In Zhao Hongrun's memory, if a modern machine tool was used to cast a candle-making machine, it might only require pressing a few buttons, but with Wei's smelting and casting technology alone, it would be possible to cast a machine that could make a hundred candles at the same time.
, this is a very challenging task.
Because if you want to use the new candle-making process pioneered by craftsman Ding Jun, you need to use iron to model it. Otherwise, you will easily fail to meet the requirements.
But fortunately, the craftsmen of the Smelting Bureau have long had experience in iron modeling. In fact, the molds they helped the Ministry of Household build for casting coins were iron molds. This is why the Smelting Bureau
The Chief of Staff, Wang Fu, patted his chest and promised that he would never screw up.
It has to be said that Zhao Hongrun was very curious about this. He wanted to know how the craftsmen of the Smelting Bureau planned to cast the ten candle-making instruments.
Therefore, he hoped to visit the whole process of making such equipment by the craftsmen of the Metallurgical Manufacturing Bureau.
Now that Zhao Hongrun is the direct person in charge of the Smelting Bureau, Wang Fu will naturally not refuse His Highness King Su's request. He just reminded Zhao Hongrun that the place where the equipment is cast will be very hot, quite hot.
Zhao Hongrun didn't care about this, thinking where could the heat go?
It wasn't until Wang Fu took him to a furnace outside the city that Zhao Hongrun realized that he was wrong.
The so-called earth furnace is actually very similar to the blast furnace that Zhao Hongrun plans to build. It is also a smelting place covered by a lot of thick soil. From the outside, it looks like a small earth slope.
Chimneys rise above the earth's surface.
But in fact, there is a universe within.
For example, under this small earth slope, at a height of about six to seven feet, the Wei people dug out a space that was half the size of Prince Su's palace, hollowed out the soil inside, covered the entire room with blue bricks, and used
Many wooden pillars support the entire room, like an underground palace.
Obviously, the Wei people had already considered the issue of thermal insulation.
At noon the next day, Zhao Hongrun and several clan guards, led by Wang Fu, the chief minister of the Smelting Bureau, used the entrance on the other side of the small slope and passed through a tunnel-like passage to enter the interior of the furnace.
.
Because it is deep underground, the heat preservation capacity of the entire room is very strong. Even before the stove in the center of the room is lit, the room is already very stuffy, let alone after the huge stove is lit.
"Is this built under my order?"
In the sweltering furnace, Zhao Hongrun wiped the sweat from his forehead and asked Wang Fudao.
After hearing this, Wang Fu shook his head and explained: "I borrowed it from Yu Bu." As he said that, he pointed to the twenty large baskets of gray soil in the corner and added: "This is where Yu Bu used to burn
The brick workshop occasionally produces porcelain, pottery and the like."
Zhao Hongrun nodded, looked around, and asked casually: "The furnace of our Smelting Bureau is still under construction?"
"Yes!" Wang Fu nodded when he heard this: "The people from the Construction Department said that the construction will be completed by the end of this month." At this point, he showed a bit of joy on his face, licked his lips and said, "By then,
, our Smelting Bureau can be considered to have its own furnace."
"Ha." Zhao Hongrun smiled slightly, and then warned: "We need to speed up the search for soil from various places. After the furnace of our Smelting Bureau is completed, we will first try to use the local soil near the beam to burn a batch of bricks to test the fire resistance.
The thermal insulation effect I want is fire bricks that are fire-resistant, thermally insulating and anti-cracking, not ordinary fired bricks."
"I understand." Wang Fu also wiped the sweat from his forehead.
At this time, the craftsmen of the Smelting Bureau had already lit the huge furnace in the underground furnace. The fire in the furnace wall was huge. In a short time, the temperature in the underground furnace increased rapidly, making it unbearably hot.
At the same time, some craftsmen slowly pushed a heavy and huge clay mold into the inner wall of the furnace, holding it on an iron plate.
Seeing this, Zhao Hongrun had to secretly praise the wisdom of the ancients.
