Optimus One Pillar of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 47 The world’s first furnace of industrial steel
Drawing drawings in the room in the morning, and after lunch, Wang Daoqiu began to supervise the craftsmen building the stove.

The Jinyiwei Weapons Bureau is also very helpful. Although Lu Bing returned to the Jinyiwei headquarters to take up a job, the Weapons Bureau still strictly followed Wang Daoqiu's instructions and found nine masters, one master and one assistant. Eighteen Individuals build the stove together.

As for the converter Wang Daoqiu requested, after he drew the drawings, he handed it over to professional masters and asked them to make the mold as soon as possible and then pour it into shape.

After working like this for a whole day in the Jinyiwei Arms Bureau, when Lu Bing sent someone to invite him to dinner, the blast furnace with a capacity of thirty cubic meters had been built, and the converter with a capacity of ten cubic meters was still under preparation.

After another two days of busy work, finally on the third day, the [-]-cubic blast furnace, the [-]-cubic converter, and the three hydraulic hammer hammers were all installed in place.

In these three days, more than 500 tons of iron ore were transported to Xuanhua, more than 700 tons of coke, and hundreds of tons of limestone were transported from Wanping Coal Mine.

Everything is ready. Tomorrow is the day of inspection scheduled with Emperor Jiajing. Early in the morning, the blast furnace begins to light up and warm up the furnace.In the evening, Lu Bing was still a little worried, so he invited Wang Daoqiu over on the pretext of inviting Wang Daoqiu to dinner.

After dinner, Lu Bing took Wang Daoqiu to the Jinyiwei Arms Bureau, next to the iron-making blast furnace.

Pointing to the blast furnace, Lu Bing said: "According to your instructions, Mr. Jie Yuan, this furnace was lit early in the morning. According to the people below, tens of thousands of kilograms of coke have been burned in. Mr. Jie Yuan, isn't it? Lu doesn't believe you, it's just that..."

"Okay, okay, Sir Lu, don't say anything. The emperor will come in person tomorrow and it will cause a lot of trouble. Wang understands. How about this, Sir Lu, let's make a furnace by ourselves first and give it a try."

"Okay, that's good. Let's make a furnace first."

As for iron smelting, Wang Daoqiu himself was actually a young girl getting into the sedan chair, so for the first time, he felt uncertain!So now that Lu Bing raised concerns, he took advantage of the situation and proposed to make a furnace first.

Wang Daoqiu's proposal was immediately supported by Lu Bing.So Lu Bing ordered his men to follow Wang Daoqiu's instructions to add a layer of coke, smash the selected small iron ore, and mix a layer of limestone, and then pour it layer by layer into the blast furnace. At the same time, he turned on the hot air blower. into the blast furnace.

It takes about five or six hours to make a furnace of molten iron. It seems that we will be busy here all night today.Wang Daoqiu asked Lu Bing to send a not-so-mighty-looking captain in Jinyi, pretending to be a servant from a wealthy family, to tell Fatty and the others that he would take the place of his father-in-law, Shen Yishi, to entertain business partners of the Shen family today. I won’t go back.

Because they had to wait here all night and receive Emperor Jiajing tomorrow, Wang Daoqiu and Lu Bing asked the Ordnance Bureau to arrange a room for each of them to rest after Wang Daoqiu and Lu Bing filled in all the information. They would call them if anything happened.

In the middle of the night, Wang Daoqiu was woken up from his sleep. When he came to the blast furnace, red molten iron was already flowing out from under the blast furnace.Facing the fiery red molten iron, Lu Bing, who had already arrived here a long time ago, was so excited that his old face turned into a smile.

As soon as Wang Daoqiu arrived, Lu Bing hugged Wang Daoqiu and slapped Wang Daoqiu on the back. He shouted happily: "Xie Yuanlang, Xie Yuanlang, we succeeded, we succeeded. From now on, the emperor will I will never force Lu to get money again, that’s great, that’s great.”

