The blast furnace was finally ignited. After being dormant for half a year, the No. 3 blast furnace was revived under the command of Song Yingxing.
The furnace cleaning work took two full days. Song Yingxing worked very meticulously. He got into the furnace and inspected it carefully, not missing every crack.
It wasn't until he confirmed that it was in good condition and no repairs were needed that he officially announced the start of construction.
The first batch of iron ore from Dongshan Mine has arrived.
"What a good thing. I have never seen such pure iron ore," Song Yingxing said with emotion as he grabbed a handful of iron ore and mineral powder from the basket and watched the concentrate slipping from his fingers.
Yang Fanxin said of course, this is magnetically separated ore powder, not picked by other iron factories with their eyes, how can it be wrong?
The taste of iron ore directly determines the quality of smelted iron.
In this era, dephosphorization and desulfurization are not very common. They are all traditional methods and folk remedies passed down from ancient times. No one knows the principle, but it does work.
If the taste of your iron ore is higher than others, then the quality of your iron ingots must be much higher.
"First use these iron sands to test a batch of iron ingots to make barrels for the magic gun. Once the quality of the iron is stabilized, we can start casting cannons."
"How to make a gun barrel?" Yang Fan asked.
"First, smelt the iron continuously. After a long time, the molten iron in the furnace will turn white. At this time, it is released and poured into iron ingots, which is wrought iron."
“Then, use an iron rod as a core, wrap the soft wrought iron around it, and use a hammer to beat it into an iron pipe. After forming, pull out the core rod while it’s hot, and after cooling, make the inner wall smooth and round little by little, and seal it.
At one end of the iron pipe, the gun barrel is ready."
When Yang Fan heard this, he realized that this was too troublesome. Only old craftsmen could do this work, and apprentices would certainly not be able to do it. Just pounding the iron into a round shape was not something that a novice could do.
"How many people can do this job in the factory?" Yang Fan asked.
"To tell you the truth, only five old craftsmen can do it, and only Fu Laoliu can do the job of polishing and boring." Zhao Fu said.
"How many can you make in a day?" Yang Fan asked casually, losing hope.
Everyone looked at each other in horror.
"Master, it will take at least a month to make one barrel of this gun. It's really not that fast," Fu Laoliu said bravely.
He is the first craftsman, and he is the only one who can reply.
There's nothing I can do if I'm angry. If I can't do it, I just can't do it.
Boring the inner wall is very difficult, full screen experience, because the eyes cannot see the inside, and it might be twisted, and the barrel will definitely explode when fired, so the barrel will be useless.
This is a one meter long barrel.
Yang Fan was a little annoyed. This speed was definitely not possible. It was very dangerous over there at Baihu Station and we couldn't wait for such a long time.
Do we really need to give each of them a spearhead to fight the horse bandits?
How many deaths will this cost?
"Can you cast the barrel?" Yang Fan looked at Song Yingxing.
"Until now, I have never heard of a gun barrel being cast. It probably won't work." Song Yingxing thought for a while and said.
"However, the magic guns in the past were indeed cast. Strictly speaking, this weapon is not a matchlock gun." Song Yingxing said, "But the quality is not as good as the forged barrel, and it is easy to explode the chamber. After all, the gun's firing frequency is far away.
Far more than cannons, so the requirements are higher."
"If you want to increase the strength, you will make it very thick. In this case, the gun head will be too heavy, and with the long barrel, the soldier will not be able to hold it, and it will not be flexible. It is better not to use a weapon that is inconvenient to use, otherwise it will not be used on the battlefield.
It will have a bad effect and the gain will outweigh the loss." Song Yingxing continued: "If you think about it, why such a good concept has not been popularized, there must be a reason. I have only seen the Nine-section Divine Gun in a book.
Why would the army prefer to use an extremely heavy three-eyed blunderbuss instead of a nine-section gun with nine consecutive rounds?"
"Since the cannon can be cast, why can't the barrel be cast?" Yang Fan didn't understand very much. It is said that smaller barrels are easier to make. If it can be cast, a row of molds can be used to cast dozens of them together. It will only take a few days.
thing.
"I have never cast a gun barrel. You can give it a try. Anyway, our iron material is good, so maybe the cast one will not explode." Song Yingxing said.
When the first furnace of molten iron is finished, the mold is also ready.
Yang Fan saw the casting mold for the first time.
This thing is quite simple, just ask the carpenter to make a wooden model of the gun barrel first, then drill a hole according to the caliber and fill it with sand.
Then wrap the wooden model with mud, leaving a hole.
After it dries, it's done.
Then pour molten iron into the hole.
The molten iron will burn the wood. After it cools down, smash off the soil to expose the inner barrel. Then dig out the sand in the barrel. A barrel is ready, but the inner wall still needs to be briefly bored.
