"Tsk tsk, luckily I asked them to keep records and keep the samples, otherwise we would have suffered a big loss now!"
Looking at the small notebook in front of him, Li Yuanjia quickly realized the fact that he might have overlooked a treasure he had always possessed!
These recipes, those alloy blocks stored in the warehouse.
Yes, they are works that have been eliminated and are not very suitable for making alloy movable type. The main reason is that they have poor adsorption properties with ink and are difficult to print in large quantities.
But just this doesn't mean they don't have other uses.
What if they are very hard and tough? If used to make a horizontal sword, will it be a magic weapon of this era? If they are lighter in weight and used to make armor, will it become a magic weapon?
The heirloom of some generals? The kind with thousands of strings?
Anyway, just thinking about these possibilities makes Li Yuanjia feel a little restless.
Then……
Amidst the restlessness in his heart, Li Yuanjia suddenly remembered an idea that he had thought about many times before but had never really put into practice: "In this case, actually... can we really let them study iron-making or steel-making technology?
?”
Thinking of this, Li Yuanjia couldn't help but take a deep breath, and his expression instantly became serious.
Steel!
Unless it’s the 21st century, no matter what era it is, this thing must be a strategic material and one of the criteria for whether a country is strong or not. A country with high steel production will not necessarily be able to defeat a country with low steel production.
Countries, such as the Song Dynasty, always give people a feeling of "weakness", but there is no doubt that the output of steel can definitely represent the wealth of a country.
As a time traveler, Li Yuanjia has certainly thought about this, more than once!
Although he is a medical student among science students and knows nothing about the so-called iron-making and steel-making, he has been to Station B and watched many so-called folk versions of "Survival in the Wilderness", so he is no stranger to the ancient art of iron-making.
——Use mud to make a "blast furnace", use charcoal to burn the smashed iron ore, and after the final disassembly, you can get an iron block that doesn't look like iron at all...
It was terribly crude, but at least Li Yuanjia knew this method.
Of course, just knowing this method does not actually mean much. After all, our ancestors already had similar technology in the Han Dynasty, and after so many years of improvement, it is considered very mature. Anyway, as a
Li Yuanjia, a layman, could not offer any suggestions for improvement.
And for him, he has never really explored the specific principles or techniques in detail.
After all, Li Yuanjia only reads novels and videos for entertainment, especially those time-travel novels. Who would really explore how those technologies are actually done? So unless it is something like a plow or a table and chair, Li Yuanjia is familiar with it.
He can draw sketches, or things like glass and thirteen incense. He knows simple principles and can let his servants try countless times. Otherwise, if Li Yuanjia wants to come up with something with a slightly higher technical content, the difficulty is not ordinary.
of big.
As for improving steel-making technology, unless he is willing to invest enough time and energy, it is impossible.
However, even if he does not know how to make iron and steel, because of the videos and historical online novels he has watched, Li Yuanjia at least knows one fact, which is a very important milestone in the history of steelmaking - the use of coke!
The use of a large amount of coke can increase the temperature of steelmaking.
Temperature is very important for steelmaking, because the melting point of iron exceeds 1,500 degrees, and only pig iron rich in impurities can be melted into molten iron under the action of firewood or charcoal because of the lowered melting point.
But it is impossible for real wrought iron to melt at this temperature...
It's a pity that even if he knew this, Li Yuanjia still had a terrible headache.
What can we do if we know the importance of coke?
Leaving aside the specific use of this coke in iron and steelmaking, Li Yuanjia was completely confused. The current pitiful output of coke was basically of no use!
Although coke has been produced by Li Yuanjia, the technology is crude and the process is backward. Not only the output of coke is low, but the quality is also poor. Only the cost is extremely high... Anyway, in Li Yuanjia's view, coke is not worth mentioning.
It will probably take several years for them to improve it before it can be used in iron and steel making.
Otherwise, even if the effect is very good, it will be meaningless if the cost is too high.
"well……"
After thinking about it, Li Yuanjia sighed again and scratched his head with a wry smile: "To put it bluntly, I can only find two or three people and slowly do it by myself. If you really do it with a lot of money, even if there is a small treasury in Prince Han's Mansion,
I still have a lot of money, but I’m afraid I won’t be able to withstand the hassle!”
A previous glass workshop had made Li Yuanjia understand the cost of R&D in this era.
It's true that they didn't spend much money, but just for a method Li Yuanjia said, Han Cheng and the others built seven or eight sets of equipment, bought countless mineral materials, and used an unknown amount of charcoal and coke.
If none of these things are cheap, it can be said that Li Yuanjia used money to smash the glass!
So when it came time to price the glass, he gritted his teeth and nailed it down to a hundred dollars!
The output of this thing is very low now. If it sells so little, when will the capital be recouped? Not to mention that the quality of the glass is not good yet, the texture is too brittle, and the transparency is just barely there. We must continue to invest money and
Manpower to improve. If Li Yuanjia doesn't get more from the rich people who want to try new things, won't all his old capital be lost?
Glass is like this, and iron and steel making is probably not much better.
So after thinking about it, Li Yuanjia's newly rising ambition was extinguished by a basin of cold water. He shook his head and started thinking: "Forget it, let's take a look at these things that have been made and see if there are any."
Let’s talk about the good stuff. As for the so-called iron-making and steel-making technology... Well, I’ll talk to the second brother later, and if he allows it, I’ll find two people and give them a few hundred coins a year to slowly play with it.”
The reason why Li Yuanjia didn't touch steel before was because steel was too sensitive, and as a prince, he needed to avoid suspicion. It's not that Li Shimin would do anything to him if he really did it, but in Li Yuanjia's position,
He hopes to eliminate all potential risk factors.
After all, this was a feudal dynasty, and Li Yuanjia clearly remembered the tragic fate of his eldest nephew Li Ke in the future.
If he wanted to play with steel, even if it was experimental, Li Yuanjia would talk to Li Shimin first.
As for the candidates to lead the iron-making workshop in the future, he soon had a choice: "It happens that the group of people Ma Liang is teaching will graduate next year, and two of them will be selected and let them learn from the blacksmiths in the house first.