On the morning of the seventeenth day of the first lunar month, the latest smelting furnace at the Wild Dog Ridge Arsenal in Xishan Manor was officially opened.
After Xu Gao took over the technical general affairs of Wild Dog Ridge Arsenal, the first thing Xu Gao did was to build a new smelting furnace.
This move was actually opposed by many people, who believed that it was unnecessary. After all, the Wild Dog Ridge Arsenal already has a Lotus Furnace and two ordinary smelting furnaces, which can fully meet the demand. Even if Xu Gao said that the Lotus Furnace built by Xu Youtang The quality of the smelted steel is impure and has various problems. But can't these problems be eliminated through transformation?
For example, the problem of furnace temperature. Since the furnace temperature is not enough, then adding a few more bellows or improving the fuel can solve the problem.
Some people even think that although the fine steel produced by Lotus Furnace is impure, it is actually good enough for use. No matter how pure the fine steel is, the effect of the bird gun produced is only the same. Although the bird gun may become hot after continuous shooting. Disadvantages include the possibility of exploding the barrel if the amount of ammunition is increased. However, in fact, due to the limitations of the reloading speed and combat needs of the manufactured bird muskets, those shortcomings are actually not significant.
Even the most skilled gunners need about ten breaths of time to recharge and reload the ammunition. The barrel of the gun will only get hot after firing more than 20 shots in a row. And wiping it with a damp cloth can quickly cool down. As for the explosion of the barrel, it has never happened. Pass.
In this case, it is really unnecessary to build a new furnace, which is very expensive, time-consuming and labor-intensive.
However, Xu Gao insisted on doing this. What he said was very unpleasant.
"How much money I spend has nothing to do with me. I am only responsible for making the best stainless steel I can. Knowing that there are flaws but not improving them is unacceptable to me. It's not that Youtang's Lotus Furnace cannot be modified. But even if it is renovated, it still cannot meet the standards I want. If you have any opinions, you can ask the Marquis. But even if the Marquis comes to stop it, if the Marquis refuses, I will pack up and go home immediately."
Everyone was helpless. Xu Gao had a great reputation and was admired by craftsmen all over the world. In the legends of many people, Xu Gao was a god-like existence in the industry. However, sometimes when you work with gods, you will find that the gods So stubborn, so stubborn that it's even annoying.
Zhang Yanling laughed loudly when he heard this. Of course he would not interfere with Xu Gao's decision just to save money and manpower. Even if it was a waste of money, Zhang Yanling would respect Xu Gao's idea. Besides, it was not a waste.
Zhang Yanling is actually dissatisfied with the blunderbuss being manufactured today. What he wants is a blunderbuss that can be fired continuously, which is the real firearm. In Zhang Yanling's heart, the blunderbuss that can be fired one shot at a time is greatly Limiting the power of the firearm. Once this technical problem is overcome and the firing speed of the gun is increased, the defects in the manufacturing materials caused by the impurity of the stainless steel will be fully exposed.
If the problem of materials is not solved, even if there is a breakthrough in manufacturing technology and process, it will be in vain. At that time, we will not have to start over? This is a precautionary measure, and Zhang Yanling will of course fully support it.
In the past few months, Xu Gao has been building this smelting furnace. However, he did not let anyone interfere. He did all the work by himself. The craftsmen all wanted to help when they had no work, but Xu Gao refused. That's right. Even if they all stood aside and watched, Xu Gao wouldn't let anyone interfere.
The only exception is Xu Youtang. When Xu Youtang comes occasionally, Xu Gao will ask Xu Youtang to help him do some things. But all he does is draw pictures, pull threads and hand things over. More often, Xu Youtang has to stand aside,
Watching my father crawling up and down covered in dust, he was so tired that he was sweating profusely.
Xu Gao also built a lotus furnace. Although the amount of work for this kind of furnace is not large, it has a complex structure and complicated structure. If this amount of work is put on one person, it is a huge project.
Everyone felt a little sorry when they saw how hard he worked. So when the lotus furnace was halfway through construction, one night when Xu Gao was sleeping, Sun Wanhou and Li Dagen and a group of people secretly helped him do it.
few.
