Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 18

Hugo van Groningen sat on a small stool in the cannon foundry of the Arsenal, silently arranging his tools.François, a gunsmith from Lausanne, once made cannons for Bavaria, and he has a lot of experience. He is a well-deserved leader of their group, and this is also approved by the "Tatans".

Francois was rated as a third-level worker by the head of the "Tatan" factory, with a monthly salary of 30 riyals; while he, Hugo, a young man from Groningen, was a first-level worker with a monthly salary of only 5 riyals Yar, after deducting the monthly food fee, it is only 4 rials.

Besides the two of them, there were more than 20 people in the cannon casting workshop.But they are all rookies without any experience. Except for a few "Tatan people" who are quite smart, the other handymen are clumsy, and they can only add to the chaos at any time.

To be honest, Hugo had a pretty good impression of those "Tatans".At least they are polite, and they don't seem to be uneducated, and they are often able to ask some incredible questions and ideas.

The cannon foundry had successfully cast four long-barreled cannons. The performance was not bad, and the weight was much lighter than cast iron cannons.But what's regrettable is that they didn't just cast these four cannons, but a whole eight cannons.Obviously, the other four guns failed.

In fact, this yield rate is acceptable for a group of gunsmiths who are mostly novices, but the "Tartans" obviously don't think so.They were extremely disappointed with this result. One of the leaders surnamed Ma decisively stopped the supply of steel to the cannon workshop, and threatened that the cannon workshop would continue to shut down unless the problem of low yield was solved.

In this way, Hugo had nothing to do for a while. Of course, such days would not be too long.Soon, the "Tartans" came back.During this period of time, they studied four unqualified guns. Three of the four guns were caused by the barrel explosion or cracks during the charge test, and the other was caused by a problem with the barrel during cooling. The barrel is bent.

This bent barrel gave the "Tartans" inspiration.After discussion, they believed that this was due to the uneven cooling of the inner and outer walls of the gun barrel, resulting in invisible cracks in the inner wall of the gun barrel.

In all fairness, Hugo thinks this conclusion is justified.When the gun barrel casted by steel mold is cooling, because the outer wall of the gun barrel is larger than the inner wall, and the outer air circulation is faster than the inside of the gun barrel, the outer wall cools faster than the inner wall naturally, causing cracks to appear on the inner wall of the gun barrel.If there is a crack in the inner wall of the gun barrel, the gun will naturally explode.

The larger the caliber of the gun, the more prone to such problems, because the larger the caliber, the greater the difference between the inner and outer wall areas of the barrel, and the greater the difference in cooling rate, the easier it is to cause cracks in the barrel.Thinking of this, Hugo suddenly felt enlightened. No wonder the yield of guns with larger calibers was lower, and even some large-caliber guns could not be successfully cast at all. This was the reason for everything.

Today, 4 newcomers came to the cannon foundry. These are the new cannonsmiths recruited by the "Tartans".Hugo knew that they were Swedish based on the rough Chinese he had learned in the evening language school.

Damn Swede!Hugo muttered to himself.

The eight "Tatan people" who usually participate in the casting of cannons in the workshop all came together. In addition to them, there was also a "Tatan leader" who had been here several times before.After discussing softly for a while, they decided to offer a reward of 8 riyals to everyone for a way to speed up the cooling of the inner wall of the gun barrel.They promise that once the method is proven to be effective and reliable, the bonus will be paid out immediately, and the title will be promoted by one level.

This condition moved Hugo a little, and he began to calm down and think about the method.

Wang Qinian was a little irritable. Why do not many of the 568 people understand various industrial manufacturing? The protagonists who used to read novels on the Internet seem to be transformed into encyclopedias after time travel, wishing to know everything and be proficient in everything.Making guns and cannons is nothing, and aircraft carrier missiles can be made for you.It's really worth throwing away when comparing goods, and dying when comparing people!The 8 time-travelers from the cannon casting workshop have cast a few cannons with these Europeans. They discussed it for a long time last night, but they didn't come up with any good ideas.

Wang Qinian was feeling restless when he suddenly saw a tall and thin foreigner with red hair standing up in the workshop.

It's him!Gunsmith Hugo van Groningen from the Netherlands.Wang Qinian remembered it all at once, and he couldn't help but remember that this guy was one of the only two genuine gunsmiths in the time travel group.

Is there anything he can do?This thought crossed Wang Qinian's mind.

"Sir. I...I think I have...a solution." Hugo spoke in Chinese in a stuttering manner.When he found that he could not express himself accurately in Chinese, he immediately spoke English.His mother is English, so he also speaks fluent English, and he knows that many of these "Tatans" can speak English.