You need to know how to use the current technology of the Wei State to cast iron molds. Even Zhao Hongrun couldn't get started for a while. However, the craftsmen of the Smelting Bureau had already thought of a good way: they used the clay used for baking porcelain to first make a clay mold.
Bake it into porcelain at high temperature, and then use dozens of
The molten iron from the crucible is poured into the earth mold, and the required iron mold is created in one step. After the molten iron cools and solidifies, the porcelain is simply broken into pieces to obtain the formed iron mold. The subsequent work is nothing more than to
Trim the inner wall to make it as smooth as possible.
It has to be said that this method of melting iron molds opened Zhao Hongrun's eyes, and he couldn't help but secretly praise in his heart: The wisdom of the ancients is unfathomable!
But having said that, staring closely at the birth of the first candle-making iron mold, even if Zhao Hongrun was just watching from a distance, his face was flushed red by the high temperature in the room, his skin was burning, especially his eyes.
Because I saw the blazing stove from time to time, even if I immediately averted my gaze, everything I looked at seemed to be a little red.
After repeating this process several times, Zhao Hongrun only felt bursts of stinging pain in his eyes, and his tear glands secreted tears uncontrollably.
Perhaps because he noticed Zhao Hongrun rubbing his eyes with his hands from time to time, Chief Wang Fu was startled and quickly advised: "Your Highness, Prince Su, it's extremely hot here. You'd better go outside and wait for news."
Zhao Hongrun shook his head and stared intently at the topless craftsmen who were busy going back and forth. He saw those craftsmen from the Smelting and Manufacturing Bureau, especially those who were closer to the stove. They were all sweating profusely, as if they had just emerged from the water.
It's like being fished out.
Compared with these craftsmen who are on the front line, those like Zhao Hongrun who are just watching from a distance are nothing.
It is undeniable that the closer you are to the stove, the higher the temperature will be. Within three feet of the stove, it is simply not a place for people to stay. However, those craftsmen did not care about the scorching heat and had to bake the things in the stove.
Pull out the baked clay mold.
It has to be said that when the iron furnace door was opened, even Zhao Hongrun, who was standing in the distance, felt a scorching heat wave coming towards his face, not to mention the craftsmen. Zhao Hongrun could even hear the faint sighs.
The sound was the sound of the body hair of the craftsmen being roasted into ashes.
"Close...close the door!"
After the clay mold was pulled out, a craftsman shouted, and then a group of people endured the scorching heat and turned off the stove. Immediately, these craftsmen, who were in the hottest environment, swarmed towards where Zhao Hongrun was, and
Buckets after buckets of cold water were poured over the body.
Although Zhao Hongrun wanted to tell them that pouring cold water on the body when it was boiling hot would be very harmful to the body, but after thinking about it, the cold water had already been roasted into warm water, so he wisely shut up.
.
"Happy! So happy!"
"Hahaha!"
The craftsmen were amusing each other. One of the craftsmen noticed Zhao Hongrun, who was watching them, and quickly came over and reported: "Your Highness, the clay mold has been baked into shape. The rest is just to pour the molten iron into it."
, you can get the iron mold."
Zhao Hongrun nodded and asked: "Will it crack? I am referring to the clay mold."
The craftsman grinned and said: "Don't worry, Your Highness, since that accident, the people in our Smelting Bureau have become much more cautious. What's more, the clay mold this time is at least the size of a palm... no, at least a foot thick.
It is impossible to crack easily."
He was slightly embarrassed because in his words he revealed the truth that he had not yet adapted to the solemn rule.
However, Zhao Hongrun didn't think anything of it. After all, everything has a process of adaptation. If a group of craftsmen who were used to using their own body structures to measure lengths were suddenly forced to use rulers, it wouldn't be surprising that they would not adapt.
In contrast, Zhao Hongrun was more curious about the accident the other party said.
Perhaps noticing the confusion on Zhao Hongrun's face, Bureau Chief Wang Fu sighed and explained in a low voice: "In the early years, when our Smelting Bureau was making iron molds for coinage for the Ministry of Household Affairs, due to lack of experience, the molds were made.
