The so-called steel, in fact, is iron, the modern distinction is based on the carbon content as the standard, the carbon content is less than 2% is called steel, and the carbon content is about 2% is the general iron. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

The higher the carbon content, the greater the hardness and strength of the steel, but the brittleness is also large, and the carbon content is low, although the strength will be slightly reduced, but the overall ductility is greatly improved, and the performance is better than one level as a tool or as a weapon.

There are also alloy steels, such as adding a certain amount of silicon or manganese to the steel to make special steel, each with a variety of different uses.

Liu Yuanshan's current conditions are already thankful that he can smelt ordinary carbon steel, so he doesn't have much luxury, let's talk about it step by step first.

The charcoal was first put into the main chamber of the steelmaking furnace and ignited, and then a certain amount of pig iron was put in according to the amount of charcoal put in.

"Carbonize, fire!"

Liu Yuanshan gave an order, eight people walked to the bellows at the same time, and the four of them on one side, pushing and pulling, pulling and pushing, back and forth, used the bellows to squeeze the air into the main chamber of the steelmaking furnace, and the charcoal fire inside began to burn, making a "snort" sound.

"One-two-one, one-two-one!"

The person who pulls the bellows generally holds the horn while doing the thrusting exercise, and it doesn't take long for them to be tired and sweaty, in the winter, several people take off their thick cotton clothes at the same time, and once again put into the hot wind pulling work.

In later generations, a problem that could be solved by a small blower required eight laborers to move incessantly, and the emancipation of the productive forces in industrial society can be seen from this. It is precisely because of this that Liu Yuanshan's determination to develop industry has been strengthened.

The eight strong men who pull the wind usually receive super-intensive training, although this work is more hard and tiring, but this bit of patience is really nothing to them, about half an hour of effort, the pig iron in the furnace finally melted into molten iron, Liu Yuanshan let people burn for a while, and the steelmaking work is completed.

"Pay attention to heat preservation, add fire below!"

Liu Yuanshan gave an order, and the cave below also began to burn, but it was not charcoal, but ordinary wood.

"Hong Zongwei prepare, release the molten iron!"

Here, Hong Zongwei had already prepared, pulled out the card connecting the inner room, and the red molten iron flowed out of the pottery pipe like viscous magma, and was connected to the stoneware container that had been prepared long ago, and after a while, it solidified and cooled, turning into pieces of steel ingots.

Iron has a very small specific heat capacity and is easily cooled under natural conditions.

Liu Yuanshan took the cooled steel ingot in his hand and looked at it, the large piece weighed almost thirty catties, and the small piece weighed only one or two catties, the specifications were different, but they were all standard squares.

But the appearance of this new steel, well, is very ordinary, and there seems to be a big gap with the steel in the previous life.

"This iron, tsk, that's good!" Hong Zongwei couldn't help but admire the steel ingot in his hand, and at the same time rubbed it with his hand, like a mother-in-law in the night of the candle in his cave room, his eyes were full of excitement, the corners of his mouth twitched a few times, and he couldn't help but swallow a mouthful of saliva.

Of course, the Ming Empire also made iron, and naturally knew the method of taking out the molten iron solution after smelting the iron ore and re-smelting, but the Ming Dynasty did not know the true principle of steelmaking, did not know what impurities it contained, and did not have a method of directional removal.

The blacksmiths of the Ming Dynasty made iron only for the sake of simple iron smelting, and refined pig iron into mature iron, not into steel.

Therefore, when Hong Zongwei saw Liu Yuanshan's steel with sulfur and phosphorus removed and some carbon, he was really full of praise: "Even those blacksmiths in our army can't train such good iron." ”

"Young Master, you are really amazing!"

"Yes, young master, you look at the color of iron, and it will definitely be sharper when you use it as a weapon!"

……

In the face of these flatteries, Liu Yuanshan did not have any smugness, and looked left and right with a small steel ingot with a sad face, still shaking his head.

He can't measure the carbon content in this ingot, but in terms of fineness, it should not be low, even if it reaches the standard of less than 2% of steel, it should be barely reached.

There are two reasons for the large amount of carbon residue: one is that the effect of replacing the coke from steelmaking with charcoal itself will be discounted, and the other is because this set of earthen furnace equipment is really not good and difficult to meet industrial requirements.

Because of the limestone at the bottom of the main chamber, the sulfur and phosphorus should be removed well.

But there is another fatal flaw in this steel: it is not smelted thoroughly enough. In layman's terms, although the molten iron has reached a lava state, the melting temperature should not be higher than the melting point of iron, which means that the earthen furnace he worked so hard to build is still some way from reaching the temperature he wants.

At standard atmospheric pressure, the melting point of iron is 1600C, and if there are too many impurities in it, it may melt at 1300 degrees. In other words, if the temperature does not reach 1600 degrees, the impurities will not go very well.

Now that you have found the problem, analyze it.

The lack of temperature is not the cause of the stove, this kind of earthen stove with charcoal is still easy to reach 1600 degrees, the problem is likely to be in the original tool: the bellows!

The bellows is actually not a stable blower equipment, he relies on the force of pushing and pulling when supplying air, and when pushing, the air is squeezed into the main room to support combustion, which will naturally increase the temperature of the main room, but the problem is that it has to be pulled after pushing.

When pulling, negative pressure will be formed inside the bellows, and the hot air in the main chamber will flow backwards, which will take away the heat in it, causing the temperature in the main chamber to always rise and fall during smelting, so the bellows is a big problem.

This problem can be solved, but it cannot be solved at the moment.

To solve the problem of air blasting, as long as the steam engine comes out, replace labor with machinery, and do continuous circular motion to make the air blast equipment, there is naturally no problem. But the point is, to have a steam engine.

"What do you think of this iron?" Liu Yuanshan asked Hong Zongwei with a steel ingot.

Hong Zongwei held the steel ingot with infinite worship and said, "Young Master, this is the best iron I have ever seen!" ”

"It's not iron!" Liu Yuanshan shook his head and said, "This is steel, and what comes out of this steelmaking furnace is steel!" ”

"Steel?"

"yes, but it's the worst steel I've ever seen!"

"The most, the most, the worst ......" Hong Zongwei looked at Liu Yuanshan with some incredulity.

Liu Yuanshan didn't want to discourage them, so he said: "Forget it, it can basically be used for now, you can continue." ”

"Oh, yes, two more things!" He almost walked out of the temple and stopped again and said, "First, send someone to guard the entrance of Qianning Temple, and from today onwards, no one is allowed to enter except you, understand?" ”

"Understood!"

"Second, don't throw away the slag left over from steelmaking, keep it for me, I'll be of great use!"