Lu Bing was really happy at the moment, feeling excited that he had escaped a disaster.But Wang Daoqiu really despises him, Ma De, this hot molten iron, in the eyes of you, Lu Bing, the No.Madhu, is this how to conquer the whole world?

He despised Lu Bing in his heart, and was not used to being held in the arms of a tall and rough man. Wang Daoqiu pushed Lu Bing away and pretended to be happy and said: "Master Lu, the molten iron has also flowed into the converter. Let's go to the converter. Let's see!"

"Okay, okay, okay, Lu, let's see how Xie Yuanlang turned tens of thousands of kilograms of iron into tens of thousands of kilograms of steel."

Wang Daoqiu's blast furnace ironmaking was successful. Now Lu Bing is also looking forward to whether Wang Daoqiu can really turn tens of thousands of kilograms of iron into tens of thousands of kilograms of steel.So Wang Daoqiu said that he should go to the converter to have a look. Lu Bing hurriedly agreed and dragged Wang Daoqiu to the converter.

The steelmaking technology currently used by Wang Daoqiu was the Bessemer converter steelmaking method first announced by the British Henry Bessemer in 1856.This was also the choice he made that he thought was the most feasible based on the information in the library and the existing industrial technology level of the Ming Dynasty.

The Bessemer converter steelmaking method is a revolutionary breakthrough in the world's steelmaking technology.It is generally believed by later generations of steel engineers that this is the starting point of mankind's modern steel industry.

This steelmaking method does not require additional heating sources. It mainly uses liquid high-temperature molten iron as raw material, and blows air from the bottom, top, and sides of the converter.In this way, when the oxygen in the air encounters the high temperature of the molten iron, a violent oxidation reaction will occur. The carbon elements in the molten iron that mainly affect the toughness of the steel will be oxidized into carbon dioxide and leave the molten iron.

And this oxidation reaction process will release a lot of heat, so that the furnace temperature will rise to about 10 degrees quickly. The reaction is very violent, like a volcanic eruption. A furnace of steel was fired, and the efficiency was very high.Of course, this steelmaking method also has its shortcomings, such as poor dephosphorization, the steel produced is brittle, and there are bubbles in the ingot.However, these problems, which were still problems in nineteenth-century Europe, were not problems for Wang Daoqiu.

First of all, the iron-making craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty did not understand any scientific principles or equations.But in daily practice, they have long discovered that adding some limestone when making iron can produce stronger iron.

Adding limestone when making iron is the best way to dephosphorize iron.It would take another 200 years for Europeans to learn this, just as it would take another 200 years for them to learn how to use coke to make iron.

As for the problem that there were bubbles in the ingot and it was not tight enough, Wang Daoqiu also came up with a solution based on the existing technical level of the Ming Dynasty.Daming did not have a [-]-ton hydraulic press, but it had a hydraulic hammer forging machine and big rocks!

Pour the smelted steel ingot into the mold to form it, and then put it in a hydraulic forging hammer to forge it, or put a hundred kilograms of large bluestone in it to squeeze it to reduce the volume and increase the density of the ingot.This method is a bit crude, has low productivity, and the quality is far inferior to that produced by later generations of hydraulic presses.

But old men, these steels are not for the industrial civilization of the 21st century, but for the agricultural society of the 10,000th century.During this period, the Ming Dynasty, which was the leader of the world's industry, produced only 21+ tons of wrought iron!As for the quality of steel, what is that steel used for in the 21st century?And what is Daming’s steel used for now?So in this world of the [-]th century, if the quality of steel can reach half of that of the [-]st century, that is more than enough.

The Bessemer steel-making method is very simple. To put it bluntly, it is just a matter of thinking. Its technical difficulty is not a problem for today's Ming Dynasty.Moreover, on the basis of the Bessemer steelmaking method, Wang Daoqiu also added some small techniques that were later recognized by the development of the steel industry, such as heating the air first, and blowing hot air into the furnace, so that the effect will be better.As well as some tuition fees paid by later Xuangang and Shougang when refining Longyan iron ore and local methods to solve these problems.