The earthen mold was not thick enough, so that...the earthen mold cracked, and the molten iron flowed all over the place...A craftsman was unable to escape, and was swallowed up by the molten iron that poured out. His body was really like a corpse..."
Zhao Hongrun gasped in shock when he heard this.
Of course he knew the temperature of molten iron. Human flesh and blood would not be spared if it was poured with molten iron. Let alone flesh and blood, not even bones would be left. There would be no bones worthy of the name.
Zhao Hongrun looked silently at the craftsmen not far away who were smiling as they were molding the clay molds, and couldn't help but feel a little sad in his heart.
It is said that soldiers are the most dangerous profession in the world, but how many people know that there are many more dangerous positions than soldiers? For example, these craftsmen whose lives are in danger at any time.
"Work hard, and I will be worthy of the kindness I have given you." Zhao Hongrun sincerely and sincerely assured the craftsman in front of him.
Maybe the craftsman didn't understand the significance of Zhao Hongrun's words, and just took them as encouragement, said "Hey" with a smile, and continued working.
This made Zhao Hongrun feel even more worried.
I have to say, and I don’t know if it was related to the accident. The craftsmen of the Metallurgical and Manufacturing Bureau were very rigorous in their work. They carefully inspected the soil mold, filled the internal cracks with clay, and then pushed it into the furnace to bake.
After there were no more cracks inside the earthen mold, they carefully polished it with files and worked hard to make the inside of the earthen mold smooth and flat.
After all, whether the inner wall of the soil mold is flat means whether the final iron mold is smooth and flat.
As for the last step of pouring molten iron, it seems to have little technical content. After all, the real complexity is how to bake the previous clay mold.
After a lot of busy work, it was not until around Xu Shi that the stove had already been extinguished, and the molten iron poured into the earthen mold had gradually cooled down naturally.
In order to quickly cool down, the craftsmen of the Smelting Bureau wet the outer wall of the earth mold with water from time to time. In this way, they can judge whether the molten iron inside has cooled down. After all, if it has not cooled down, after the water is poured on the outer wall of the earth mold, it will
A squeaking sound occurs.
When the molten iron cooled completely and solidified into an iron mold, Wang Fu, the Chief of Staff, handed a wooden hammer to Zhao Hongrun.
Zhao Hongrun knew what Wang Fu meant. The other party wanted him to break the outer layer of clay molds. This was the same as reaping the spoils after winning a battle.
However, Zhao Hongrun handed the hammer to Ding Jun, a craftsman who was shirtless and whose skin was still red: He did not think that he, who was just watching from a distance, was qualified to pick up the hammer.
"Ding Jun, you and the other craftsmen present should work together to break the clay mold into pieces." Zhao Hongrun ordered.
The craftsmen looked at me and I looked at you, and they were all a little surprised. They saw respect in Zhao Hongrun's eyes when he looked at them, which really made them feel flattered.
"Your Highness..." Bureau Chief Wang Fu also looked at Zhao Hongrun in surprise.
But after Zhao Hongrun handed the hammer to Ding Jun, who was also surprised, he took three steps back, shook his head and said with emotion: "I was just watching from the sidelines, and didn't do anything to help from the beginning to the end. With this hammer, I
The king is not qualified."
"His Royal Highness King Su..."
Wang Fu was moved when he heard this. After taking a deep breath, he looked back at the dazed craftsmen and shouted loudly: "His Royal Highness said that the credit for this work belongs to the craftsmen of our Smelting Bureau! ...
...Everyone, please smash the earthen molds and let His Highness Prince Su witness the success of our smelting bureau!"
"yes!"
The craftsmen picked up their wooden hammers and surrounded the tall and thick earthen mold.
"one!"
"two!"
"three!"
"Smash!"
"Bang bang bang!"
After dozens of wooden hammers were smashed for a while, the thick earthen mold, which was a full foot long, was smashed into pieces. Only the porcelain pieces were broken, and finally the iron mold hidden deep inside was revealed.
Craftsmen, look at me, I look at you, suddenly a burst of cheers broke out.