In Noros's factory, the craftsmen who make bullets are hard at work. The bullets are cast. This thing is easy to say. Just make a mold and pour copper water on it.
Charging is not complicated either. The gunpowder processing factory will separate the gunpowder in advance, including propellant and primer. The powder for each bullet is accurately packed in a special paper bag. The craftsman only needs to use a funnel to carefully knock the gunpowder into it.
Just put it in the shell.
As for the assembly of the bullet, the simple task of inserting the bullet into the cartridge case and closing it is really not worth mentioning.
The most difficult thing to do is still the cartridge case.
According to the division of labor, two craftsmen should make the cartridge cases, but in fact, Nolos will use the whole morning to have all fifty craftsmen make the cartridge cases. Only in this way can the output of one thousand rounds of bullets per day be guaranteed. In the afternoon, everyone
They divided their work and completed the rest of the work. Until night, Nolos would check the quality of the bullets one by one to ensure a 60% pass rate. Most of the problems with unqualified bullets still lie in the shells.
Craftsmen use various methods to make cartridge cases. Most craftsmen will take a copper plate and use a hammer and anvil to process a cartridge case. The shape of such a cartridge case is slightly worse, the dimensional accuracy often has problems, and the work efficiency is very low. A skilled
A craftsman can make at most four cartridge cases in one hour, but such cartridge cases have good sealing properties.
There are also some craftsmen who are good at casting. They will make a row of precise casting molds and then pour copper liquid on them. This production efficiency is slightly higher. Almost twenty bullet cases can be cast in an hour, but among these twenty bullet cases,
There are usually no more than five qualified products. The thin and small hollow structure is not suitable for the casting process. The cartridge case will have serious thickness deviations, and leaks will often occur. Bullets with poor sealing will leak gunpowder, and even have
Risk of explosion.
No matter what method is used, fifty craftsmen, coupled with one hundred assistants, produce a thousand bullets every day and try to maintain a 60% pass rate. This is the ultimate goal that Nolos pursues every day. No matter how hard it is,
For every qualified bullet made, Reggie will reward three copper coins. Although it may not seem like much, for the craftsmen, it is a considerable amount of income over time.
But this morning, Reggie assigned him a new task, asking him to cast a copper rod with a diameter of ten millimeters and a foot long.
What can this thing be used for? Used to make weapons? This kind of thing is obviously ineffective in fighting. A small stick as thick as a finger is not enough to scratch the enemy. Use it to make crossbow arrows? Copper crossbow arrows are too heavy and not practical at all.
And it’s too luxurious.
Could it be used to make tableware? Nolos knew that Reggie liked to use tableware made of small wooden sticks. Maybe he wanted to improve it and change it to copper.
But one foot long is too exaggerated. Is this kind of thing really suitable for eating?
No matter what he wanted to do, since it was the Lord's order, Noros could only obey it, and it was not difficult to cast a copper rod.
"Lord, how many copper rods do you need?"
"Just ten."
"No problem, I will send you to the castle at noon."
"No need to send it to the castle, just send it directly to Swindell's house."
"You mean, the one who acts like a madman..."
"Don't call him crazy anymore," Reggie said with a very serious expression, "He is a bachelor of Shattered Snow City, you must give him the respect he deserves."
Nolos really didn't want to go to Swindell's house. He didn't like this weirdo, let alone the place where he lived.
Reggie found a place for Swindell to live next to the main street, but Swindell liked to study those strange plants, and occasionally had hobbies of blacksmithing, doing experiments and dissecting corpses. It was obvious to do such things in the most prosperous place in the city.
Something wasn't quite right, so Swindell moved his family to a desolate area west of the city.
This is not the west of the city in the ordinary sense, but a completely isolated and desolate land.
The westernmost part of Broken Snow City is very close to the Lost Mountain. When the night fog rises in the mountains, some of the fog will drift into the city. Some people say that there is a curse from the mountain demon in this fog, and every night
The plaintive cry of the mountain demon can be heard.
It is precisely for this reason that the residents in the west of the city are far less than those in the east. As early as the time of Victor II, people gradually moved away from the places close to the city wall. By the time of Victor III, people were within two miles of the city wall.
The land inside is deserted and has become a completely abandoned and desolate land.
When he was in school, Reggie once learned a text that introduced the power of seeds. At first, Reggie didn't have much impression of this text. It wasn't until he saw this desolate land that he finally understood the uniqueness of life.
of toughness.
In this desolate land, the big tree growing in the house has penetrated the roof, and its strong roots are going in and out of the wall. Although Reggie does not believe those ridiculous rumors, he also hates this place.
, so far no suitable renovation plan has been thought of.
But this place was taken by Swindell. He found an abandoned manor with a wide yard and a dozen houses that allowed him to do what he wanted to do.
Because there were a large number of valuable plants planted in Swindell's yard, Reggie deployed guards around the yard. Nolos asked the guards to bring the copper rods to Reggie, although he was curious about how the lord could compare with the copper rods he held.
