The first steam blast furnace in the federation was put into operation.

The marching band played the march.

The music begins with a bass string violent, and when the main theme first appears, it is firm, but it is suppressed and low.

Coal is burning, and blue flames are burning the boiler.

The steam is introduced into a cylinder with a diameter of 32 inches, and through the piston, it drives the huge cast-iron robotic arm of the beam steam engine, which goes up and down, making a reciprocating motion.

Child laborers in their teens operate various valves, drenched wet, sweat, or mist, unable to distinguish.

Cold water is injected, cylinders condense, and mist fills the area around the riveted boilers and iron arms.

The steam engine on the right side of the mechanical arm drives the blower on the left, the blower cylinder is cast from brass, and the piston feeds air into the blast furnace.

The wind pressure is about 1 pound per square inch, which is more than a simple hydroelectric unit, which is enough to change the small blast furnace nozzle. The advantage of changing the size is that multiple nozzles can be opened on the furnace body.

The blast furnace in front of him has two steam blowers, 1 left and 1 right.

The charcoal filler supports a blast furnace with a height of up to 13 meters, and the blast furnace in front of Shou Xian is about 10 meters high, which is now the largest blast furnace in the world.

The two blowers are designed to supply air together when necessary, and more importantly to keep the furnace running if one blower is damaged or repaired.

If it is not equipped with a steam engine, it is difficult to meet the needs of a 10-meter blast furnace with a hydraulic unit.

In the 1650s, English blast furnaces were usually around 7 meters, and the English were trying to increase their blast furnaces, climbing upwards step by step, slowly but surely.

Accordion-style leather bellows are still used in the UK, but in Asia, China and Japan there are more well-constructed wooden piston bellows. All the Federation had to do was metallize the piston bellows out of brass.

Blast furnace molten iron can be used to make some appliances with low quality requirements. In the early days, some cannons were cast directly from blast furnace pig iron, and the army that used them greeted the craftsmen's families.

The next step in the production of blast furnace pig iron is divided into two processes, purification and refining.

The production of cannonballs is purified by a small charcoal blast furnace with manual blast blast, and Chinese craftsmen have a good grasp of this small blast furnace production process.

Larger castings are produced by refining in flame furnaces or reverberatory furnaces.

The most important cast-iron cannon is a reverberatory furnace with a hearth area of about 2 square meters, which can hold 20 stockpiles or crucibles, and the starting temperature can be adjusted by a ram on the chimney.

Reverberatory furnaces and crucibles are derived from copper and lead production, and their use in iron smelting is a natural process.

The structure of reverberatory furnaces is generally similar, with the difference being natural ventilation and forced ventilation, depending on the needs and cost of the product.

If the molten iron purified by the reverberatory furnace is used for casting bells, it is still used in the traditional clay model.

If it is a cast gun, the molten iron is wet sand fan or dry sand fan, dry sand requires more clay than wet sand, and it also needs to be dried, which is more costly. The arsenal tried both the mud fan and the iron fan, but the effect was not ideal, especially the iron fan, the cooling rate was too fast, and the quality of the gun was not up to standard.

Only naturally ventilated reverberatory furnaces may also convert cast iron to wrought iron, with better forced ventilation.

Mix 200 kg of cast iron with small pieces of rusty scrap iron into the reverberatory furnace, stir with a stirring stick, continue to stir after boiling, and specks of wrought iron can be seen at this time.

When the temperature rises to the point where the slag iron is separated, a mushy mass can be collected. The furnace temperature is not enough to melt the wrought iron, and the pig iron gradually turns from liquid to paste-like iron mass during the decarburization process.

Then there was forging or rolling, and the screws used in the new guns were produced from slotted rolls.

A complete ironworks consisted of at least one blast furnace with forced ventilation of a steam engine, one reverberatory furnace for natural ventilation and one reverberatory furnace for forced ventilation, and a forging hammer and roller mill using a steam engine to lift water to drive the water wheels.

The technology of hydraulic forging hammers, whether they are lever hammers or runout hammers, is very mature.

The research institute once tried to make a steam hammer from a steam engine, and the idea was very good, but unfortunately it caused two major accidents.

