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As they spoke, the other two apprentices used their iron tongs to clip the red-hot iron ore out of the fire, put it in a dented iron container, and then the two began to smash it with sledgehammers. Although www.biquge.info the iron ore has not melted, the iron contained in it has been softened, and the iron ore is quickly cracked under the chisel of a sledgehammer.

The two apprentices carefully took out the useless stones with iron tongs, threw them into the slag pile on the side, and then collected the iron in the container and put it back in the furnace for calcination. There were still a lot of impurities in the iron, and they smashed it back and forth three times before the iron became pure enough to be forged with an anvil.

Looking at their movements, Fang Ruitao shook his head, not to mention that the extraction efficiency is too low, it is also very wasteful, among the so-called scraps, there are still a lot of iron elements contained in them, and the iron materials they sorted out in this way are only barely qualified. In the flames of the charcoal's lack of temperature, it was difficult for the iron to remove impurities, so it was no wonder that Bart's weapons were so rudimentary.

Fang Ruitao, who was talking to Bart about this, saw him staring at the two apprentices sorting iron, and then shook his head again and again, Blacksmith Zhang's heart couldn't help but be a little angry, he turned his head and said: "This little brother looked at my apprentice working and shook his head again and again, could it be that there is something wrong with what they did? It seems that the little brother is also a blacksmith?"

Blacksmith Zhang asked out loud, and Fang Ruitao came to his senses, he was so engaged just now that he unconsciously shook his head, obviously the blacksmith was a little angry. It's no wonder that shaking their heads like this naturally means that they have a problem with their work, which is not an indirect way to say that Blacksmith Zhang is not good at teaching.

Seeing Blacksmith Zhang, who had a slightly angry look on his face, Fang Ruitao waved his hand again and again and said, "No, there is no problem, I just wonder why Uncle Zhang doesn't use coal to smelt iron, but uses charcoal." ”

"Coal? What is that?" Hearing Fang Ruitao's words, Blacksmith Zhang was stunned for a while, he had been beating iron all his life and had never heard of such a thing as coal.

"Isn't there any coal here?" Fang Ruitao was a little surprised, maybe this place is relatively remote, and everyone has never heard of it.

Not wanting to dwell on the question of what coal is, Fang Ruitao continued: "Actually, I want to say that the flame temperature in the furnace is not enough, so it is difficult to remove the impurities in the iron, so the iron forged in this way will definitely not be durable. ”

Blacksmith Zhang said with some indignation: "Our ancestors all made iron like this, and the quality is indeed not high, but there is no way to do it." We don't know how steel is made, because it's a secret that is not known to others, and only in the big cities can there be such blacksmiths, or in the Durrant Empire, where there are powerful artisans, and their blacksmiths are much more skilled than we are. ”

Fang Ruitao didn't hear what Blacksmith Zhang said later, and at this time he was thinking about how to help Lutan Village use better iron. Although it is a three-minute heat on everything, with his extraordinary memory, Fang Ruitao has a wide range of knowledge, although it is only a theory, it can come in handy at this time.

The temperature of charcoal is only about 1,000 degrees, this temperature is lower for smelting iron ore, and the simplest solution is naturally to use coal, especially the kind of lump raw coal, the combustion temperature is definitely more than 1,500 degrees, and it can completely smelt iron into molten iron. The method is very simple, but there is no coal here, this road is naturally impassable, and the other way is to increase the flow of oxygen, only through the amount of oxygen more, in order to make the charcoal burn more vigorously, but also make the flame more warm.

Without a modern oxygen blower, Fang Ruitao thought of the oldest equipment - bellows. The bellows can force ventilation for the furnace to make the charcoal burn more completely, so that the temperature can exceed 1,300 degrees, which is enough for such a small workshop to make iron, at least at this temperature, the iron is already in a semi-melted state, not only easier to sort out the iron ore, but also easier to burn the impurities in it.

"Hey, Brother Fang, what are you doing?" Seeing Fang Ruitao stunned, Bart pushed him, after all, Zhang Blacksmith was impassionedly talking about the various difficulties of blacksmiths, and it was impolite to be stunned at this time.

"Ah, I at least thought of a way to raise the temperature of the furnace. Fang Ruitao's blurted out words that made the audience fall silent, and Blacksmith Zhang and his two apprentices all looked at Fang Ruitao in disbelief, obviously not believing that he could solve this problem that his ancestors had not been able to solve for generations.

"Brother Fang, don't talk big, can this really be solved?" Bart asked softly.

Fang Ruitao nodded: "Of course it's no problem, but I need some materials, including an iron pipe, some iron pieces, wood and a large piece of animal skin." "The things that Fang Ruitao asked for are not harsh, iron pipes and iron pieces are not difficult to find, after all, this is a blacksmith shop, there are many hunters in the village, and animal skins are naturally readily available, and wood is not a problem, because out of the village is a large primeval forest.

These things were quickly gathered here, and Fang Ruitao instructed everyone to make a gap next to the extinguished hearth, where the iron pipe would be placed, and then a skeleton similar to an accordion would be made out of wood, and tightly wrapped in animal skins to make an air bag. The most difficult place is the two flaps, which will control the air inlet and air outlet respectively, the air inlet is used to avoid gas leakage when supplying, and the air outlet is to avoid sucking the flame in the furnace into the air bag when inhaling.

Although Fang Ruitao can't do it, he can tell the principle, and Blacksmith Zhang is also a clever person, after knowing the principle, he quickly made these two things. The world's first human-powered blower was made, and it circled around the huge animal skin airbag, and Fang Ruitao nodded with satisfaction.

"Ignition. Blacksmith Zhang gave an order, and a yellow flame rose again in the hearth, and Fang Ruitao and Bart immediately walked behind the airbag, and used their battle qi to push the airbag desperately. The air was sucked into the air bag and then quickly blown into the furnace, with sufficient air circulation, the charcoal in the furnace emitted a dazzling red light, and the originally tepid flame also suddenly became rapid, and the color gradually changed from yellow to orange red.

Looking at the constantly beating flames, Blacksmith Zhang's face showed a hint of joy, and he immediately used iron tongs to put a piece of iron billet on the fire, and sure enough, the iron billet that had taken several hours to soften slightly became red after only a few moments.