Chapter 250 Steel (Part 1)
When Fang Xuanling heard this, she sighed secretly in her heart, she was thinking about her son...
He quickly reported back: "Your Majesty, I haven't gone to my post yet."
His Majesty Li Er said angrily: "You are so young, how come your injuries haven't healed after such a long time? I remember that when I kicked him yesterday, he moved very dexterously. How come I didn't see any injuries on him?" Ru Go home and ask him to take up his post as soon as possible. Also, he must pay attention to his duties in the Water Department of the Ministry of Industry. How can he be idle all day long without thinking about taking care of my worries at such a young age?"
You, mother, have forced me into such a miserable situation, and yet you are at home enjoying yourself. How can there be any sense in this?
Before Fang Xuanling could reply, Changsun Wuji heard a bitter smile: "Idle? Your Majesty, I'm afraid you have wronged that boy. According to the second son of my family, Fang Erlang led the family's craftsmen to improve a set of iron smelting methods, which not only improved the Produce The quantity is greatly reduced while the cost is greatly reduced. The quality of this fine iron is also greatly improved. I'm afraid that it won't be long before all my little family wealth will be robbed by Fang Erlang..."
It began with the "official mountain and sea" policy proposed by Guan Zhong of Qi State in the Spring and Autumn Period to control the benefits of mountains and rivers, that is, to implement a monopoly on salt and iron. In ancient times, the main products of the mountains and seas were salt and iron, which were managed by the government as a monopoly and taxes were included in the price, so that the people could not avoid taxation but did not feel the taxation.
During the Eastern Han Dynasty, the salt and iron monopoly was abolished and a taxation system was implemented. The Three Kingdoms and Two Jin Dynasties focused on exclusive purchases, and the taxation system was revived in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. From the Sui Dynasty to the present, because the state's finances are still good, the special tax on salt has been abolished and the market tax is collected like other commodities. Only the iron smelting industry collects special taxes, but it is still not a monopoly and is allowed to be smelted and sold by private merchants.
The largest iron merchant in the Tang Dynasty was the Changsun family.
And now, Changsun Wuji is actually afraid that Fang Jun will bankrupt him?
Ma Zhou was surprised and said: "Is this really true?"
Changsun Wuji said displeased: "Can I still lie? Although the details are unknown, it is an indisputable fact that Fang Erlang developed a new method of smelting iron."
Li Daozong had always been on good terms with Fang Xuanling, and once the gloom that enveloped his heart cleared, his favorable impression of Fang Jun rose sharply, so he said to Changsun Wuji: "Even so, Duke Zhao Guo is a bit exaggerated. The iron of the Changsun family is strong Factories are spread all over the country. No matter how hard Nafang Erlang works, it is just a small fight. How can it pose a threat to the Changsun family? "
He has always been dissatisfied with Changsun Wuji, a sinister and sinister guy. He smiles when he meets him and stabs him in the back. This is the kind of person he talks about... Moreover, he was severely punished by His Majesty Li Er for embezzlement, and almost lost his title. Now he can't Bu Mao is doing nothing at home, but His Majesty Li Er's brother-in-law controls the largest iron factory in the country, making money openly and secretly.
It’s true that he is an elder brother-in-law, and I am also a cousin. Why is there such a big gap?
It's just that today he annoyed His Majesty Li Er first, so he didn't dare to be too presumptuous, so he could only make such a harmless sarcasm.
Changsun Wuji glanced at Li Daozong, curled his lips, and said nothing. He has never looked down upon such a rude person...
His Majesty Li Er also felt a little harsh on Li Daozong, but the censor made too much noise at that time, so he had no choice but to punish Li Daozong. And he also knew that behind these censors, there were inevitably those Shandong nobles or Jiangnan nobles who fanned the flames to weaken the power of the Li royal family.
Now that times have changed, it's time to give Li Daozong some compensation.
People work hard for you to make a little money, what big deal is that?
Thinking of this, His Majesty Li Er said: "Chengfan, will you be reinstated in a few days?"
Li Daozong was overjoyed. Unexpectedly, when he visited Tai Chi Palace, he would be blessed with double happiness? Get up quickly and give thanks...
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Dozens of servants and guests of the Fang family gathered at the back of the farm.
Under Fang Jun's personal auspices, a blast furnace with a wide belly, gradually narrowing neck, and a vase-like appearance was erected on the foundation of a sedimentary rock platform beside the stream in the mountains.
