On the same day, Lin Shenhe and Jiang Ye conducted several mechanical tests on the press, using an inert xìng powder similar to the black fire yào, which proved that all the machinery was fully functional. Jiang Ye added enough lubrication to all the moving parts to ensure that there were no problems when running.

It is not the first time that the mechanical department has made a special press for pyrotechnics - it has been used in the manufacture of chestnut sè fire yào shèyào cakes - but it has not been done with such high pressure and high density in the past.

Early the next morning, Lin Shenhe and the naturalized migrant workers who volunteered to help him put on the explosion-proof suits and special helmets provided by Panda, and moved to the front of the machine step by step.

The temperature in the house is stable at 13 degrees, and the hygrometer shows that the room is 90% moderate.

"Everything works." A naturalized worker who specializes in observing thermometers and hygrometers made a gesture.

Lin Shenhe took a deep breath and opened the sealed bucket containing the fire.

In the barrel is a newly made powdered black fire yào - the black fire yào of Lingao is generally granulated for storage: the powdered black fire yào is easy to cause the precipitation and separation of ingredients in the storage state.

He carefully scooped the fire from the bucket with a copper measuring spoon and weighed 1,000 grams on the balance scale on the table. Fill it into a large porcelain container, then pour in a *g*% concentration of liquor jīng solution, and the naturalized worker begins to stir slowly with a wooden stick until it is completely homogeneous.

The 75-gram deep river instructed. So far, so good, and that's the safest stage. Once you have done it, you have to go to the critical xìng step.

In accordance with his instructions, the naturalized worker took out the corresponding mold from the box and fixed it on the base. There are several types of molds, corresponding to different yào column shapes and qualities, all made of copper.

The stirred black fire yào powder was weighed by jīng and then loaded into the mold, and Lin Shenhe was not at ease with the workers, so he personally made a press. The press's pressure device drives the hydraulic cylinders by means of a manual runner. Slowly apply pressure to the screw.

He turned the wheel slowly and evenly, making sure that the pressure was not transmitted too quickly—too fast and too strong could easily cause an explosion. It was stuffy and hot in the explosion-proof suit, and his mood was very nervous, and after a while, he was sweating profusely, which gave him the illusion that the temperature in the room had risen.

"Check the temperature!"

"The temperature and humidity are 90%! Normal! ”

The dimensions of the 75-gram yào column were calculated using a formula to ensure that they were not over-pressed. But. This is only a theoretical result. He wasn't entirely sure if the reality would be the same. Of course, as the size got closer and closer, the beads of sweat on Lin Shenhe's brain became more and more, and he turned a few more times until the yào plane descended to the marker line - the first yào column was formed.

Lin Shenhe carefully took the yào column out of the mold and put it on a fixed plate - the next thing was to wait for it to dry naturally.

The frying yào room has a drying room dedicated to mén. However, this time it is a prototype product of unknown quality, and it cannot be dried together in the quantity product. Therefore, the laboratory has a separate drying room, where the air humidity and temperature are also controlled, and the yào column is naturally dried at room temperature below 40 degrees.

"And then the next one!" Lin Shenhe's confidence has greatly increased, since there are no accidents in the pressing process, it means that there is no problem with the entire process.

He in turn pressed yào columns of various sizes and qualities. Including those intended to be used to reload grenades -- the current grenades are nothing more than large firecrackers in terms of power, and their lethality is not worth mentioning, and they are what the Americans call so-called "shock grenades."

Another use of suppressing the yào column is to act as a propellant for the rocket, and the yào column with the same shape and density is an important guarantee for the consistent trajectory of the rocket, which is of great significance. According to his estimates, after switching to this new suppression of the yào column, the Hal rocket's shè and jīng accuracy can be improved to a higher level.

Of course. The biggest use of the high-density black fire yàoyào column is to load cannonballs, so that the grenades that were originally purely for decoration can reach a new level of power. Lin Shenhe thinks. Although the 12-pounder and 24-pounder smoothbore guns widely used by the army at present have the advantages of being simple to manufacture, simple to use, and suitable for low-level armies, in the long run, the shortcomings of the smoothbore guns are on the low side of power and the low speed of the guns cannot be overcome, and they are not "used for twenty years" as some people boast.

The large-scale manufacture of rifled artillery was an inevitable choice for the Senate military system. At the moment, only the naval and coastal artillery use a part of the rifled guns, both front-loading and rear-loading, but none of them have formed a standard equipment, only sporadic installations, with shiyanxìng quality. The main reason is that, in addition to the cost, the rifled gun has a much higher chamber pressure than the smoothbore gun. The fuse on the spherical grenade cannot be used on the rifled gun, so all rifled guns so far can only use solid shells.

The rifled gun's cone-shaped solid cannonball shells were far less lethal than the spherical shells of smoothbore guns, which could also be lethal when they jumped and rolled after landing, and the conical solid cannonballs went straight into the ground. The advantage is that it is extremely penetrating, and it is very powerful against city fortifications and warships.

