- Steel Workshop

The Iron and Steel Workshop is the largest workshop in the Red Star Valley, and in addition to making iron and steel, it also has the function of building ordnance and agricultural tools.

Today was the first time that the steel workshop had opened a furnace to make iron, and almost all the high-level leaders of the Red Star Battalion were present, and even Huang Zhong and the others rushed over to see how their future blades were made.

Now this blast furnace is completely different from Yangshugou's, Yangshugou still uses the Han Dynasty's shaft blast furnace, and the iron is smelted, while the Hongxinggu's has an additional sintering step at the beginning.

"This furnace is so big, I'm afraid it can smelt thousands of catties of iron at a time." Duan Yu covered his mouth and looked at the behemoth in front of him.

"It's... It's really not that big. Ma Qiang looked at the blast furnace that couldn't be put on the table in his heart, and sighed, he is a scientist, yes, but he is not Baidu Encyclopedia, and he only dares to build a small blast furnace first, and then slowly improve it.

"Elder Yue, let's start!" Ma Qiang said to Yue Liang, who had been preparing for a long time,

"Alright, here we go! Sinter!! Yue Liang tore off his clothes and put on the leather clothes of the ironworkers, this is to add some protection to them, it is normal for molten iron to splash when making iron, if you wear ordinary clothes, you have to burn it all at once.

Sinter is the first step in steelmaking, and a wheelbarrow loaded with iron ore and lime and coal begins to pour down a ramp into a large pit, and then a large wooden stick turned with water power begins to stir inside.

When the stirring was finished, someone started sprinkling the water and continued stirring.

"Is this ironmaking? Why is it similar to noodles? Duan Yu asked in a low voice.

Duan Ying also shook his head, where did he understand this.

"This is preparing for sintering, and these mineral powders are like flour, and when they are reconciled, they will clump together, so that they can make better iron and even steel." Yang Chi, who was standing on the side, explained to Duan Yu, Duan Yu lowered his head and answered, a little shy.

"I didn't expect Brother Yang to know this method of iron-making." Duan Ying said admiringly.

"I just know a few things, the one who is really proficient is Uncle Father-in-law, and Orange and Lime are very familiar with chemistry, and they are also helping, you see, they are over there with people to calculate the ratio."

Sintering is to burn, the reconciled iron ore dough is reloaded, put into the first furnace to start burning, this burning is not to burn it into molten iron, but to make the lime and iron ore in the sintered material react, sinter is more stable than the raw ore composition, more uniform particles of the material, can be better iron or steel.

Then the iron smelting begins, the sinter is put into the blast furnace, the coal and charcoal below begin to ignite, and a total of six blowers at the bottom are used at the same time, so that the flame is more vigorous and concentrated, and the temperature is higher.

The ironmaking time is actually very long, but no one is willing to leave, even Ma Qiang is nervously waiting, the success of ironmaking and even the success of steelmaking in the future will affect the future success or failure of the Red Star Camp.

In the afternoon, the first furnace began, and several strong men knocked on the furnace door vigorously, and when the furnace door opened, the black and red furnace water rolled out, like magma, and then, everyone felt a wave of heat and a pungent smell.

"Did it work?" Zhang Zhen asked nervously, this was also the first time he saw the on-site ironmaking, his hand kept touching his beard, he felt that this ironmaking was more nervous than giving birth.

"No, it's just slag." Gan Shi understood a little, and as soon as he looked at the furnace water that flowed out and the attitude of Yue Liang and the others, he guessed three points.

"That.. Is this a failure? Lin Huan looked at Ma Qiang.

"No, these slags are normal, don't worry." Ma Qiang reassured, "The slag is the calcium carbonate and other oxides produced in ironmaking, and the melting point of these things is relatively low, so it will come out first, and the iron will come later." ”

After listening to Ma Qiang's explanation, everyone was immediately relieved.

When it was getting dark and the lights were on, the slag was released again, and Gan Shi squinted and said, "It's almost." ”

After another half an hour, the first furnace of iron finally came out, which was a golden-red molten iron, flowing rapidly along the built pipe, which indicated that the temperature of the molten iron was extremely high.

The molten iron flowed into a heavy metal vat, this vaat should actually be called the molten iron ladle, two iron chains connected to the molten iron ladle, and then used the pulley block to slowly lift it, seeing this, everyone nervously clenched their fists.

If this vat of molten iron falls, it will really be a tragedy in the world.

This tank of molten iron did not fall, perhaps because this tank is relatively small, only about a ton, this tank of molten iron was carried to another blast furnace, and then fell down violently.

Then, another truckload of ore powder was added, and these were manganese.

The first time you try it, you naturally have to try them all!

Then a few young men began to stir the molten iron in the steelmaking furnace, mixing the manganese and molten iron together.

"Come on, boys!!" Yue Liang let out a loud shout, and a huge thick pipe connected to a cortical pipe was dragged to the top of the stove by the men, and then put it in from the top of the stove.

"Orange, let's go!" Yue Liang shouted at Qingcheng in the distance, Qingcheng nodded and began to press the switch.

"What is this?"

"This is the oxygen pipe, which is connected to the mechanism of electrolysis of water, and the oxygen is fed into the furnace along the pipeline, which can exchange the carbon in the molten iron into carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, and the carbon monoxide can further exchange the iron oxide... In short, it is a way to turn iron into steel. ”

Yes, this is blowing oxygen to make steel! Although it is not as advanced as that of later generations, there is no converter, there are not so many tricks of bottom blowing and reblowing, and there is no protection of inert gas, but this is a great improvement compared with the original process of the Han Dynasty.

When the sky turned white, the molten steel was finally baked, and the final molten steel obtained was only about one ton.

How much is a ton of steel, probably as much as seven water dispenser barrels.

Ma Qiang looked at this ton of steel, and only felt that he wanted to cry, tired and tired for so long, only so little...

But this means that the Red Star Battalion has successfully smelted steel, whether it is ordnance or external sales, the benefits are unimaginable!

"I'm tired of the old man..."Yue Liang sat on the ground, and said to Ma Qiang and the others with a smile, "I have fulfilled my mission, I have succeeded!" This time, there are at least 4,000 catties of good iron. ”

"It's steel! It's steel!! The cheers came from afar, Yue Liang didn't know where the strength came from, he jumped up, and then rushed to the end of the molten steel, where the molten steel solidified into a somewhat rough steel ingot after the casting mold.