Together with Lu Bing, we came to the converter. The converter was set at a low place to facilitate the flow of molten iron and subsequent processing.When Wang Daoqiu and Lu Bing arrived here, they saw that the iron smelting master was already doing what Wang Daoqiu had ordered.

I saw that some of them were sending the heated air in the flue into the converter using air blast bags, and some were using big iron rods to stir the molten iron in the furnace, which is the steel-frying method!
Looking at the boiling molten iron in the converter and feeling the roiling heat, Lu Bing said, "Xie Yuanlang, this can't work! It's too hot here, the emperor can't let the emperor stand here and watch tomorrow!"

"It's a small matter. Before the emperor comes tomorrow, just set up a stage like a stage two or three feet away from the stove, and let the emperor sit there and drink tea while watching."

"Yes, yes, that's good. I'll tell people to do it later. Just Jie Yuanlang, just blow some air and stir it with an iron rod, and the iron will turn into steel."

"Master Lu, don't worry, just look down."

"Okay, okay, okay, Lu is waiting for you."

After more than half an hour, the molten iron in the converter stopped boiling, and Wang Daoqiu asked the craftsmen to pour the molten iron into the mold.The great thing about the converter is that its furnace body is not fixed, but can tilt and rotate, which is very convenient for pouring out the molten iron inside.

Every time the craftsmen poured the molten iron into a mold, Wang Daoqiu asked the craftsmen to watch. After the molten iron had roughly cooled down into an ingot, he asked the craftsmen to put it into a hydraulic forging hammer to hammer it, or put a [-]-jin large hammer into it. Go down and squeeze the bluestone.

Looking at these two completely different methods, Lu Bing was a little confused. He asked: "Xie Yuanlang, you take this ingot to the hammering machine and hammer it. Lu understands this. After all, the same is true for master blacksmiths." It takes iron to be hammered and hammered into steel! But what do you mean by pressing the ingot under the stone? If it can be turned into steel, wouldn't it be unjust for the hard work of those blacksmith masters for thousands of years? "

Iron can be pressed into steel by pressing a big stone. This is something Lu Bing cannot understand.So he looked confused and questioned Wang Daoqiu.

Wang Daoqiu was also amused when he saw the country's number one spy acting like an idiot. He smiled and explained: "Master Lu, if a piece of iron is pressed with a stone, it will certainly not turn into steel. But I What’s being pressed is not iron, it’s steel, but my steel is not very thick yet, so it needs to be compacted.”

"Forget it, I said this, Mr. Lu, you may not understand. Let me give you an example. Mr. Lu should know how to make tofu! After the soy milk is ordered into tofu, it must be made according to Lao Nen's requirements. , to compact. A piece of tender tofu can be made into old tofu by compacting. But if you press the soy milk, even if you press the soy milk until it goes rancid, it will not turn into old tofu. Again, I am a rock. Pressed down, it is not iron at all, but steel."

Wang Daoqiu gave an example of making old tender tofu and vividly explained to Lu Bing his purpose of pressing these ingots.After Lu Bing listened to Wang Daoqiu's explanation, he understood the purpose of die-casting ingots.But he still couldn't believe it. How could he blow air into the molten iron and stir it? How could the iron turn into steel?
Seeing that Lu Bing still didn't believe it, he was just embarrassed to ask questions on his expression, and Wang Daoqiu didn't want to explain too much.After all, facts speak louder than words!After these ingots were completely pressed, formed and cooled, Lu Bing saw the real objects and he understood.

So Wang Daoqiu, who planned to educate Lu Bing with facts, said: "Forget it, Mr. Lu, let's go back and rest! The craftsmen will soon start cleaning the furnace slag and prepare materials for the second furnace. Let's sleep until dawn , the molten iron from the second furnace and the steel ingots from the first furnace should be ready, let’s come over and take a look then!”

"Yes, yes, yes, it's important to keep your spirits up and accompany the emperor tomorrow."

(End of this chapter)