No matter what the madman did, seeing the underworld's mansion, Nolos wisely waited at the door.
After waiting for about half an hour, Reggie came out. He praised Nolos's skills and gave him a gold coin. Then he made a new request: "Change the diameter to 11 millimeters, and then help me."
Forge ten rods of bronze.”
This is really torture. What is the difference between eleven millimeters and ten millimeters? Nolos returned to the factory and cast ten copper rods overnight and sent them to Reggie, but Reggie had a new request. He asked Noros to
Lowes casts 10.5mm copper rods.
What is ten and a half millimeters? Nolos looked confused. According to Reggie's explanation, it is ten millimeters plus half a millimeter. The difference is not much thicker than a hair.
Fortunately, Reggie was also generous. He promised to give Noros two extra days of leave at the end of the month. Noros cast ten more copper rods. When he delivered them again, it was already dawn.
But Reggie was still not satisfied with the size of the iron rod. In the next few days, Nolos kept repeating this boring work until he fixed the size of the copper rod at 10.7 millimeters. Reggie was finally satisfied.
.
He asked Nolos to cast a hundred copper rods, and the diameter of each copper rod must be 10.7 millimeters. After the copper rods were cast, Reggie gave him a stack of drawings.
God, I can't live like this.
It's just a matter of casting these boring copper rods. Letting Nolos look at the drawings is undoubtedly a torture for him. Fortunately, Swindell provided him with a reduced version of the model. This reduced version is about one-fifth the size of the real thing.
, comparing the dimensions on the model and drawings, it took Nolos fifteen days to complete the new machine designed by Reggie.
This machine is divided into two parts, the upper part looks like a hammer that goes straight up and down, and the lower part looks like a bed. The lower part is fixed, and the hammer in the upper part is made of a huge
Wheel to drive.
According to Reggie's design, as long as the huge wheel is turned, the hammer can move straight up and down.
But Nolos tried it. The diameter of the cast iron wheel was more than five feet. More than a dozen craftsmen worked together, but they could only make it turn a little. This little bit of rotation was transmitted to the hammer, and there was no visible sign at all.
With a little change, what use can such a machine be used for?
The answer was revealed that morning. Reggie had thousands of pounds of bituminous coal delivered. Nolos thought for a long time before he understood Reggie's idea. He wanted to use the steam engine.
It took four oxen to pull the rusty steam engine out of the warehouse. Since its inception, the steam engine had only worked once before being abandoned by Reggie.
After being left alone for half a year, it had become a paradise for rats and spiders. More than a dozen craftsmen had to clean it all morning to make the steam engine barely passable.
Since it still worked, Reggie used a crankshaft to connect the steam engine to his newly designed machine.
At the same time, Swindell called four craftsmen and fixed a huge cutting knife under the hammer head.
This cutting knife was four feet wide and two feet high. The thickness of the back of the knife reached an inch and a half. It looked like the guillotine on the guillotine (there was no guillotine in this era).
To this day, Nolos still doesn't know what the purpose of this machine is. Is it used to execute unruly workers? Although some workers are really hateful, it would be too cruel to do so.
Swindell took out ten copper rods and placed them neatly on the groove of the machine tool. Through the pre-set slots, these copper rods poked out one centimeter from the edge of the machine tool.
Swindell added a cover to the machine tool and tightened the bolts. The copper rods were firmly fixed on the machine tool.
Next, Reggie asked all the craftsmen to stand thirty feet away because he was about to start the steam engine.
This steam engine had not been used for so long that Reggie was worried that it would leak steam. After ignition, the water in the furnace tube began to boil. Reggie smiled. As the eldest son of the steam age, it did not disappoint Reggie.
The pressure of the steam continued to rise. After the conditions were met, Reggie opened the valve. A piece of white mist spurted out from the valve, and the piston above the cylinder rose rapidly. Driven by it, the crankshaft turned a huge iron wheel.
The iron wheel began to rise slowly with a huge iron hammer.
It moved, it moved, the machine finally moved. The hammer was controlled by the slider. After it rose to a certain height, it quickly fell again. The cutter under the hammer instantly passed over the machine tool, accurately cutting from ten copper rods.
Cut out a small cylindrical copper block one centimeter in length.
"Success, Muhahaha! Swindell, feed in!"
The cutter rose again, and Swindell extended the copper rod forward another centimeter. The cutter fell again, and cut out ten more small copper pieces. Repeatedly, the one-foot-long copper rod was cut into thirty pieces.
A small copper block of one centimeter was cut out from ten copper rods, and a total of 300 copper blocks were cut out.
Reggie controlled the steam engine and cut a hundred copper rods in one go. He closed the gate and turned off the boiler temporarily. He stared at the copper blocks on the ground and laughed loudly: "You see! This is the power of the machine!"
"It's really amazing!" Nolos couldn't help applauding, and the craftsmen also applauded in agreement. Someone suddenly said something inappropriate: "What are these small pieces for?"
"You'll see how useful they are in a moment!" Reggie laughed, "Swindell, change the mold!"