
Looking at Lilia's face, Rurik thought of the essence of her pure-blooded furry sister.
She was a pure Ilmen Slav in every sense of the word. Since she was a Slav, she had to have a name that suited the occasion.
"Just call him Alexander."
"Huh? What's that name?" Lilia looked confused.
"You do not understand?"
"Why do I understand?"
Looking at her blank face, Rurik realized that this word actually came from Greek, or from the Roman world, which was really unfamiliar to her, a Slav. After Rurik thought about it, he realized that the so-called large number of common names of Russians actually came from two main sources, one was a biblical character, and the other was a common name of the Eastern Romans. After all, the Eastern Slavs in history were huge fans of Eastern Rome.
Thinking that Lilia only wanted her unborn son to be a blacksmith, it was easy to choose a name.
"Since he is a blacksmith, let's call him blacksmith. Just call him Kuznetsov."
The meaning of this name is self-evident, and Lilia understood it instantly. She nodded involuntarily, continued stroking her belly and murmured: "This name is not bad, then I will give him another word."
"What vocabulary?"
"It's an honor. It's called Kuzneslav."
Hearing this, Rurik immediately understood its meaning, the so-called "glorious blacksmith".
Lilia continued to caress her belly and murmured: "Kuya (Kuzneslav's nickname), you have your own name. You will become the best blacksmith."
Can an unborn child really become the best blacksmith?
Rurik wanted to believe that the child would be a boy. He looked sideways at Kawei, who was still standing at a high place dumping the ore, and trusted Lilia's expectations more and more.
What's more, in terms of seniority, he will also be this child's uncle in the future.
A torch was thrown into the big furnace, and Kawei walked quickly down the high platform.
At this moment, Klavasen, who was already squatting at the skin blower, was fully prepared.
"Dad! Start!"
"Good!"
Klavasen was getting stronger with age. He pushed the skin bag down hard, and a strong air flow was injected into the furnace along the blow hole. Thanks to the large amount of air entering, the burning torch began to ignite the charcoal. At this point, a long smelting process began.
According to the plan of the Clavarsons, after the new furnace is completed, all northern ores will be initially smelted, which is the so-called smelting of sponge iron.
Even with a small furnace, the smelting process takes a lot of time. Nowadays, it takes more time to serve a big furnace just to bake it hot.
Compared to other craftsmen, the blacksmith is probably the most patient. Because of their enthusiasm for work, just forging sponge iron requires holding a hammer and sweating for a long time. Want quick success? No! If sponge iron with a structure full of holes is smashed into an iron ingot, the number of times it can be struck is probably fixed. Even if a waterwheel is used to forge it, the number of times it is forged has not been reduced.
One word to describe what happened next is boring.
Do you want to continue watching the show?
No, there's nothing to see anymore.
Orange flames continued to spurt out from the furnace mouth. Both Rurik and Kawei knew that such a flame color could only mean that the temperature of the furnace was too low.
Klavason has rich experience, and now he has understood through the knowledge gained from Rurik that "combustion is a process of violent chemical reactions", and the flame color is an assessment of the severity of the reaction.
Only when the color of the ejection becomes continuously bright yellow, and the burning continues for at least another afternoon in this state, Klavasen is still sure that all the ores in the furnace will be burned into sponge iron in one package.
Rurik returned with reverence for the future.
He rushed to the blacksmith shop early in the morning and was shocked to see that it was the seven or eight-year-old blacksmith apprentices holding large amounts of dry charcoal and throwing it at the furnace mouth that was spitting out orange flames. There were also some children in Kamne. Under the command, they worked together to play with the leather bag blower. Every time they pressed it, the flames became more intense.
Rurik met Kawei who had gotten up early to check the stove, and then he learned something.
In order to take care of the largest stove he has ever owned in his life, Klavasen's spirit seems to be twenty years younger and he has become a strong man full of energy. He felt that he was full of strength, so throughout the night, this old guy kept throwing charcoal into the furnace based on the principle that the furnace could not be extinguished.
"Kawei, maybe you should stop him. Klavason is old, and his excessive efforts will kill himself." Rurik said his words very directly, and Kawei shrugged and was not angry.
"I want to stop him, but smelting is his lifelong pursuit."
"What about your father?"
"He is exhausted! He drank some wine before going to bed. He is in good condition, but I will take over the next work."
"Okay." Rurik continued to look at the furnace, and couldn't help but feel regretful: "It seems that it will delay you for a while. There are obviously many swords that need to be made, and..."
"Crossbow?" Kawei smiled.
"Yes. We need new crossbows and new arrows. These require you to provide the most basic steel."
"So you are worried that I have delayed production capacity? Your worries are unnecessary." Kawei faced his giant furnace and opened his arms that were almost as thick as his thighs: "This is the largest furnace. We threw in ten The ore is twice that of the old furnace. It can smelt ten times the sponge iron in one go! As long as I succeed this time, I will throw in twenty times the ore next time. Our production capacity will be greatly increased!"
This is the truth. Rurik is indeed happy, but he still has greater regrets in his heart. He murmured to himself: "Oh, if I had known that you would build a giant furnace when you returned, wouldn't it be better if you told me earlier that we could design a blast furnace together."
For a whole day, everything about the Klavasen father and son, and even all the blacksmith apprentices, revolved around the giant fire-breathing furnace.
To avoid accidental hazards, the stove's canopy was dismantled.
In order to ensure that the stove continues to burn, during the day, the inventory of charcoal burners of the entire tribe is gathered at the Klavason house. In order to increase their enthusiasm, Kawei also spread the word that the Klavason family was willing to buy charcoal at a high price.
