Huo Gang, who came to the industrial city, came to see the first furnace of molten steel, the blast furnace has been built a lot, and the pig iron that has been refined Huo Gang has seen, because they have produced coke, so the quality of pig iron is extremely high, although it cannot be compared with the blast furnace of modern production equipment, but the difference is not the quality of pig iron, but the amount of molten iron and the time of molten iron.

Most of the pig iron that was smelted before was used to make large cast iron utensils, because pig iron was relatively hard and wear-resistant, and it was very good to use as a grinding tool for grinding ore, because pig iron was brittle and had no plasticity, so it was a good choice for casting.

As for the special cast steel, Huo Gang can't produce it now, and the production of ordinary steel has not yet reached it, let alone special steel. In fact, cast iron also has a special cast pig iron, but Huo Gang and they can't meet that requirement for the time being, so they can only use these.

With cast iron, many of Huo Gang's machinery have been improved, such as the mechanical conversion structure driven by waterwheels and windmills, that is, the basic gears, which are now directly replaced by cast iron.

With gears, this means that many machines are more efficient to use and can convert wind and water energy into force in different directions.

Moreover, the appearance of cast iron can allow Huo Gang to get a lot of modern tools, and this thing is not only used to make cold weapons, cold weapons can be said to be the simplest and most useless method of steel in this era.

The simplest, for example, with cast iron, Huo Gang can make screws. Of course, small screws Huo Gang can't make them yet, because the processing accuracy required for small screws is too high, but large screws, such as those with thick arms, can be made directly with abrasives.

Although rough, after being carefully polished, these screws can be used to the greatest effect, such as lifting heavy objects and screw jacks. And of course, the most important thing, bearings!

Bearing is just an easy-to-understand statement, for example, the current carriage, in fact, is already a kind of bearing, but any modern person knows that the real bearing is not this simple way.

The reason why Huo Gang's carriage had a very high damage rate of parts before the road was built was because although the Gobi Desert looked endless and incomparably flat, there were a lot of gravel in the Gobi Desert, and the current carriages were all wooden wheels, and rubber did not exist at all.

Blast furnace ironmaking has been smelting for more than half a month, from the first furnace of pig iron to the present, except for a small part of the pig iron used to make cast iron, most of the other pig iron has been taken out to make various tools, shovels, plowshares, daily knives and so on.

Because the open-hearth was built very slowly, and the open-hearth needed to be built together with the new blast furnace, and it required many cast iron parts, which is why the open-hearth was finally built after so much pig iron had been smelted.

When Huo Gang arrived, everyone was already waiting for Huo Gang's arrival, and several blast furnaces next to him had already begun to make iron, but it would take some time before the molten iron came out.

It is said that it is an open hearth, but the open hearth is not built on flat ground, but about 3 meters above the ground, and the high platform built up by refractory bricks and concrete below, the open hearth is on the right side, and the blast furnace is next to the open hearth on the left, and the gas produced by the blast furnace can also be directly transported into the open hearth through the pipeline.

The tap point of the blast furnace next to it is a little higher than the height of the open hearth, so that the molten iron can be poured into the open hearth as quickly as possible after the furnace is discharged.

"Ready! Feeding! ”

"Feed!" Where the open-hearth is located, Sun Er, they are constantly commanding, looking at the two furnaces with a nervous face, the blast furnace they have studied and understood, but the open-hearth has not.

At this moment, some lime has been added to the open hearth, and Huo Gang told them the principle, but they still need to do the specific operation.

"Molten iron is ready to be baked!" With the roar of the workers of the blast furnace next to it, the people of the open hearth here immediately began to operate, the charging port of the open hearth was opened, and when a car of molten iron was loaded into the hot metal car, it was quickly pushed over from the special track and poured directly into the charging port here.

As the molten iron is loaded, the preheated gas begins to be pressed into the open-hearth furnace, and the gas entering the open-hearth immediately begins to burn and release heat when it encounters the molten iron.

When the molten iron is added to a certain extent, the charging port begins to seal, and the other blast furnaces that are also connected to the open-hearth furnace are mainly used to provide blast furnace gas, which continuously enters the open-hearth furnace to help the open-hearth furnace increase the furnace temperature.

When the charging port of the open-hearth furnace is completely sealed, the blowers installed in different directions of the open-hearth begin to operate wildly, and the surrounding horses quickly begin to rotate around a machine, and then drive the blowers, which begin to blow air into the open-hearth furnace frantically.

The temperature in the open-hearth furnace immediately began to climb continuously.