A 70-kilogram forging hammer brought the steam engine to pieces during the hammering process, and another hammer frame came loose, resulting in casualties in both accidents. Although the development of steam hammer did not stop, it did slow down.

Steelmaking still uses the traditional carburizing or churning method.

Carburizing uses wrought iron and charcoal, the furnace is heated for a week, and about 100 tons of charcoal are required to convert 500 kg of wrought iron into steel.

With the reflex mixing furnace, the craftsmen also knew that the key was the carbon content, so it was natural to mix wrought and pig iron and produce steel by mixing it. The trouble is to control the carbon content, which is not only unclear about the carbon content of the raw material, but also the carbon content of the product. It can only rely on the experience of craftsmen, or rather, on Meng. There are very few craftsmen who are familiar with the churning method, and they all have additional allowances and are protected.

Stirred steel is generally used to make spring plates, key parts of flintlock pistols, and carriage leaf spring suspension is also produced by churning steel.

Carburized steel is mainly used in the production of knives.

In addition to these, the arsenal also has a large boring machine. Vertical boring, horse drive.

In the design of horizontal steam boring machine, there are several key problems that need to be solved urgently.

After the conquest of the Malay Peninsula, the Federation acquired the Bukit Bisi Iron Mine in the southern state of Terengganu, which is located near the Kualalong Canal and less than 30 kilometres from the sea.

Iron ore is transported to the capital via a 10-kilometre stretch of mine road on the Kualalong Canal onto a flat-bottomed sand boat for both river and sea use.

The Bukit Bisi Iron Mine has just been opened, and the output is relatively low for the time being. Terengganu is a pristine state with large forests, and some traders plan to drive iron factories directly to the mines.

When more manpower is in place, the mine will be able to afford most of the civilian iron production in the Commonwealth. At that time, high-quality Sanya pig iron will be mainly used for weapons production.

The production capacity of local flintlock pistols is all controlled by the army, and the flintlock pistols needed by the navy will be produced in Sanya.

In order to ensure the safety of the newly built arsenal, the Navy plans to send a Goddess-class battleship formation to assist in the defense of the Qiongzhou Strait.

The home fleet is gradually replacing the Goddess class as the capital ship with the 74-gun Majestic class battleship, and the importance of the Goddess class has declined.

An old 9-pounder iron cannon was assembled in the arsenal, mounted on a wooden gun carriage, without screws, and full of skids for pitch adjustment.

The old iron cannon is now not needed by the Army, nor by the naval warships, but as the territory of the Union expands, this cheap iron cannon is still useful in the estuarine batteries everywhere.

Amid the small applause around, Shou Xian waved his hand and left the arsenal.

Steel is the backbone of the country and its people. When the output of steel increases, the people have high-quality iron tools at their fingertips, and the waist pole is hard.

Steel production is an economic indicator, and it is also related to the level of public morale, so it cannot be overstated. Federal steel production is largely optimal under existing conditions.

The next step is to find the right coking coal and design the coke blast furnace.

Coke is a troublesome thing, and Britain is the first to use coke to make iron, thanks to the low sulphur content and good coking properties of the easy-to-mine coal mines in Sropeshire. France, despite having England as a teacher, is still 80 years late.

The power of the steam blower is first seen in the reverberatory furnace, but it is only half the power in the charcoal blast furnace.

The coke is strong enough to bear the weight of the added charge, and the coke blast furnace can easily break through the upper limit of 13 meters in height, and with the forced ventilation of steam blowers, iron production will grow explosively.

And as long as the coke problem is solved, liquid molten steel is a kick in the door.

On the return journey of the carriage, Shou looked out the window, on the side of the road, until at the end of the view, the plantations were full of harvests.

The new secretary whispered, "Your Excellency, is the military band playing a new march in the ironworks?" I don't understand music, but I can feel that the background is a little eerie, and it doesn't seem impassioned until the second time the main theme appears. ”

"Yes, it's the first time I've played in public."

"Your Excellency, what's the name of the song?"

Shou Xuan turned his head and smiled, "That's the Imperial March." ”