Fang Jun had never seen a real iron-making furnace, but his knowledge was enough for him to work backwards from the principles and build an iron-making furnace that was completely scientific.
This was the first blast furnace in the history of the Tang Dynasty. It was four feet and five feet high. The volume of the blast furnace was about 15 cubic meters - larger than any iron-making furnace in this era. However, in the 21st century, domestic furnaces with less than 200 cubic meters Blast furnaces must be forced to shut down, and the Japanese country is even using a blast furnace of 5,000 cubic meters...
Graphite is not a rare thing. There is plenty of it in the Fang family's mine, but people in this era don't understand its use. This thing is definitely the best refractory material.
In fact, if you just build a small blast furnace for iron-making, it is not a big problem to build it directly with clay or with red bricks. The key is that Fang Jun hopes to extend its service life, so he uses modern smelting materials in the blast furnace lining. High-grade refractory materials used only in steel furnaces.
The blower is a big problem.
Without a blower to provide sufficient oxygen to assist combustion, it would be difficult to achieve the furnace temperature required to make iron, let alone steel...
Modern blast furnaces all have dedicated fans with powerful horsepower, but in the Tang Dynasty, bellows were still used. The bellows of this era were more like accordions, with wooden boards on top and bottom and folded leather around them. When used, they were stepped on to blow the wind.
The leather of this kind of bellows will age after being used for a long time and must be eliminated.
The principle of the bellows is very simple, just like the "yangjing" in the countryside. Fang Jun directed Liu Laoshi and his son to make a new type of bellows, a large wooden box with a valve, powered by a water wheel, and an eccentric wheel to convert rotational motion into reciprocating motion.
The entire blast furnace was equipped with four air boxes and four air ducts, and two spare air boxes were made to prevent accidents.
The last section of the air inlet duct before entering the furnace is combined together, and there is a fire pool isolated from the air inlet duct below, which contains coal. The air is preheated to a certain extent before entering the furnace.
Don’t underestimate this step, air preheating. This is the most critical step in modern steel production to improve ironmaking efficiency. It may seem inconspicuous, but it can directly increase the furnace temperature by two to three hundred degrees! At least until the end of the Ming Dynasty, no one in the world had mastered this technology.
In addition to the huge furnace body, solid wood is also used to build an independent maintenance tower with support points on the ground
In addition, the chute, pulley and pulley block form the furnace top loading system.
The molten iron produced in the blast furnace is pig iron with high carbon content and many impurities, but it can be used to cast large iron parts, such as iron anchors. Therefore, a trench is connected outside the tap hole, which is usually closed and can be closed if necessary. Just open it, and the red-hot molten iron is poured directly into the mold to cast large iron parts.
A large iron-frying furnace was built next to the blast furnace, which is actually a reflection-type mixing furnace.
The shape of this wok-iron stove is a bit like a Kung Fu tea cup. It is a reverberatory furnace type with flame and iron isolated. It is built as a whole with refractory bricks. The bottom of the hearth is recessed in the middle, surrounded by arched furnace walls. The lower part is the combustion chamber, and the air inlet is at the bottom of the combustion chamber.
Its structure can be seen as three floors. The third and second floors are isolated from each other. There are multiple flippable iron fences between the first and second floors. When in use, the molten iron flows from the blast furnace to the third floor. The coal on the second floor is burned on the iron fence to heat the molten iron upstairs. After the coal is burned, the iron fence is turned over, and the charcoal slag falls into the slag removal room on the first floor. The iron fence is placed It is flat, and coal can be added to it from the 45-degree downward coal inlet.
It is also a hydraulic blast, but unlike the blast furnace, it also has a tall chimney built on the side.
The method of frying steel has been recorded a long time ago. The specific age of its birth is unknown. In the past, iron rods were used to stir the carbon in the pig iron to burn and remove it, so that the carbon content reached the composition requirements of wrought iron. This is wrought iron. Iron can be forged into various utensils.
You can even get steels of different qualities, but because you can't precisely control the content of each element, the quality of the steel depends on luck. If you want to get enough steel to forge swords, it's like a lottery-like probability...
But this is not difficult for Fang Jun.
He has never made steel, but he understands the principles. As long as he knows that steel is between pig iron and wrought iron, that is enough. (End of chapter)