Chapter 211 Iron Ambition 5
The next day, everyone first gathered at the small dock in Huxin Town, and then took a small boat to the location of the iron factory.
In addition to the people in the castle hall yesterday, Old Ford and Hansel from the Government Affairs Council, Schroeder, Bryce and others from the army were also there.
They entered a tributary of the Vis River. As the boat moved forward, the water became more and more turbulent, and gradually they saw a small dock with internal guards stationed on it. After boarding the pier, we followed the path into a valley. The valley was full of trees and it was difficult to see what was going on inside.
After receiving the report from the sentry, Guy Burns rode out to greet them.
"Okay, Burns, without further ado, let's get straight to the point."
"Uh... yes, Lord Grayman."
Burns was slightly uneasy, He led Paul and others to the "Iron Works" that was still under construction in the valley.
Just like the previous 51st District, there are many sentries here, and the internal security troops patrol with ferocious military dogs, which is full of a sense of forest.
Although it is said to be the "first furnace of molten iron", Burns and the craftsmen have already gone through many tests, otherwise they would not dare to notify Paul to visit, in case the Earl's trip was in vain. Wouldn't it be embarrassing?
Gradually, the sound of splashing water was heard. After walking through the dense woods, a waterfall appeared in front of everyone's eyes. On the river in front of the waterfall, a building directly crossed the small river, covering a nearly 10-meter-long waterfall. River surface.
Paul asked: "That building on the river is...?"
"The water wheel room, the power of the blower is output from here."
Paul is a little bit Surprised, is it necessary to be so exaggerated? It directly covered the river surface.
There are openings in the wall of the water wheel room, and transmission chains extend from the openings and into another building by the river.
Burns introduced to Paul: "The blower regulator is installed in that house."
"Take me to the water wheel room first to have a look."
Burns He led Paul into the water wheel room, while the others were stopped outside by the guards.
The scene inside was an eye-opener for Paul.
He previously thought that the water-driven device that Burns could develop would be the common waterwheel that he usually knew. Because it was used for blowing air, the transmission device would be more complicated at most.
But I didn’t expect this device to be so “powerful”, at least visually.
I saw several large water drains placed in the center of the room. Below them was the river flowing rapidly. These water drains almost filled the indoor water surface.
Driven by the water flow, the water row rotates slowly, continuously transmitting power through the transmission chain.
“In order to facilitate maintenance, we built houses on the river to prevent these drainages from being eroded by the external environment.”
It can be seen that Burns takes great care of his creations. , the interior of the water wheel room is quite elegant, the floor is paved with stone slabs, and in order to facilitate maintenance personnel's inspection, steps, railings, and aisles across the river are also built.
But Paul’s greatest concern was its efficacy.
"Burns, how much power can these...these 'water rows' produce?"
"75 horsepower, you know the word 'horsepower', right? It's at least It can produce 75 horsepower." The two said as they walked out of the water wheel room, and the others who stayed outside immediately followed.
Burns brought them to the iron-making blast furnace. The craftsmen stood beside the blast furnace waiting for the molten iron to be smelted. When they saw Paul arriving, they all saluted.
Although it was already winter, the energy emitted by the blast furnace still caused heat waves to roll around, giving everyone who had just approached a feeling of ice and fire.
In addition to the iron-making craftsmen, there are two other people here - Herman and Marlow from the 51st District Ordnance Factory. They are responsible for the research and development of muskets and artillery respectively. The manufacturing of fixed firearms is no longer needed. They went to participate in person, and naturally their craftsmen were involved in production. The navy even assigned some craftsmen to build a second ordnance factory near Fulan Port. The two's main job now is to try various methods on firearms and cannons. improve.
As for what the two of them are doing here, it is naturally to evaluate the impact of the new iron-making method on weapons production.
Female consultant La Di knew a little bit about iron-making. She had never seen such a tall furnace before. She couldn't help but sighed: "Isn't it necessary to dismantle and rebuild such a furnace over and over again?" Is it troublesome?”
Paul said proudly: “You didn’t know this. This furnace can be reused and can be used continuously. The ore and fuel are added from the top and the molten iron is released from the bottom. , then add ore and fuel from above, and then release molten iron from below... continuously and continuously.”
"Ahem! Of course, this is only theoretical. How long it can be used is actually limited by the fire resistance of the furnace material. The current one is just a test product, but I believe that with the improvement of the refractory material ratio, Based on the summary and improvement, this blast furnace must be able to continue working for a long time. I estimate that one furnace can produce more than ten tons of iron."
"Ten dozen tons?"
Those. People who know nothing about iron-making are indifferent to this, but people who know something about this industry are frightened by the numbers in Paul's mouth. This is too exaggerated. No wonder the Lord said yesterday that he would monopolize the steel supply in the northwest bay.
Hansel even covered his mouth with his hands. He was shocked at first, and then ecstatic inside.
The novel gadgets that the lord had come up with before made everyone less suspicious of his words.
In fact, Paul was bragging a little bit just now. He had no idea how much iron a blast furnace could smelt. The specific value can only be known in future practice.
The leader responsible for managing this group of iron-making craftsmen is named Conrad, and he is also an old craftsman who has served the Graiman family before. He held a piece of iron nail and ran to Paul with a smile on his face.
"Master Graiman, take a look, this is the pig iron smelted in our previous experiment."
Paul took the iron ingot and looked at it several times.
While everyone was attracted by the blast furnace, he pulled Conrad aside and asked quietly: "Condra, did your experiment go well? Did you encounter any difficulties?"
Conrad answered honestly: "The biggest difficulty is the manufacture of refractory materials. Those disposable furnaces in the past could not use this. Later, we used hard clay as the main raw material to get a little more experience. Uh... I won't hide it. Lord Earl, in fact, we have not found the best formula and production method until now."
Paul encouraged him: "This thing can only rely on continuous accumulation of experience, don't stop here."
“Please rest assured, we will continue to improve.”
At this time, someone from the blast furnace shouted: “The molten iron is coming out!”
Paul’s His attention was immediately attracted, and he turned around and ran towards the blast furnace.
I’m really sorry to everyone, I didn’t write the two chapters that I promised, and this chapter was released early in the morning. It's just that I don't know anything about ironmaking. I looked for some information on the Internet. The more I read, the more I felt that it was a big pitfall. It was not as simple as I thought before, so I didn't dare to start writing. Sigh... If I had known this, I should have started preparing during the day.
(End of this chapter)