"Sir. I think we can use water or oil to cool the inner wall of the gun barrel." Hugo said, "As we all know, water cooling is much more efficient than air cooling. Since the inner wall of the gun barrel cools slower than the outer wall, can we use How about some medium with high cooling efficiency to speed up the process? Like water or oil."

"Huh?" Wang Qinian's eyes suddenly lit up: "This is a way."

"Pour water into the gun barrel?" Wu Jun asked, he is a gunsmith trained by the executive committee.

"No, that's not the case. This will crack the barrel." The more Hugo said, the clearer his thinking became, "We can make the inner mold of the cannon hollow. Simply put, it is to leave a cooling period in the inner mold. The cavity used. When the inner wall of the red-hot gun barrel is in full contact with the inner mold, the heat transferred heats the inner mold. At this time, we pour water into the cavity, and the water flows out from the other reserved port to take away the heat. In this way Come on, you can achieve circulating cooling by continuously injecting water out. Even better, this process is still controllable. We can control the heat dissipation and cooling process by controlling the flow of cooling water. After all, if the inner wall heats up too quickly, the gun barrel There will still be problems."

"This method is good!" Wang Qinian slapped his thigh vigorously, stood up and said excitedly: "Xiao Wu, I think this method is reliable! How about we give it a try?"

"I think it's okay." Wu Jun nodded, and said: "It's not too late, let's cast a cannon as soon as possible to test the effect. Moreover, we have to explore the proper flow rate of the cooling water."

"Okay, I'll go find the vest." Wang Qinian said, "Let's see when his crucible opens, and get us some molten steel as soon as it opens. Grandma is a bear, this kid is really stingy, and he cut us off for a whole month milk."

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Three days later, the test field was crowded with people.

Many people rushed over to see the effect after hearing about the new technology of casting cannons.Not only Wang Qinian and the vest came, but also Peng Zhicheng from the army rushed over. After all, he is also the one who never forgets the cannon.

The cannon workshop launched a 24-pound cannon for testing this time.

This is a 24-pound long-barreled cannon with a multiple diameter of 18.Due to the high-quality high-carbon steel used in the casting, the weight of the whole cannon together with the cannon carriage is only about 1.5 tons.After the gun body is cast, the inner wall is cooled by water cooling, which greatly increases the efficiency.

In fact, the people who traveled through not only cast this cannon, but also an 18-pound cannon. Because the cooling rate of the inner wall was not controlled properly, cracks appeared in the inner wall, so it had to be discarded.

The 8 artillery crew members are all selected from the guard team and they have conducted live ammunition shooting training many times before, and they are quite proficient in their business.

The gunners first loaded a 4-pound charge reduction package into the barrel. Because it was a test gun, no projectiles were loaded.

After everything was ready, Wang Qinian calmed down a little and signaled that it was time to fire.The gun crew members pulled the long fuse outside the gun door to retreat to a safe distance, and then lit the fuse.

There was a loud "boom", and the muzzle was filled with smoke.Wang Qinian looked around, and his heart was relieved immediately, at least he didn't explode on the spot!

The gunners quickly surrounded the front, cleaned the barrel, and checked the barrel for cracks.

all good!The gunner gestured towards Wang Qinian.

The standard charge of the 24-pound gun is 6 pounds, which is only the first pass.Next, the gunners will load a 6-pound standard charge into the bore to test performance.

The gun crew members cleaned the gun chamber skillfully, loaded the standard charge, and then retreated to the distance, lit the fuse, and fired!

The 24-pounder cannon roared again.Without waiting for Wang Qinian's signal, the members of the artillery crew rushed forward to inspect the artillery body through thick smoke.

no problem!The gunner made the same gesture as the first time.

There were small cheers from the audience, and both Wang Qinian and Peng Zhicheng had smiles on their faces.

"Pack 8 pounds of medicine!" Wang Qinian waved his hand boldly, "Try the performance of the strong medicine."

The gunners went as promised, and repeated the previous action again, but this time the ammunition pack was replaced with an 8-pound strong charge ammunition pack.

"Boom!" The 24-pound cannon after firing was still standing firmly on the spot.

The gunner rushed over, checked carefully for 10 minutes, and then shouted: "There is no crack!"

"Yeah!" Wang Qinian and Peng Zhicheng celebrated with high fives, and the vests were also full of smiles.

The results of the test shot perfectly proved that the internal mold water cooling method was successful and effective when casting the shot.The next thing that the traversing people need to do is to cast a lot of cannons to confirm whether the yield rate has really been reduced to the expected result.

Hugo van Groningen stood behind Wang Qinian with a smile, and François and the four new Swedish gunsmiths looked at him enviously.

"Ha." Hugo chuckled happily in his heart. He knew that his future would be bright from now on.

(End of this chapter)