The speed of open-hearth steelmaking is relatively slow, Huo Gang is not in a hurry, he does not expect the first furnace to produce good steel, he just knows the general construction method of open-hearth, but how to cooperate with open-hearth furnace and blast furnace, and then these craftsmen will need to continue to improve.

Even when to add molten iron to steelmaking, and what is the ratio of lime and molten iron in it, Huo Gang didn't know, so Sun Er and their furnace were purely experimenting.

Maybe there will be good steel, maybe there will be no good steel, but there will be some inferior molten steel, but as long as the method is mastered, the rest is nothing more than a matter of proportion.

With the passage of time, Huo Gang looked at the crude industrial base around him, and the huge cast iron blocks had been used in different places, and there was really a preliminary industrial beauty here.

Because in the sky above the industrial city, continuous black smoke has begun to emerge continuously, and when these black smoke begins to expand, it is the time when the industrial flower continues to bloom.

Finally, when Sun Er and the others observed that the molten steel in the open-hearth furnace had begun to boil violently as described by Huo Gang, and there were continuous impurities on it that began to float, it was also time to tap the molten steel.

There is no need for Huo Gang to manage this set, molten steel is the same as molten iron, Sun Er and they have long been familiar with the process.

In fact, even if they can't refine steel, just at the current speed of refining pig iron, Huo Gang and they can completely explode the Tang Dynasty.

Steel is awesome, but you can't help but treat pig iron as iron!

When the molten steel, which was not too large in the first furnace, was released from the open-hearth furnace, and then quickly flowed into the various molds, Huo Gang was waiting, determining whether it was steel or iron, such as Lu Feng and other blacksmiths naturally had their own way of judging.

An hour later, Lu Feng and Sun Er came to Huo Gang together, there was a hint of joy on their faces, and after saluting Huo Gang, Sun Er said quickly: "Leader Qiqi, we have succeeded, according to the judgment of the Lu family, what we have refined is indeed steel, and its quality is much better than the pig iron we refined before, but there is still a gap with the steel refined by the excellent blacksmith using the frying method, but the gap is not big." ”

"But the speed at which we refine the same furnace of molten steel is at least 100 times faster than the frying method, and I think the quality of this furnace molten steel is not good, it should be the material ratio that you told us, as well as our process problems, I will continue to improve in the future, and we will definitely be able to make better molten steel!"

"Not bad!" Huo Gang nodded with satisfaction, "Although the quality is not very good, it is definitely better than ordinary pig iron, in this way, these steels can be used on our farm tools, plowshares, iron picks, and shovels, which means that our mining speed can be greatly increased." ”

In fact, some of the previous pig iron has already made these tools, in order to speed up the mining speed.

"Yes!" Sun Er immediately spoke, "I will make two open-hearth furnaces as fast as possible, one of which is a small one for the study of molten steel in different proportions. ”

"Chief, I disagree." Lu Feng next to him immediately spoke loudly.

"Oh?" Huo Gang glanced at Lu Feng with some surprise, these craftsmen had worked together before, and this kind of argument was still rare.

"Chief, I am a blacksmith, my family has been a blacksmith for generations, the construction of the entire blast furnace and open hearth, as well as the ratio of molten iron and molten steel, I think I can complete it, everyone should study his refractory bricks." Lu Feng said loudly.

"Hehe, Lao Lu, it's not right for you to say this, didn't we say it? Do you want to study together? Besides, you're not as good at math as I am. Sun Er laughed quickly and said.

"Second Sun, I didn't agree anyway, you said that you are a good potter, and you are the deputy city lord, you do the work of overall distribution and management, why are you studying molten iron with us?" Lu Feng couldn't help but speak.

"Oh, I don't like to care about other people, I just like research, can't you let me join you?" Sun Er hurriedly spoke.

"Chief, I think Deputy City Lord Sun should do his own job." Lu Feng simply turned to Huo Gang.

The two of them said these words, Huo Gang figured out the reason, he couldn't cry or laugh, but he couldn't ignore it, so Huo Gang said very simply: "Deputy City Lord Sun, why don't you continue to study your pottery, and you have to engage in steelmaking with them?" ”

"Looking back at the leader's words, I think that my pottery will not have much effect, but I have a great interest in steelmaking and ironmaking, during this period of time with you, the leader, my horizons have broadened a lot, I have been thinking, why is it the same iron ore, but in the process of smelting, adding different raw materials, why is the quality of the molten iron smelted different?"

"Is there anything in the process of melting these raw materials at high temperatures...... There are changes, such as whether there is something in the molten iron, or what is missing, that leads to such a change. Sun Er hesitated for a moment, and then he spoke seriously.