Zhong Jinwei is very satisfied with the progress of steam engine research, because according to this progress, practical steam engines will appear earlier than in history, and they will be the first to be born in China.
In fact, after thinking about it carefully, Zhong Jinwei felt that this was inevitable. Compared with those in Europe who were studying steam engines, research in China had too many advantages at this time.
Not to mention that Fang Yizhi came from a noble family. Both of his parents had practical Confucian elders. He was already proficient in physics, mathematics and other aspects of content through direct exposure. He was not as capable as an apprentice like Watt in the West.
In terms of steam engines, although Zhong Jinwei has never actually done it, he still knows some concepts. If he guides the talented young man Fang Yizhi, it will get twice the result with half the effort.
And in other aspects, it is even more unmatched by its European counterparts. In Europe, small households, one workshop and one factory, are doing research on their own; but in China, the entire Ming Empire is doing research.
Don’t worry about the funds, whatever you spend will be allocated, and of course they are provided by state-owned enterprises; whatever materials you want to use, they can be found for you right away; any precision parts you need, they will be handmade by the most skilled craftsmen; and so on, all these advantages are
This is something that our European counterparts do not have.
Even so, after Zhong Jinwei came out of the Power Research Institute, he couldn't help but praise Song Yingxing: "Yes, he is young and promising. As time goes by, the next generation of Ming's scientific and technological backbone will definitely be the generation headed by him."
Song Yingxing laughed heartily. His subordinates were praised by the Duke, and he also had face.
When he arrived at the entrance of the research institute, he asked for instructions: "My lord, which research institute will you inspect next?"
Zhong Jinwei looked at the sky and realized it was still early, so he said to Song Yingxing: "Let's go to the steel factory to have a look."
The steel plant was far away, so it couldn't be reached on foot. The group of people walked back to the research institute, picked up their mounts, and headed for the steel plant.
Like the glass factory, the steel plant is under the management of the research institute. Therefore, while Zhong Jinwei controlled the horse and moved forward, he asked Song Yingxing who was accompanying him: "You should know about the situation in the steel plant?"
Originally, I thought that Duke Xing was going to conduct an on-site inspection, so Song Yingxing did not introduce the situation immediately. Now the Duke asked on the way, and Song Yingxing immediately replied: "What does the Duke want to know?"
At this time, although it is almost early summer, the weather is still relatively cold. If the horse runs faster, the cold wind will fill its mouth.
Zhong Jinwei tilted his head to avoid the limelight, looked at Song Yingxing and said, "Just talk about the situation in the steel plant, whatever you want."
Song Yingxing thought for a moment, turned around, faced Zhong Jinwei, and began to introduce the situation of the steel plant directly.
When we arrived at the steel factory, we were greeted by the craftsmen inside. When we arrived at the lobby, the introductions were not finished yet.
In addition, Song Yingxing kept adding to Zhong Jinwei's interjections and questions, and finally basically told everything about the steel plant.
It turns out that there is a reason why the steel factory has not yet produced ideal steel.
In the late Ming Dynasty, the iron and steel smelting process of the Ming Dynasty had reached the stage of large-scale, mass production, and continuous production of raw and wrought iron.
This is to connect the iron-making furnace and the iron-frying furnace in series, allowing the liquid pig iron produced by the iron-making furnace to flow into the iron-frying furnace, and stir it with a willow stick to oxidize the carbon in the liquid pig iron and mature the iron.
Stir the pig iron liquid with a willow stick. A skilled iron fryer can more easily control the ingredients and can directly fry steel with a carbon content lower than pig iron but higher than wrought iron. There is even a chance of frying medium carbon steel and high carbon steel.
This is also what later generations called the steel copying method.
This continuous production process has begun to take shape as a systematic idea of combined production, which not only improves production efficiency but also reduces energy consumption.
In the original history, it was recorded by Song Yingxing in his own book "Tiangong Kaiwu" and thus spread to later generations.
Historically, this technology was about a hundred years ahead of Europe. However, since the beginning of the Manchu and Qing dynasties, not only has the technology not developed much in the past few hundred years, but it has regressed significantly, which is very regrettable.
The disadvantage of this technology is that the temperature is not enough, so whether it is fried steel or wrought iron, what comes out is semi-solid paste steel and iron.
Only by refining liquid steel can we mix other alloys to make alloy steel, and quickly produce steel by casting or rolling.
In this plane, due to Zhong Jinwei's reminder, the temperature was increased and met the requirements for steelmaking. However, as the temperature increased, new problems were brought about, resulting in steelmaking being unsatisfactory.
The first problem is the problem of high-temperature refractory bricks. The steel plant has spent so long. In fact, the biggest problem is that it has been experimenting with the materials of refractory bricks. It took about half a year to find suitable refractory bricks and solve the problem.
solved this problem.
The second problem is that for some reason, the quality of the steel produced is not good and is relatively brittle.
Regarding this issue, fortunately there was support from the imperial court. After comparing the north and the south, it was found that the steel produced in the south was generally better than that in the north. After a comprehensive comparison of iron-making methods, it was found that the north used coal, while the south used wood.
As a result, the steel mills in the capital also switched to using wood and found that the quality of the steel was indeed improved. However, the wood near the capital was limited and coal was abundant, so the cost of using wood alone was too high.
The craftsmen began to think about new methods again, experimented and tested, and finally found a way, which is to use coking coal to make steel, which is much better than pure coal to make steel.
Perhaps stimulated by the research commission, the craftsmen continued to work hard to innovate and figure out better methods. After a period of experiments, they discovered that when adding limestone, lime and other substances when making steel, the steel
Good quality.
But then, another problem arose, that is, the erosion and damage of the furnace wall. Since the use of auxiliary materials such as limestone, it has become very serious.
The craftsmen at the steel plant had to experiment with new refractory bricks in the furnace again. It was not until last month that they found a type of dolomite refractory brick that solved the problem.
Now a new furnace is being built to make steel, and formal production will not resume until next month.
Zhong Jinwei had never been involved in things like steelmaking, so he didn't have any special instructions.
However, compared with the ancients, Zhong Jinwei had one advantage that they did not have. Therefore, Zhong Jinwei asked the researchers at the steel plant to not only experiment, but also to understand the principles and summarize them.
Only in this way can we draw inferences from one example, achieve true mastery, and promote the forward development of steel technology.
Regarding this point, Zhong Jinwei also asked Song Yingxing to follow up and not to be careless.
After Zhong Jinwei finished inspecting the steel plant, it was dark. Zhong Jinwei did not go to the Forbidden City anymore and went home to write a summary.