In the development line of its own world, the steel keel, which is in the ironclad ship, at least, is also the kind of wooden ship iron rib, will use the steel keel, again, before that, wood has always been the only choice of keel.

Zhao Xin developed steel in the development of the navy for the first time, itself only because iron is used in a very wide range and is used to make money.

The appearance of a large number of blacksmiths like Niu Dali, to a certain extent, made Zhao Xin's plan deviate.

Originally, according to the general law of industrial development, light industry appeared before heavy industry, and the reason is very simple, heavy industry requires greater scientific and technological content and investment.

Now there is more genius Niu Dali, as well as the foundation of the iron and steel industry of the Northern Song Dynasty itself, and the combination of the two sides has created the glory of the current Dinghai Navy.

The basics, bull powers, traversals, and card systems eventually gave way to the navy's steel industry, which was no less than the level of the world's major powers before the First World War in the nineteenth century, in which case steel was not a problem at all.

In the selection of keel, the shipwrights proposed that even if the Dinghai Navy has a very good drying system, which can quickly process the ship materials, there is no problem with the general ship materials, but there are still problems with the ship materials of the keel.

After knowing this, Zhao Xin took out the steel keel, the appearance of the steel keel, initially, really made the boatwright a little controversial, Zhao Xin opened the experiment, initially promised them, only the steps of the experiment, the rest, according to their design, but this mandatory keel, let them not worry.

In the same way, this keel is not only a steel keel, but also different from ordinary keels in terms of form, and in this case, the shipwrights hesitated.

What is the keel, it is the core of a ship, above the sea, withstanding the wind and waves, the reason why the ship can not disintegrate is because of this strong enough keel.

In the early stage of the development of shipbuilding technology, the keel has never been a problem, when there is no large-scale felling in the forest, there are still many big trees, the ship is small to large, every meter increases, the tonnage of the ship will increase rapidly.

From one or two meters to more than ten meters, more than twenty meters, this is already very large, more than 20 meters long ships, even if it is a wooden ship, will exceed 1,000 materials, such a ship is very difficult to manufacture, that is, in the Northern Song Dynasty, it appeared on a large scale.

The 20-meter-high tree is still suitable for shipbuilding, and it is very difficult to find, and it is relatively difficult to deal with it, even if it is a shipyard that is generally prepared, they can take out a dozen at most, which is more difficult for the Dinghai Navy.

This is still a ship of less than 1000 materials,

But as the ships got bigger and bigger, to 1,500 stones, 2,000 stones, which was almost more than the maximum length of the tree.

Of course, if it is in North America, the spruce in North America can reach a height of about 60 meters, but this thing, whether it can make a 60-meter-long ship, Zhao Xin does not know, he is a study of history, but he focuses on Chinese history, for world history, only dabbling, for shipping and navigation history, I don't know much.

China's shipbuilding, there has been a combination of keels, at least two giant trees combined with a combined keel, otherwise, more than 3,000 stone ships, under normal premise, it is difficult to complete the manufacturing.

However, even if it is shipbuilding, to the extent that the Daming Sea ship is 30,000 stones, it is also a wooden combined keel.

This keel, or a variety of wood, by joining, gluing, together in the case. Their strength has increased greatly, but no matter how strong they are, they can't compare to the iron keel, let alone the steel keel.

However, when the steel keel first appeared, these shipwrights did not think that this was a steel keel, these craftsmen, for the level of the navy, did not know much, an iron keel, it was already unexpected, fine iron keel, this is almost impossible, you know, the price of iron was 80 Wen a catty before, but steel, less than 1 through, more than two or three through.

Even if it was an iron keel, these craftsmen did not approve of it and raised objections.

The leading technology is indeed useful, why iron will replace bronze, the reason is that iron is advanced, under the premise of such an advanced, iron weapons can replace bronze weapons.

As early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, steel had already appeared, and then it developed rapidly, but on the keel, iron was considered as a connecting thing, but it was not considered, and the keel was purely made of iron.

On the one hand, under the premise of a handicraft workshop in feudal society, a keel, even if it is about 10 meters long, is an incompleteable task. ，

The specific gravity of iron is in, 7, 8, 10 meters of keel, no matter how little, there are almost two or three cubic meters, according to the density, 3 cubic iron, almost twenty-four or five tons, converted into catties, almost 50,000 catties of iron, such a huge iron tool, or the shape of the keel, which is almost impossible to complete for the time of non-industrial production.

If it is more than the world, the largest tonnage ship, when it is impossible to make a keel with ordinary wooden materials, use an iron keel to work hard, a small boat three or four meters long, such keel materials, in the shipyard can be said to be piled up, and even the navy, a little processing of wood, you can get a lot, for this, get an iron keel, this is a bit too much.

There is no need for a small boat to use an iron keel, after all, it is impossible for a small boat to go to the sea, which is why China has never considered this.

In the same way, iron is brittle and prone to breakage, which is a source of concern for shipwrights.

Zhao Xin took care of everything, and everything was successfully supplied, without considering the problem of materials and cost, and even the soft sails supplied to them were also made of silk, such a luxurious behavior, and it was also done, and the keel made of a complete iron was unacceptable.

They are more focused on the mass of the iron keel, and in heavy ships, it is easy to disintegrate due to the wind and waves at sea.

Zhao Xin's solution to the problem is very simple, when the steel keel is completed, let them hammer the keel with a sledgehammer, no matter where it is, they can knock it hard

Zhao Xin didn't understand how high the keel of the ship needed to be performant, but ordinary steel, steel with strong toughness, was enough.

