Chapter 119 Inspection of the Cement Factory
One autumn rain and another cold. After several rains, the snowflakes that appeared in a hurry fell to the earth together with the cold ice rain.
The carriage was driving on the muddy road, much slower than usual.
After arranging the production of gas masks, Frederick went to Langnar City to inspect the construction of the cement plant the next day.
He never took charge of the cement factory from the beginning. He just wrote out the process flow and various equipment schematics, and threw it together with a start-up capital to a group of students to work on themselves, and then he was busy with other things.
Facts have proved that, under the example of their classmates who made a lot of money, the students of this era are very capable. Not only did they initially build a cement factory, they also formulated a set of rules for managers to receive dividends based on their positions.
The carriage trudged forward in the mud. Frederick looked out the window and thought that it would not be like this if it were a concrete road, but he quickly gave up this idea.
At present, animal-powered transportation is still the main method. Horses walking on hard ground will hurt their hooves. The hardening of the road surface will have to wait until various vehicles are developed in the future.
Today, Frederick arranged for Vanessa to go to Weissenburg University to attend regular work meetings in the morning, and to the canal construction site in the afternoon to inspect the payment of wages. With a secretary, many less urgent tasks can be arranged.
At the same time, Frederick decided in his heart that he would expand the secretariat next year and find more secretaries, which would make it easier for him.
Apart from Frederick, there was only Alfred in the carriage today, and he wanted to discuss something with the housekeeper.
Frederick said in a deep voice: "The intelligence work in our territory is not strong enough, I want you to be in charge."
Afu seemed to be interested in the job that suddenly appeared He was not surprised and just replied: "Follow your will."
Frederick nodded and said: "I don't need you to send people to steal any important secrets. I just want to select some reliable people. Go around and open steam bakeries and ramen shops. "
"Opening such a shop requires frequent purchases of food from the market. As long as you can collect long-term prices, it is a great achievement."
"It would be best if we could go further and collect some local public information."
Afu replied: "I understand."
Frederick agreed when he saw him I breathed a sigh of relief. I had been thinking about the intelligence department for a long time, but there was no reliable manpower. Previously, I could only ask Franz to find some mercenaries to help find out the news.
In the end, he could only focus on the housekeeper. Among other things, the most important thing was that Ah Fu was loyal enough.
He has been thinking about using steam bakery as an entry point for a long time.
In small territories, bakeries are the property of the lord, but in large and medium-sized towns with active industry and commerce, it is different. You only need to pay money to join the bakers guild and abide by the local "Bread Law".
Such a town is the local economic center and is well-informed. You can get a lot of useful information by chatting with your neighbors.
In intelligence work, analyzing intelligence is the most important thing. Frederick still remembered an old movie he watched in his previous life. A fellow villager said that a team was sleeping in the village with door panels removed. The leader immediately analyzed that it was The enemy team has been surrounded.
But Frederick said with some helplessness: "Oh, but intelligence information must be analyzed to be useful. We don't have such talents here."
Analyzing intelligence requires accumulation of knowledge, logical thinking and acumen Intuition, such talents cannot be found casually.
At this time Afu said: "If you can trust me, I can ask some of my old friends to come over."
Frederick replied without hesitation: "I can rest assured that you can do things."
< br>Ah Fu didn't show any joy, he just thanked the master for his trust calmly as usual.
Actually, Frederick knew very little about Afu's past. He only heard Diesel say that they worked together as a monster hunter and herbal gatherer for several years when they were young, and then they went their separate ways.
He only knew that his father and mother trusted Ah Fu very much. Before his mother left, he gave Ah Fu the power to veto any decision before he became an adult.
The carriage finally arrived at Langnar City, but instead of entering the city, it drove directly to the cement factory outside the city.
The craftsmen who originally built the smelter came here and built cement-burning shaft kilns and processing plants with ease.
The inner diameter of these shaft kilns is 1.5m and the height is 6m. The inside is made of refractory bricks, the outside is made of red bricks, and the top is a 4m high chimney. There is a feeding port at the top and two symmetrical discharge ports at the bottom. There is a high temperature resistant and strong triangular grate next to it. When discharging, the clinker rolls towards the discharge port under the guidance of the grate. The air duct at the bottom is connected to the blower. Currently, a centrifugal fan driven by a steam engine supplies air to the two kilns.
Currently there are two shaft kilns undergoing trial production here.
The limestone and clay mined nearby, the slag and coke transported from the smelter, and the imported gypsum and other raw materials are cleaned and dried and ground into powder in a ball mill. The raw materials except gypsum powder are mixed in proportion and then placed on the plate. In the pelletizing machine, the raw materials are made into small balls with a diameter of 5 mm just like glutinous rice balls. After they are slightly dry and will not stick together, they can be put into the vertical kiln.
