53. The best iron for practicing Zunhua

Style: Historical Author: A book full of poems and thousands of flowersWords: 2369Update Time: 24/01/11 18:58:56
Yang Fan fell into deep thought. Song Yingxing had not completely given up on the imperial examination and still had illusions about the imperial court.

Two evils threaten each other, and Yang Fan dare not take risks.

Although it is said that you should not doubt the people you employ, but you should not use them if you doubt them.

First of all, Song Yingxing has no real relationship with him, so he is not his person.

There is no need to use him. At most, it is to help him. In order to familiarize himself with the quality of the products produced by the blast furnace, he should first practice with Yang Fan's iron trainer.

Even if it is one's own people, employing people without any doubts refers to the results, not the process.

It is the result that comes after repeated inspections and trials.

Once approved, people will be employed without any doubt.

Instead of just letting it go and using it completely.

Employing people without suspicion does not mean using people without suspicion as a means to win over people.

If you don't keep it secret, you will lose your country.

If the minister is not secretive, his body will be lost.

If a few things are not kept secret, it will cause harm.

In the battle between countries, you advance and I retreat, this technology changes the balance of power.

Far more important than Song Yingxing, I don’t know where he is.

Do not be careless.

Yang Fan decided to build a new small blast furnace in the backyard.

Enclosed with a wall.

Specially used as a military workshop.

After it was completed, Lao Liu was assigned to take charge.

From now on, all weapons will be made there.

Don't worry about your own domestic slave.

The next day, the blast furnace was debugged and a large amount of iron ore powder arrived.

Yang Fan also made various arrangements, and related raw materials also entered the warehouse specially designated for Song Yingxing.

Song Yingxing devoted himself wholeheartedly to the cause of artillery research.

Facing the occasional explosions of firecrackers from Yang Fan's workshop, he shook his head and smiled bitterly. This boss Yang was really persevering.

Casting gun barrels is a dead end.

It is not possible to be opportunistic or take shortcuts. Nothing must be built in vain. You must be down-to-earth and not afraid of trouble.

Slow work leads to fine work.

In fact, there are ways to prevent bubbles and cracks in cast objects.

As Song Yingxing said at the beginning, heat the wrought iron, wrap it on an iron rod, and beat it continuously. The air bubbles will be squeezed out and the cracks will disappear under the beating.

But this is too time-consuming. It took several days to beat and it had to be repeatedly quenched with horse urine.

Finally, a steel drill bit must be mounted on the iron rod and driven in little by little with a hammer. Because wrought iron is relatively soft, expanding the bore bit by bit also polishes and boring the inner bore. It takes a month to drill just to make a qualified gun barrel.

If you want to be more refined, there are even two-layer barrels.

Song Yingxing didn't come over to waste time, as he was just as interested in Yang Fan.

Yang Fan directly closed the workshop, with servants standing guard at the door. Fu Liu led ten master craftsmen and twenty apprentices to form a firearms team.

In the future, he will be responsible for the research and development of firearms.

Three days passed.

The three blast furnaces have fully resumed normal production.

Yang Fan's mold has arrived.

Yang Fan delivered the express delivery directly and carried it to the workshop.

Yang Fan carefully read the technical brochure given to him by Fatty Wu.

It provides a popular science introduction to the iron smelting situation in ancient China.

China's iron ore is different from Europe's in that it contains more sulfur and phosphorus, which makes iron hot and cold brittle. If it is brittle, it will be difficult to forge.

Iron ores are all iron oxides, such as ferric oxide, ferric oxide, etc. The carbon in the charcoal and the oxygen in the iron ore combine through combustion and are turned into carbon dioxide and taken away, and the iron is reduced.

This kind of iron is pig iron, which is very hard.

However, iron ore contains high sulfur content, which makes the iron brittle.

When quicklime is sprinkled during smelting, the oxygen in the calcium oxide can react with sulfur to form sulfur dioxide gas that flies away.