.
"The furnace is on"
With a shout, hot molten iron was poured into a row of thirty molds one after another.
Immediately, heat slowly rose from the mud shell, and a large flame sprayed out from the pouring mouth. Soon the mud was burned red.
The temperature in the factory building rose rapidly.
Yang Fan insisted on observing on the front line. These sharp guns were his first batch of products. Although the technical content was low, they were of great significance to Xinghe Iron Works.
It was not until evening that the first batch of barrels finally cooled down.
The factory building was lit with the carbide lamp purchased by Yang Fan. Under the strong light, the workshop was brightly lit. However, there was always a pungent odor floating in the air.
Song Yingxing was very interested in this kind of lamp that can be ignited by adding small stones and adding water. The lamp for lighting was just given to him last night, and he studied it over and over for a long time.
"Open the molds." Following Fu Laoliu's command, two strong apprentices picked up sledgehammers and began to smash the clay molds.
Yang Fan picked up a gun barrel and observed it carefully. He found that the surface of the bamboo joint was very smooth and the workmanship was very good. It seemed that these old masters had two brushes and the mud film was very delicate and smooth.
I weighed it with my hands and found that it was not light. Hitting the head would definitely shatter the brain.
The apprentices began to dig out the sand inside the iron pipe.
The diameter is quite large at 15mm.
In fact, Yang Fan didn't know that this caliber was still relatively small.
At this time, the best matchlock gun in Europe, the Spanish Mushket matchlock gun, represented the advanced level of European matchlock guns.
The gun has a caliber of 23mm, a mass of 10-11kg, a total bullet mass of 50g, a maximum range of 250m, and an effective range of 100m. It uses a mechanical sight and can fire 2 rounds per minute.
Although the gun was very heavy and could only be fired with a fork-shaped base in most cases, the lead projectiles fired were extremely powerful and could penetrate the heavy breastplate worn by knights within 100m.
In this day and age, most thermal weapons can barely cause any damage beyond 80m.
The Spanish used this weapon to conquer the huge and backward Inca Empire.
The three-purpose magic gun that Yang Fan has now developed is actually the most primitive fire gate gun. It is not even a matchlock gun.
It is only one generation more advanced than the muskets used in the Southern Song Dynasty and Yuan Dynasty.
After filling, use a fuse and a fire pin to ignite it.
There isn't even a trigger.
"My boss, I cleaned everything and simply polished the inner wall." Fu Laoliu said.
"Then give it a try" Yang Fan said.
Everyone picked up a gun barrel, first loaded a round of gunpowder, and pounded it firmly with a mallet and cork rod. Then they wrapped the lead bullet in cowhide and put it into the barrel to pound it.
"Everyone retreat behind the brick wall," Song Yingxing directed.
The musket was fixed on a large hardwood tree pillar and pointed at a one-foot-thick wooden target fifteen meters away.
"Light the fire" Song Yingxing gave the order, and a young apprentice who was only fourteen years old used a fire stick to light the fuse, and then quickly got down.
Bang! There was a gunshot, and a burst of white smoke erupted from the muzzle.
There was no explosion, and Yang Fan felt excited.
"I hit it," Fu Laoliu excitedly ran to look at the target and hit the bull's-eye. Due to the long barrel, sufficient gunpowder combustion, long operating distance and good acceleration, the bullet penetrated the bull's-eye by more than ten centimeters.
If there was such accuracy and power in a real battlefield, there would be no problem in penetrating armor.
However, this was fired from a heavy hardwood tree stump, and human hands were definitely not that stable, and the actual combat distance could not be only fifteen meters, it had to be thirty meters away anyway.
Then there will be no such effect.
If the ammunition is loaded step by step, the front stroke will be short, and even the gunpowder will not be fully burned, and the power of the front will be greatly reduced.
"Try loading two rounds," Song Yingxing said,
The craftsman immediately began to reload the gun, this time with two rounds.
Bang! After a gunshot, the young apprentice immediately got up and lit the second fuse.
Bang! There was another gunshot.
"That's great, it didn't explode, and it didn't ignite the ammunition behind it." Yang Fan said excitedly.
Next, experiment with installing three rounds of ammunition.
Bang! Bang!
On the third shot, there was a loud noise and the barrel exploded.
The little apprentice was lying on the ground, uninjured, but pale with fear.
Song Yingxing looked gloomy, and after three shots, it exploded!
This barrel cannot be used.
There must be cracks and bubbles inside.
But now only one gun barrel has been tested, which does not explain the problem. After discussing with Yang Fan, it was decided to test all thirty gun barrels in this batch.
During dinner in the evening, Yang Fan got the experimental data.
Thirty gun barrels, all exploded.
There were five shots with seven shots, fifteen shots with five shots, and the rest were all five shots or less.