After all, they were both craftsmen. They had been watching for many days and basically understood Xu Gao's construction techniques and processes. Therefore, Sun Wanhou and Li Dagen believed that there would be no mistakes.
However, when Xu Gao learned about this early the next morning, he was so angry that he cursed loudly. Sun Wanhou and Li Dagen were scolded bloody.
Later, Xu Gao used a sledgehammer to smash the half-built lotus stove.
In this way, more than a month of hard work came to nothing. Xu Gao started construction again. This time, no one dared to help him. Secretly, some people said that Xu Gao's dog bit Lu Dongbin. But the old blacksmith Zhang Laoji
Words reveal secrets.
"To build such a stove, someone must have a blueprint in mind. He built it because he knew all the details and knew what to do next. Every angle and process was carried out according to his vision. Others did it.
Intervene, but completely
It's a mess. The more you help, the more trouble you get. This furnace is to ensure that it can produce the refined steel he wants. Only he knows how to build it. Others must not add to the mess. This is a waste.
It took more than a month and money was wasted."
In this way, it took a full three months, and it was not until the twelfth lunar month that the lotus furnace was finally completely built. Of course, this was originally supposed to be completed in November, if it had not been for that detrimental action.
.
After the furnace was built, it was already the end of the twelfth lunar month. Xu Gao originally wanted to invite Zhang Yanling to Xishan Manor to light the furnace and test the furnace. But Zhang Yanling felt that it was almost the Chinese New Year, so there was no need to rush. Besides, the end of the year was also very busy.
, and asked Xu Youtang to tell Xu Gao that he would do it after the New Year, so that he could have a good New Year.
As a result, on the second day of the Lunar New Year, Xu Gao came to ask Zhang Yanling to light the fire again.
Of course, Zhang Yanling still couldn't get away. For a period of time after the year, although there was no official business, he was busy with private affairs. It took a lot of time just to entertain each other with the princes and princes. Zhang Yanling was a new leader, so the generals in the camp naturally
He also came to visit, so of course Zhang Yanling couldn't avoid seeing her. Although these matters of connecting feelings were not serious matters, they could not be avoided.
Xu Gao seemed a little angry, and never mentioned the matter again. It was not until the fifteenth day of the first lunar month that Zhang Yanling took Xu Youtang home for the festival, and then he heard from her that Xu Gao had tried on the seventh day of the first lunar month.
Furnace. On the twelfth day of the first lunar month, smelting of refined steel has officially begun.
Zhang Yanling arrived at Wild Dog Ridge on the evening of the 16th day of the first lunar month. That was also the first time he saw the new lotus furnace that had been built and was being smelted.
This stove looks similar to the one built by Xu Youtang. However, after Zhang Yanling carefully observed and compared it, he discovered many differences.
First of all, there are more than a dozen air inlets. They are distributed at different heights under the furnace. The air inlets are all located in high and low air boxes. They are connected to the air inlets with fine iron pipes. The air boxes are not push-pull type, but hand-cranked.
The rotating fan blades blow the air.
Zhang Yanling understands that this is one of the solutions to fully increase the air intake volume and allow the fuel to burn more fully to solve the problem of insufficient furnace temperature.
Secondly, the curve of the furnace is slightly different. The belly of the new furnace is more prominent, and the surrounding lotus petal-shaped furnace is also more rounded. According to Xu Gao, this is more conducive to the boiling combination of molten steel and clay, allowing more impurities to separate
It settled down. Xu Gao said that he had calculated it, but Zhang Yanling could only express his belief in his words.
Also, the fuel this time is different. Previously, Zhang Yanling thought that charcoal would be a good smelting fuel. Although it was expensive, he bought it from the charcoal kiln in Xishan at all costs. However, the lotus furnace burned
Carboniferous, and it is the most common kind. It is just small particles that have been completely smashed.
"With full combustion of charcoal and strong blasting, it is indeed possible to smelt good fine steel. Moreover, there are not many impurities, which is helpful to prevent contamination of molten steel. However, the heat of charcoal smelting is ultimately insufficient, which is also the key to fine steel smelting.
.The heat can root
Distinguish by the color of the flame. The fire of charcoal can be red and white, which is a blazing color. However, with charcoal particles as fuel, the flame can be blue and white, which is the real fire. Real fire is the smelting minister.
