Quicklime was not available for the time being, so Wang Yuan got some limestone and used some glass beads from the jewelry store.

First of all, pig iron and fried steel are put into the crucible, and then a number of glass beads are placed and sent to the furnace for heating. The steelmaking furnace after the improvement is no longer a traditional square furnace, because the furnace temperature of that thing is too low.

The craftsman kept blowing the wind, and about three hours, Wang Yuan ordered the furnace to be opened.

At this time, it was already the beginning of February, and the iron plant had already resumed work normally. The other smelting workers were busy, even if Wang Yuan announced the opening of the furnace, no one came to see the strangeness.

What is there to see?

There have been too many failures, and everyone has obviously lost their freshness.

"Master, the Governor is making steel again today, won't you go and take a look?" The servant asked Wang Lu.

"Let's see," Wang Lu said with a headache, "I am afraid that if I can't make steel, the governor will finally get angry with me." ”

The servant said, "Not really." ”

Wang Lu sneered: "But anyone who is an official is so stingy. The governor didn't know where he heard the idea, but he had to try it, but he didn't give up after two months. At the beginning, it was said that the square furnace made steel, but if it could not be refined, the square furnace would not be made into a bad shape. A few days ago, it was even more interesting, I got a bunch of thrush stones, which were for women's thrushes, and wasn't it crazy to use them to make steel? ”

The servant couldn't help laughing: "Maybe the governor treats the stove as a woman and wants to get some thrush stones to curry favor." ”

Although Wang Lu was reluctant, he still took a sedan chair from his home to the iron factory, and happened to meet Wang Yuan ordering the craftsman to open the furnace. He didn't dare to take the initiative to say hello, for fear that if he failed again this time, the governor would lose his temper when he caught someone.

After the furnace was opened, a craftsman took out the crucible with tongs, and suddenly exclaimed: "It's water!" ”

The craftsman in charge of opening the furnace asked in a daze, "Molten iron?" ”

Wang Yuan was overjoyed and ordered: "It's molten steel, quickly pour it into the casting mold!" ”

Molten steel?

Wang Lu was shocked and suspicious, and when he took a closer look, he saw that the pig iron and fried steel in the crucible had been refined. But is it really molten steel? I'm afraid it's molten iron!

Without waiting for the molten steel to cool, Wang Yuan made steel again.

This time, put in fewer glass beads and refine the same amount of glass and time. At the same time, he said to Wang Lu: "Friend Wang, call someone at once and build nine more of the same steel-making furnaces." I'm going to do the comparison test over and over again! ”

"Huh? Ah, good! Wang Lu immediately called someone.

The second furnace steel has been smelted, and the molten steel in the first furnace has not yet cooled and solidified. The craftsmen in the iron factory, but everyone who could leave their posts, all gathered around to watch the excitement.

"Molten steel?"

"How can there be molten steel in this world? Molten iron for sure! ”

"Why is there no molten steel? When you fry steel, sometimes you can fry good steel, isn't that molten steel? ”

"But the Governor didn't fry it. He used a thrush stone mixed with clay to make a jar, put it in pig iron and inferior steel and threw it into the furnace to refine. ”

"Wait a little longer and see what comes out."

“……”

The few disciples brought by Wang Yuan didn't know anything about steelmaking. But they did not have preconceived preconceptions, and blindly believed in Wang Yuan's methods, but they were more determined to refine molten steel than those craftsmen.

Wang Lu did not speak, and was waiting patiently.

His ancestors have been iron smelting craftsmen since the Yuan Dynasty, and thanks to the blessing of Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, the life of a blacksmith is much better than that of other craftsmen.

Guarding the largest iron mine in Zhejiang, Wang Lu's ancestors made money by playing farm tools, because the craftsmanship was very good, and gradually he had savings and began to build his own furnace to make iron. In my grandfather's generation, the ancestral grave of the family smoked blue, and my uncle became an official in the examination, and Wang Lu's iron factory also became bigger.

Now, although Wang Lu is still a craftsman, he has long since disobeyed the conscription. Even if it was his turn to serve, he would just spend money on things, and the government could hire other craftsmen to serve on his behalf if he was not accommodating.

Wang Lu thought more than the ordinary craftsmen, and the governor put inferior steel in the crucible.

Turning inferior steel into water is something that has never been done before, and I'm afraid that furnace is really molten steel!

The molten steel is poured into the casting mold and gradually solidifies into steel blocks. Without waiting for the steel block to cool, Wang Lu personally took out a piece and beat it into a thin sheet of steel.

After some time, the steel sheet was completely cooled, and Wang Lu smashed it with a hammer, carefully observing the fracture.