The strength of steel, no matter what, is much stronger than wood, as for toughness, after the addition of some special metals, the performance will be greatly improved, and I don't know how much stronger than wood.

Of course, this sledgehammer is not the same strength as the keel, if it is the same strength, perhaps, for the heavy keel, there is no way to do it, and it is impossible to interrupt, but no matter how it is said, it is the same material, and when it is used by people with enough strength, it may not be able to bend the keel, but it will form obvious traces on the surface, and if there is a little problem, it will affect the whole ship.

Even if it is not a steel hammer, it is a real iron hammer, heavy, and hard, first, try to take the stone, in the hands of a strong man, the stone fragments that are directly hit fly around, and soon, a huge stone, is smashed open.

Then, against the keel, the ping-pong smash was smashed all the way, without much impact, not even a little trace left, let alone deformed.

Hearing is false, seeing is believing, before, about the performance of the keel, whether it is the next child, these people are convinced, you know, the original shipbuilding, for the keel is quite careful, sometimes, a little touch, need to be carefully checked, sometimes, a little stronger, will rebuild the keel, the reason is very simple, the keel is the foundation of a ship.

In other places, if there is a little problem, it can be replaced, and if there is any little problem with the keel here, it is easy to have problems.

Not to mention holding a hammer, even if it is a small mallet, a few touches, the shipwrights, will be shocked, in the construction of the keel and the initial shipbuilding process, almost the most delicate time, not only the master craftsmen are often there, some specialized craftsmen, almost for a long time here, only the preliminary construction is completed, to the time of the superstructure, will be relaxed.

Being able to withstand the hammering of an iron hammer does not represent everything, but it has already shown that the quality of this keel, more than a dozen books, not to mention anything else, is as good as a whole, iron is definitely much stronger than wood.

Of course, the keel that Zhao Xin used to make the shipwrights believe did not dare to use it as a keel, and these experimental ships have a special significance, because every ship will try a subsystem.

These subsystems, simply matched with the entire Chinese sailboat, there will be some problems, can not let the keel problem, and then affect the whole, when the time comes, if there is a problem, then it will be a big trouble, because there is a problem here in the keel, then it can not play, the effect of the test.

In the eyes of those craftsmen, these keels are miraculous things, and with these keels, they can make stronger ships, but I don't know why this owner is so rich, and such a huge keel can also be made, how much it costs.

This is the difference between industrialization and handicraft, the reason why shipbuilding did not think of keel, because before, iron was built, all by hand, under the hammers of blacksmiths, little by little.

Senior blacksmiths, in this era, have that ability, can definitely be called a magic workmanship, no need to measure, no need to compare, as long as you hold a hammer, keep beating, you can create a magic weapon.

Such magical skills are only on swords and other weapons, at most they are heavy weapons, but when it comes to the keel, such a thing that weighs at least 25 tons, with a small hammer, it is unimaginable, and even such a big thing, how to heat up, how to burn red.

But the power of industrialization solves this problem, and even makes complex things simple, after the abrasive is made, as long as the formula of the steel mill is suitable, continuously injected into an abrasive, it is fine, as long as the quenching and repair are carried out in the later stage, it may be made, that is, it is a waste of a day or two, and it is okay.

Just stop for a few days, and then replace this keel, it's okay, this test keel, in the end, was not used in shipbuilding, but after melting, it became a raw material for steel.

With the keel, take this keel as the basis, first of all, the whole ship, basically there will be no problems.

The bottom keel of the Western sailing ship is used, the main structure of the Chinese sailing ship is added, and some subsystems of the Galen ship are mixed in the middle, which are obviously inconsistent with fluid mechanics, but the strong keel and the basic design bring a high fault tolerance rate, to put it bluntly, the fault tolerance rate is relatively high.

In fact, Zhao Xin doesn't have the luxury of expecting how much speed and performance this thing has, he just wants to see if these sub-projects, with the efforts of these shipwrights, can be completed one by one, and then will do some verification for these sub-projects, and once the verification is completed, you can try to integrate.

At present, the ship will not disintegrate, it will not roll over, and everything else is easy to do.

For some skilled masters, this keel is the core of a ship, a keel problem, at least restricts a lot of people, but now, this keel is solved, other aspects, it is not a problem, although a little unwilling, but under the premise that the navy takes care of everything, they can only agree.

At night, Zhao Xin, who ran for a day, entered the tent in confusion, although he said that he was like an arrow, but his horse team, after all, could not be the same as 800 miles of urgency, with 500 cavalry, the general post station, could not provide them with horses to change.

After running a certain mileage every day, it is almost inevitable to stop, from the vicinity of Yingtianfu, all the way to Haizhou, along the way, less than 700 miles, if you are fast, you can walk 250 to 300 miles a day, it will take almost two or three days.

Before, it was just through the inherent channel, a message came over, what it was, he didn't know, he was curious, it was those projects that were completed.

Of all the subsystems, he actually focused more on the soft sails, as well as the bow and the forward mast.

These are all designs that have never appeared in Chinese-style sailboats, and these designs are very strange, and if it were not for Zhao Xin's forced requirements, this would not have been possible.

These were evidently the characteristics of the Galen, and the Spanish galleon, which, if all brought together, would form a real ocean-going galleon, and he was looking forward to the rapid appearance in his hands of a real, ocean-friendly warship that could carry a large number of guns.

As long as it appears, the Dinghai Navy with its back to the ocean will really have the ability to be stable, perhaps, on land, 5,000 people, it is almost difficult to deal with 50,000 people, let alone 500,000 people, but on the sea, as long as the technology is leading, 1 to 100, or even 1 to 1000, it is not impossible, which is also what he expects.