Especially in this era where men are superior to women and women are equal to property, it is shocking! If Fang Jun handed over the wharf and various workshops to her before, it was enough to make her heart feel as sweet as honey, but now, Wu Meiniang feels that she has been eating honey for the rest of her life.
It was left in the hands of this man.
If you don't love her to the extreme, how can you trust her so much?
Wu Meiniang could not think of any other way except to stay by Fang Jun's side. She now understood that this seemingly rude man had a charm that made women willingly fall in love with him.
She is like this, and the same is true for Princess Gaoyang who said "I won't marry anyone else even if you die" on the bank of Jingshui River...
Fang Jun did not understand the emotions of the women around him. For him, the most important thing is given to his woman. Is there a problem?
He believed that he could restrain Wu Meiniang and believed in Wu Meiniang's ability. This was enough...
"Erlang, everything is ready. Can you light a fire to make iron?"
Wang Xiaoer's face was ashen, but he was in his fifties but his legs were flying. He ran to Fang Jun and Wu Meiniang and asked excitedly.
I have tested various equipment a few days ago, and there is no problem. The blast furnace has made a furnace of iron. Although the quality is not good, there are no cracks or cracks on the top, bottom, inside and outside of the furnace body. The pulley block, flywheel, and waterwheel shaft,
The pulley, piston bellows and other moving parts are all running well. Now that they are fully oiled, they run without any obstructions and are guaranteed to be foolproof.
Today is the first full process trial!
Fang Jun smiled and nodded to Wu Meiniang.
Wu Meiniang was only surprised: "Mr. Lang is from the slave family..."
Wang Xiaoer's expression changed slightly, but then returned to normal. Although women in the iron-making industry are not allowed to work, there is no requirement for whether the person in charge is a man or a woman. Besides, who is willing to let such a delicate and beautiful woman do it?
Those green-white hands turn on the hot iron furnace?
Moreover, Wu Meiniang is highly regarded in the farm. Since Erlang does not take care of things very much, Wu Meiniang, the actual head of the family, has already been unanimously recognized through her skillful tactics and excellent scheduling ability.
Wang Xiaoer then said with a smile: "Mrs. Wu, give the order!"
Wu Meiniang clenched her pink fists tightly, breathing a little quickly. She glanced at Fang Jun, met his encouraging eyes, bit her lips, and shouted: "Light the fire!"
All the craftsmen shook their necks and shouted in agreement: "Light the fire!"
Wang Xiaoer picked up the rosin torch and threw it into the blast furnace from the tap hole at the bottom.
The trap door of the taphole is made of pig iron, with a thick layer of refractory mud applied on the inside. When the green smoke from the furnace rolls out from the taphole, one of Wang Xiaoer's apprentices lies outside the taphole, squinting and looking at it.
He looked inside and shouted loudly: "Master, it's burning brightly!"
After saying that, he closed the trap door smoothly.
Wang Xiaoer waved his hand: "Blow the wind!"
Another apprentice immediately pulled the trigger, and the waterwheel slowly rotated under the impact of the water flow. The water in the diversion channel impacted the water retaining piece, transferring the kinetic energy flowing down from the height to the waterwheel, and then the eccentric wheel rotated the waterwheel.
The rotational motion turns into the reciprocating motion of the bellows piston. Along with the whirring and rattling wooden tools, fresh air is blown into the blast furnace from the air duct.
At first, the waterwheel rotates slowly, the wind pressure of the blower is small, and the oxygen supply in the furnace is insufficient. Thick black smoke emerges from the top of the furnace. As the waterwheel rotates faster and faster, the oxygen supply in the furnace is sufficient, and the smoke emitted becomes smaller.
From black to green, from green to white, the color becomes lighter and lighter. Finally, a large flame bursts out from the smoke outlet on the top of the stove and goes straight up!
In addition to charcoal, the furnace is also filled with some iron ore that has been washed and calcined in an earth kiln, and limestone is used as a slagging agent. Now that the fire is strong, you can continue to add materials.
This is not Fang Jun’s golden finger, but the experience of the old blacksmiths. They have been making iron like this for generations, but due to technical limitations, the furnace temperature has never reached the height of melting molten iron...
Another person operates another waterwheel, causing the winch linked to the waterwheel to rotate. Through a set of pulleys, the rope dragging the loading dump truck slowly tightens, and the dump truck climbs up the blast furnace along the inclined slide rail.
When the person at the top and bottom pulled the control cable, the baffle of the dump truck opened, and the ore in the truck was poured into the blast furnace.
The dump truck slowly moved back, the workers shoveled the charcoal in, and it climbed onto the top of the stove again...