"How?" Wang Yuan asked with a smile.

Wang Lu stared at the broken mouth for a while, and suddenly rubbed his eyes vigorously, for fear that he would see the flowers. After confirming it repeatedly, he said with a dry mouth: "It's steel, and it's better than the steel made by the steel filling method!" ”

"Is it steel?" The craftsmen leaned over their heads.

Soon, no one spoke, and everyone stared at the broken mouth in a daze.

This time, the medium carbon steel was refined, and the fracture deformation was not obvious, and the crystalline particles at the fracture were very fine. Experienced blacksmiths and blacksmiths can recognize at a glance that this thing is a lump of good steel!

There is no need to fill steel, and there is no need to temper repeatedly, just take pig iron and fried steel and put it in the furnace to burn, and you can make good steel in two or three hours?

While Wang Lu was ruined by the three views, he was also frightened by the huge profits. But the inventor is a governor, let alone inquire about the secret of steelmaking, even if he already knows how to refin, Wang Lu does not dare to imitate it without authorization.

Wang Lu said tentatively: "President Wang, I ......"

"Don't talk yet," Wang Yuan interrupted, "I'll wait until I do a few more sets of comparative tests." ”

For the next two months, Wang Yuan guarded the furnace to make steel, and after the scale was expanded, ten steelmaking furnaces worked at the same time.

He started by using glass beads as a flux, experimenting with not only the various portions, but also the size of the glass beads. Because quicklime is not easy to find, then use limestone as a flux, and also try different amounts and particle sizes.

Then, try fluorite, dolomite, quartz sand and other things one by one to observe the melting effect of these ores.

Finally, the fluxes are preheated for varying lengths of time before being thrown in to observe the effect. Different fluxes are used for proportioning, and the fluxing formula is manually adjusted, some formulas are useless, and some formulas are better than a single flux.

A few disciples brought by Wang Yuan came in handy at this time, responsible for recording the data of each comparative test.

The flux finally made by Wang Yuan even has a certain desulfurization and dephosphorization effect.

"Good steel, good steel, it's not lost to Bailian Refined Steel!" Wang Lu held the latest batch of steel blocks in his hand and sighed in admiration.

Wang Yuan was both happy and helpless, the secret formula he configured to help the melting was difficult to promote in other regions, because the composition of each metro mine was different. Unable to test the composition of iron ore, Wang Yuan could only try again and again, just like Edison invented the electric lamp, trying countless filament materials.

Whether it is pig iron or fried steel, the raw materials are smelted from this subway mine.

The iron ore here contains about 22% iron, about 7.5% iron oxide, and the impurities are mainly selenium dioxide (about 32%), and about 5% alumina. As for the harmful components, the sulfur content is as high as 1.1% and the phosphorus content is about 0.08%.

Wang Yuan's repeated attempts to help the melting formula are matched with the iron refined from this iron ore, and it may not be so effective if it is replaced by other iron ores—of course, it will definitely be effective.

"Friend Wang, I want to buy your iron factory." Wang Yuan said suddenly.

Wang Lu stubbornly said: "I don't dare not sell it." ”

This was an interesting answer, and Wang Yuan couldn't help but laugh and said, "Then let's work together." How much should I pay for you to leave 10% of the shares? ”

Wang Luxi said: "You don't need the governor to pay, the governor only needs to come up with the formula!" ”

"Then I will casually invest five hundred taels of silver, accounting for ninety percent of the shares." Wang Yuan said.

"Thank you, Governor!" Wang Lu immediately knelt on the ground and kowtowed.

In ancient times, don't talk about any contracts, they are all in charge of officials. For example, Wang Yuan, as an official, cannot do business on his own, and his shares can be placed in anyone's name.

Tianjin Weaving Factory, the nominal boss, is Wang Yuan's housekeeper Zhou Chong. But Zhou Chong couldn't touch the money at all, and Zhou Chong himself was a slave of the Wang family, even if Wang Yuan died one day, the weaving factory would have to be inherited by Wang Yuan's son.

As long as Wang Yuan does not lose power, the iron factory here in Shaoxing, even if he does not set up any written evidence, ninety percent of the shares must be his. Once Wang Yuan loses power, even if he has written evidence, he will be targeted by other powerful people because of his huge profits.

The official position is very bad, but the general environment is like this.

The emperor sent eunuchs to do business, and officials sent domestic slaves to do business, which destroyed Zhu Yuanzhang's ancestral system long ago.

Wang Yuan and Wang Lu casually signed a contract, and the iron factory was owned by Wang Chan (maid Xia Chan) in the name of ninety percent, and the remaining one percent was owned by Wang Lu.