Calcium will combine with impurities in the iron ore to form iron slag, which floats on the surface of the ironmaking furnace and can be removed by fishing it out or flowing out.

But there is really no good way to remove phosphorus, except to remove it during mineral processing and prevent it from entering the furnace.

Yang Fan now mainly uses magnetic separation, and the effect is much better. Phosphorus is not magnetic. After repeated magnetic separation, phosphorus can be removed as much as possible.

Iron is heavier than phosphorus. Vibrating the mineral powder can make the phosphorus float on it. There is still a way to do this.

The effect can only be improved step by step.

In the past three days, Yang Fan has not been idle. While waiting for the new mold, he focused on training on new mineral processing methods.

Mobilize all those who can work. At the Dongshan Mine, women and children use dustpans to stir, and then adults use magnetic rods to repeatedly magnetically separate. Send the obtained low-phosphorus ore powder to the warehouse of Xinghe Iron Works.

At present, the iron smelting blast furnaces in Zunhua, Suzhou and Guangzhou are at the highest level in the world. Blast furnaces are all shaped like water bottles and are also called bottle furnaces. A blast furnace can produce 3,000 to 6,000 kilograms of iron a day and a night.

In the Ming Dynasty, one pound weighed 600 grams. 20% more than now.

It can produce 1.8---3.6 tons of iron in one day.

Yang Fan's three blast furnaces are all three tons, which is one of the reasons why Xu Guangqi is very satisfied.

The mold arrived, and the craftsmen and apprentices looked at it curiously.

"Sir, these are molds made of high-quality steel. How much do they cost?" Fu Laoliu carefully stroked these molds like he was stroking his wife.

A true craftsman cannot stop walking when he sees something good.

"Sir, this iron mold stuck after it cooled down after pouring. It cannot be removed."

Yang Fan took out a bag of graphite powder and said, "If you apply this powder on it, it won't stick. Then just use sandpaper to remove the powder."

"It turns out it can still be like this, my master is wise."

“What a wonderful idea”

"How much trouble has been saved by not using wooden and clay molds this time,"

"The clay mold still needs to be dried in the shade, so this time I save all the time."

Fu Laoliu pointed to a row of large tanks along the wall, filled with oil. He said in confusion, "Master, why is there so much vegetable oil here?"

"This is for quenching. The iron mold cools very quickly. The mold can be removed in a while, and then the barrel is thrown into the oil to cool. Then use iron pliers to take it out and heat it red for quenching. Repeat several times to increase the strength. "

"What! Quench it with oil, this, this, this" Fu Laoliu was stunned and speechless.

Yang Fan asked: "Why, oil can't be quenched?"

"Yes, the effect is better than water, but it is too expensive. The oil will burn and consume too much." Fu Laoliu said with pain.

The craftsmen said in their hearts that it would be great to eat so much oil.

Yang Fan smiled and said, "Don't waste it. This is the oil in the porridge you usually eat. I used it to quench the oil. In the future, there won't be much oil in the porridge."

"Ah!" All the craftsmen felt like they were in mourning, they were out of oil.

For the past ten days, I have been drinking porridge with a layer of oil floating on it every day. Everyone's face has become rosy and fat has begun to appear on my body. It was a bit unacceptable to stop being given a drink all of a sudden.

"Okay, if this experiment is successful, everyone will be rewarded, and each person will receive a hundred coins." Yang Fan gave them a shot of chicken blood.

The craftsmen of "Master Shengming" were immediately full of energy.

"Input materials, start the furnace" Yang Fan ordered.

The apprentices immediately picked up the sacks and sprinkled a layer of charcoal and a layer of dephosphorized iron ore powder into it, and then sprinkled a layer of lime powder to make slag. Just like this, three layers are combined, stacked layer by layer to the mouth of the blast furnace.

"Master, the feeding is over," Fu Laoliu reported.

"Make a fire" Yang Fan ordered

The apprentices immediately lit a fire in the blast furnace and burned it layer by layer from bottom to top.

Half an hour later, the entire blast furnace was burning red.