The coal in the preheating pool has already been ignited, and the air entering the furnace has been preheated and blown into the furnace to intensify the combustion reaction.
The charcoal and iron ore rolled and burned in the furnace, and the flame smoke released rushed out of the furnace roof and flew into the sky, making the craftsmen in front of the furnace blush!
Everyone stayed by the furnace, watching this strange sight that they had never seen before. The previous iron-making furnace was just blowing black smoke. Where could there be such a hot flame? All craftsmen understood that such a hot furnace temperature
, that is unprecedented, I am afraid that a good furnace of iron can really be smelted!
No matter how high the furnace temperature was, it would take some time for the iron ore to melt, but no one left. Even Fang Jun and Wu Meiniang had lunch in a nearby work shed.
After the meal, the two of them were drinking tea. Wu Meiniang was nervously looking towards the iron-making furnace when she saw Wang Xiaoer crawling in. An old man who even his grandson could go to herd cattle, his nose was wet with tears.
His face was full of excitement, and he cried with excitement: "Erlang, I am amazing! I am amazing! Go and see, it has been turned into molten iron!"
Before Fang Jun made any move, Wu Meiniang suddenly stood up and shouted in surprise: "Really?!"
Wang Xiaoer wiped his face and nodded like a chicken eating rice: "It's absolutely true!"
Wu Meiniang stood up and left. As soon as she took the step, she thought of Fang Jun. When she turned around, she saw Fang Jun's teasing eyes and his white-toothed smile...
Knowing that she acted too impatient, Wu Meiniang blushed, feeling shy, and said in a calm voice: "Um... Mr. Sir, let's go and see it together?"
Fang Jun laughed loudly: "Calm down! What, are you more concerned about your own things?"
Wu Meiniang said shyly: "What's not your own? What's yours is mine? Let's go quickly, I'm so anxious..." She pinched Fang Jun and pushed him out.
Wang Xiaoer was even more anxious than she was. He almost fell down when buying the threshold. Fang Jun smiled and said, "Old Wang, is that the case?"
As for that?
Absolutely!
In the past, Wang Xiaoer followed his master to make iron. The iron-making furnace was much smaller than the one Erlang tinkered with, and the amount of iron produced at one time was less. However, the effort and charcoal expended were several times more. There was no way he could use the iron for a whole day or a night.
Ore melts, but even if it melts, most of the time it is still molten!
Now, it's only been half a day, and the iron ore hasn't even burned red before, but water has been smelted here?!
He still doesn’t know that the biggest contributor here is the preheated air!
Air at 20 degrees Celsius at normal temperature is blown into a blast furnace that is over a thousand degrees Celsius, which is like pouring ice water on a fire. The charcoal in the furnace must not only heat the iron ore, but also heat the air, which has just been heated.
It ran away from the stove top again, and the air duct blew in new cold air...
It would be weird if the temperature could rise!
The air preheating is different. The charcoal is reacting with the iron ore. The hot air here is hundreds of degrees and I feed him tiger penis and turtle soup. How can I not be in full swing?
From the observation port on the side of the blast furnace, you can see that the molten iron is gathered at the bottom of the furnace, showing a charming orange-red color. It’s time to start tapping the furnace!
Wang Xiaoer's eldest apprentice put on several layers of thick kudzu clothes for protection. He held long-handled iron pliers and opened the trap door of the taphole at the bottom of the blast furnace. Orange-red molten iron flowed out happily...
This molten iron is mixed with slag. The iron is heavy but the slag is light. Most of the slag floats on the surface. The larger ones are blocked by a baffle made of pig iron on the trench. The craftsmen use long iron sticks to scoop up the slag.
aside.
At this time, the trench used for casting was wide open, and the mold had already been set up on the ground. The molten iron from which large pieces of slag had been removed flowed into the mold from the trench and was cast into pig iron ingots.
After a while, two hundred pig iron ingots were cast.
Wang Xiaoer was completely stunned. It was said that the largest iron-making furnace in Changsun's family, which was the biggest at that time, produced thousands of kilograms of iron in one furnace, but the amount of iron lying on the ground here was nearly ten thousand kilograms!
He pinched his thigh fiercely and said in a trembling voice: "Erlang, am I right? Ten thousand kilograms of pig iron, the largest furnace in the world, will take ten and a half days to refine. This is less than half a day..."
Wu Meiniang felt that the corners of her eyes were beating uncontrollably, and she didn't know whether it was because she was roasted by the hot iron ingot or because she was mentally excited...
If there were three or five more blast furnaces, wouldn't it surpass Changsun's iron works?