In order for rifled guns to be sufficiently powerful, the fuses must first be solved.

Taking advantage of the dry time of the yào pillar, Lin Shenhe looked for someone to make the fuse.

Lin Shenhe has always wanted to solve the fuze problem. The main problem he faced: the state of the material branch in the industrial system of the Senate was terrible. In order to make a safe and reliable fuse, it is necessary to use a spring.

A spring is an inconspicuous handicraft in the old space, but in Lingao, the production of a spring is an out-and-out high ジシュ. The springs that can be used on the rifling gun fuse are the crystallization of industrial jishu: they include various specialized ménjishu for steel smelting, alloy materials and heat treatment. Lingao's industry can also produce springs, but from the material to the manufacture of very low-end products, used in simple applications such as carriages, sofas, etc., it is barely enough - nothing more than a shorter service life and frequent replacement. When used on artillery shells, they will not explode when they fall to the ground, affecting operations, and suddenly explode at worst, causing major accidents.

Because of this problem, although Lin Shenhe, Wang Ruixiang, and all kinds of veteran military enthusiasts tried to solve this problem, none of them succeeded-no matter what the idea, Zuihou could not overcome the threshold of "qualified spring".

Fuzes are consumables and must be kept low enough to be produced in large quantities. At the same time, the level of workers in the mechanical processing industry of the Senate is generally not high, and it is necessary to reduce the difficulty of jishu in processing and production as much as possible to ensure that the production quality is uniform.

Lin Shenhe read a lot of information on this issue, and Zuihou decided to refer to the fuse of the Japanese Type 91 grenade for design. This is a simple structure of the bombing type, relying on the inertia of the projectile moving forward when hitting the target to overcome the resistance of the anti-crawling spring to achieve fire. The insurance measure is the insurance pin that is pulled out before the shè is issued. The whole fuze design only needs an anti-creep spring, and the spring energy is not very demanding. It fits well with Lingao's current industrial capabilities.

In this fuze, the initiating tube is located at the bottom of the fuse, and the front end of the fuse is a long rod-shaped inertial body with a firing pin. The body is isolated by an anti-creep spring and an initiating tube, and is secured with a transverse fuse pin. In order to ensure the firing rate, the inertial xìng body is a long rod-like structure with a crown pressure plate at the top. Before the shè is issued, the safety pin is pulled out, and the fuse is released and the fuse is released into combat state. When the gun fires, the habitual body stays at the front end under the action of the anti-creeping spring to ensure that there will be no premature explosion; After hitting the target, the anti-crawling spring is compressed, and the firing pin hits the ignition and detonates the fuse.

The machine factory soon made a hundred fuses according to his design drawings - half made by the senators, half made by naturalized people. Lin Shenhe wanted to know how much the pass rate of naturalized people Jishu workers was at the time of full-scale production.

The results of visual inspection and acceptance of simple experiments show that the pass rate of naturalized migrant workers is about 40%. This ratio can roughly be accepted by Lin Shenhe - now it is manual assembly, and a large number of special mén process equipment is used in mass production, and the pass rate will be greatly improved after the workers are proficient.

Lin Shenhe believes that according to his shè, the fuze against the crawling spring itself is not very demanding, and the highest spring phosphor bronze spring currently produced by Lingao should be competent. He shiyan dozens of times in the lab with the fuse of a phosphor bronze spring - each time the phosphor spring reacted correctly.

However, there is no special equipment in the laboratory that can simulate the high temperature and high pressure environment when the shell is fired, and it is not possible to simulate the high overload of the shell in flight. A simple counterweight landing shiyan can't reflect the true xìng energy of the fuse. Lingao's military engineers had to test their designs in the simplest way: live ammunition.

Lin Shenhe went to Ying Yu and borrowed a mén rifled gun - this was one of the first 70mm breech-loading rifled guns manufactured by the Ministry of Military Industry for the four 8154s. It was removed from the ship and kept sealed.

Since 70mm rifled guns had never been made of grenades, Lin Shenhe first found a mechanical factory to make 20 grenades, installed a fuse, and used sand to counterweight the bombing.

He carefully marked and separated the cannonballs with the fuzes made by the patriarchs and the fuses made by the naturalized people, and then borrowed horses to drag the cannon to the shooting range, and began to experiment with the shè of xìng.

Lin Shenhe personally acted as a gunner, and the first time he shot Lin Shenhe did not use a full-loaded yào, but only a weakly loaded yào.

After eliminating the failure factors caused by the manufacturing quality of the fuze itself, the fuze achieved a 90% firing rate on hard and medium soil, and more than 70% in a wet environment. Judging from the actual combat results, it is completely qualified -- at present, the average detonation rate of grenades fired by smoothbore guns is only 70 percent. (To be continued)