Everyone is profit-seeking, and Kawei also values credit.
There is no shortage of high-quality fuel for the stove, but the so-called fuel is almost all charcoal made from pine trees. It has three times the calorific value of pine branches, but the smell after burning is quite unpleasant.
The calorific value of the fuel has reached as high as 33 megajoules per kilogram. As long as the charcoal can be fully burned under high-oxygen conditions, and as long as the temperature locking ability of the furnace is qualified, the hot sponge iron will react with the charcoal, creating a process that Kawei has never seen before. What Rurik wanted most.
Rurik still didn't know how well Kawei's new huge furnace could burn chromium ore, and he couldn't even tell how high the temperature this hastily built furnace could maintain.
He continued to pay attention to the work of the blacksmith, and the never-ending flames of the huge furnace became the talk of the tribe residents and attracted a large number of leisurely people to stop and watch.
Among the onlookers were the ten visitors who had received good treatment from Narvik Port.
The Balmok native Modgen and his nine brothers also marveled at the size of the settlement of the Rus tribe, the large number of ships in the fjord, and the fact that Rurik of Rus controlled the young boys and girls of the entire tribe. .
They marveled at these things, and it was not until they stared dumbfoundedly at a fire dragon emerging from the huge furnace that they realized that their understanding of the Russians was still as pure as a piece of white cloth.
The entire tribe hopes that the Klavason family can smelt something interesting.
Ordinary life has important topics to talk about. Some people think that they throw in a lot of ore, and the result is that the blacksmith can make more swords, so that everyone does not have to queue up, and I am afraid the price of the sword will also be reduced.
There are also some people who know a little bit about smelting. They use their imagination and start to speculate that maybe a huge furnace can completely melt iron ore into water like copper ore.
Many people thought this was nonsense, but several other blacksmith families in the tribe watched the Klavason family's feat with eager eyes and had to pay attention to the legend about "direct smelting of molten iron". Youdao is a three-person team, so they have to think more about it. In addition, more realistic factors force them to pay special attention.
Just like smelting bronze, a small furnace melts the ore in a clay crucible into bronze water and casts it.
how……
If Klavasen is good enough to melt iron ore, no matter what kind of miracle it is, as long as he succeeds, the huge iron output will be enough for his family to become a supporting role in the tribal blacksmith industry.
There was a lack of entertainment and life was dull. The rumors about the blacksmith spread throughout the city in just one day and night.
Rurik couldn't help feeling that a person's words were formidable, and of course he was even more looking forward to what the Klavasen family's furnace could produce.
From the time he started lighting the fire in the evening of the first day until Klavasen felt that the time was ripe for roasting, more than forty hours passed.
It was already noon on the third day after ignition, and the plan was to turn off the ignition.
What a great moment! At least two thousand people spontaneously gathered at Klavasen's house, and hundreds of people even relied on their good eyesight to climb higher to get a closer look.
Rurik stood in the position with the best view. He and the crowd were at the forefront, witnessing Kawei carrying a special giant fire tongs, climbing the high steps with unstoppable courage.
"You want to pull the sponge iron out of the furnace with such violence? What a madman!"
Kawei was stunned to put on a crudely made leather mask, with a dripping linen strip covering his entire head. It looked like he was just going to fight against the scorching heat.
The whole work is full of danger, and it itself is also very stupid. Taking out the smelted finished product actually requires craftsmen to risk their lives to get it.
In front of everyone, Klavasen roared to attract the attention of the onlookers.
"Tribesmen! Be careful! The slag that can burn people until nothing is left is coming out!"
slag? Klavasen actually used the portmanteau "ore waste" to describe the slag.
Most of the tribesmen have no interest in iron smelting and naturally know nothing about this term, even though they live in the same huge settlement as the blacksmith.
Behind Rurik were his close associates and his many wives and concubines. Based on the principle of long experience, girls including Carlotta, Ella, and Saipolava who seemed to be very weak were all ordered by Rurik to see the blacksmith's masterpiece.
After Klavasen finished speaking something that almost no one could understand, he took one of his iron chisels, walked into the slag outlet that had been sealed in advance, and began to work hard to dig out the weak spot in the furnace.
Carlotta was a little nervous: "Rurik, what will happen next? That man is destroying the stove. Could it be that he wants to dismantle the stove? In my hometown, the blacksmith does dismantle the stove."
Rurik immediately understood what the girl Carlotta meant. Yes, Rurik and Klavasen learned from the previous exchange that the Russians used to have the only method of smelting by dismantling the furnace to get sponge iron. As for the later use of reused furnaces, In fact, there are not many years.
"I don't know what happened. All I can tell you is that he didn't destroy the stove."
Carlotta didn't speak anymore until she saw Clavarson jump up suddenly, and an amazing scene happened!
I saw a large amount of dark red stuff spurting out, and because of the pressure, the spurt was quite fast.
It's as thick as honey in summer, and like freshly made yogurt, but it's obviously full of danger.
Sister Carlotta subconsciously just grabbed Rurik's arms.
Saipolava simply hugged her brother Taravis's waist and hid behind him.
"Are you afraid?"
"A...a little bit. It feels very dangerous." Carlotta said weakly. At the same time, the entire scene was filled with alarming cries because people had seen something unprecedented.
What did everyone see? It's actually slag
If there is a very appropriate thing to describe the current slag, is there any better term than magma?
The composition of slag is almost all silicate. Is it possible that it is not magma? !