The key to fine steel." This is Xu Gao's explanation.
Zhang Yanling did not believe in evil. He had never seen blue-white flames, so he observed the flames in the furnace from the fire viewing port. Then, he really saw the blue-white flames in the furnace. This made him amazed.
Even though he is a time traveler, he obviously does not know as much as Xu Gao in this regard.
There were other minor changes, changes to the internal structure that could not be seen from the outside. Xu Gao didn’t say it, and no one knew about it. But Xu Gao mentioned more than a dozen changes in one breath, and Zhang Yanling only said oh ah.
Without saying a word, he stared blankly throughout the whole process. He is professional in the art.
Attack, this is the master's handiwork. No wonder he refuses to let anyone help. Because if he guides others to make every change one by one, it is not as accurate as if he does it himself. Once he makes a mistake, he will have to do it again.
At mid-morning, the exciting moment finally arrived. After five days of continuous smelting of the first furnace of fine steel, dozens of heating and cooling, and more than ten times of adding white clay powder to the reaction, we finally got to see the truth.
.
Not only Zhang Yanling was looking forward to this moment, but everyone from the Wild Dog Ridge Arsenal was also attracted. They had been intrigued by Xu Gao and wanted to know what kind of things were smelted.
Under Xu Gao's command, the furnace workers, who were still shirtless in the severe cold weather, opened the furnace door in an orderly manner and used thick and long iron drills to penetrate the thick shell of the slag. Then, a stream of furnace water bursting with white light and bright flames.
out and into the crucible.
The iron chain rattled, and the iron hook hooked up the lifting lug of the crucible and slid along the track. The molten iron in the crucible was boiling, and white light shot into the sky.
Xu Gao looked nervous and walked quickly beside the crucible with eyes wide open, wishing he could go up and help the furnace worker pull the iron chain.
A full pot of molten steel quickly entered the semi-open workshop, and then began to pour into the iron ingot mold. After the last ray of molten steel was poured in, Xu Gao breathed a sigh of relief.
Rather than saying that the cooling process is long, it is better to say that the waiting time is long. In fact, less than half an hour later, the molten steel in the steel ingot mold has cooled and formed. During this time, everyone was there and did not leave.
Half a step later, everyone was standing aside waiting.
"It's time." Xu Gao picked up a hammer, rolled up his sleeves and came to the mold that was still steaming with heat.
Zhang Yanling and others also followed and surrounded them.
The steel ingot in the mold was completely black, and the layer of gray-black oxides and impurities on it had already formed a thin layer of cracks. It seemed that the quality was very bad. When the previously smelted steel was cooled out of the furnace, there was a thin layer of cracks on it.
A layer of impurity shell is complete.
When everyone started to worry about something going wrong, Xu Gao swung his hammer and hit the steel ingot. The gray-black shell impurities flew up and turned into a black powdery smoke. Several master smelters were shocked.
They have never seen the cooled outer film suddenly turn into ashes and powder. This shows that the impurities are very few and extremely fragile. The precipitated impurities can only be so thin and fragile under very rare and extremely weak conditions.
After the smoke and dust rose, a piece of faintly blue fine steel appeared in front of everyone. The color was deep blue, like the deep sea and the color of the sky. The piece of fine steel almost didn't look like fine steel, but a piece of faint blue.
The beauty of jade is ordinary.
"Success!" Zhang Yanling said with great joy. He looked up, down, left, and right from different angles and saw almost no change in color. Zhang Yanling knew that this was because the smelted alloy steel was extremely pure and extremely uniform.
Xu Gao took a long breath and said in a deep voice: "It hasn't been successful yet. We still have to test its hardness and toughness. It's too early to say it will be successful. Today I will forge the parts myself and test the material."
"It will definitely work. The quality of this steel is definitely the best I have ever seen." Zhao Laoji said loudly.
Everyone thought so in their hearts, and what Xu Gao said was nothing more than modesty and caution. The moment everyone saw the steel ingot, they knew they had succeeded.
Xu Youtang pouted and said, "Dad, now the fine steel produced by my lotus furnace has become scrap metal."