Spread the raw meal pellets evenly into the vertical kiln from the feeding port, and a 70-80cm thick preheated drying layer will be formed on the top. At this time, there will be no sparks but steam rising; below it is a 2-4m thick layer. The burning high-temperature layer is where the pulverized coal is burned after the raw meal is dried, and various chemical reactions occur at high temperatures; the bottom is the cooling layer formed after the combustion is completed, and the air blown in by the blower takes away their heat and heats itself. .
With the bottom discharge port regularly unloading the cooled clinker and the top feeding port regularly adding materials, the thickness and position of each layer are maintained within a certain range, enabling continuous production. Frederick looked at the vertical kiln for a while, told the supervisor here to pay attention to safety, and then went to the laboratory with Afu.
After crushing and winnowing, the cement clinker is put into waterproof sacks soaked in slime glue, attached with serial number tags, and part of it is sent to the laboratory for analysis.
There are many tests to detect the characteristics of cement, such as standard viscosity, setting time, stability, etc. The most important one is the strength test.
Frederick was the most familiar with this kind of test. He could produce standard test blocks and curing boxes in minutes.
The conditions are limited. The compressive strength test relies on placing heavy objects on the test block, and the tensile strength test also relies on hanging heavy objects.
Frederick asked for data and sat in an office in the laboratory to study it carefully. Although there was no 28-day data yet, judging from the 3-day and 7-day data, the cement grade was not low.
Frederick raised his head and said to Afu, "Inform the Masons' Guild and the Carpenters' Guild to find a group of the best construction workers. After the war is over next year, I will teach them a new way of eating."
Afu just walked around in a circle, and now his head is filled with questions. He keeps wondering why this kind of "stone flour" can be added with water, then "risen" to harden, and then steamed. After many days (steam curing), it will become as hard as stone.
But I have a mission, so I’d better finish my errands first.
Then he asked: "Master, do you want to use this powder to build a house?"
"Yes." Frederick nodded, "In the future, everyone can Live in a solid house."
"When the war is over next year, we will use it to build an industrial park first, and then promote solid masonry houses in the village."
" In the future, our cathedrals and great libraries will also be built with this material!”
After he finished speaking, Afu reminded: "Master, there will be a war next year, why not use it to build a fortress first."
Frederick nodded, and immediately shook his head, the amount of work was too large , not enough time.
At the same time, he also found that he was missing one thing - a vibrator. If he didn't have this thing, he would have to find an old man to give him a pack of cigarettes and let him smooth out the honeycomb pockmarks at night.
At the same time, there is also rebar. Just the specialized production machines will take a lot of time to produce. Now the factory in Weisenling is working hard to produce weapons, and we have to wait until next year.
Don’t even think about bamboo reinforced concrete. Bamboo does not grow here.
Moreover, it takes more time to train qualified construction workers. Thinking of some of the strange things on the construction site in his previous life, his blood pressure suddenly rose.
Thinking again of scaffolding, formwork, mixers, dump trucks, cranes, construction ladders, safety nets, hard hats, labor protection gloves, safety belts... Frederick's blood pressure became even higher.
“It’s difficult!” He leaned back in his chair and sighed. The labor protection supplies alone were enough to give him a headache, let alone the construction machinery.
When I think about the 160-meter-plus spire of the future Germain Cathedral, just how to set up the scaffolding requires a special plan and an expert discussion meeting.
The road still has to be walked step by step. He feels that in the next few years, he will not have to do anything else except his old job. The founder of this world cannot escape. .
"Let's go." Frederick stood up, "Let's go back."
When returning to Weisenberg City, the road became muddy and the carriage almost got stuck in the mud.
“We can lay a railway.” Frederick squinted slightly and said to himself. Now that steam engines are available, low-standard railways are not impossible.
Afu asked: "Is it the kind of railway in the mine?"
Frederick made it clear that he didn't know. He hadn't been to the mine yet, so he didn't know what it was like.
Afu explained: "The track in the mine is made of strong wood, and a layer of iron bars is laid on it. The iron wheels will save a lot of effort when walking on it."
Frederick did not reply immediately. After looking out the car window for a long time, he said: "That's about right, but I want to use a whole piece of steel to make a track, with Oak City in the middle of the canal as the center, connecting various cities in the territory. Cargo transportation will become very fast and cheap."
The cities he was thinking of were not the ones in the current territory, but some of the cities planned to be annexed after the war next year.
Water transportation is inconvenient in some places. With railways, transportation will be convenient. It will not only speed up economic development, but also quickly mobilize the army.
But I can only think about this now, and we have to wait until the war is over next year.
Apart from anything else, the bogies of train carriages needed a long time to study. Anyway, he couldn't figure out how some trains traveling through the same train could turn without such a thing.
(End of this chapter)