Chapter 253 Steel
·
Gong Zi Xu
Chapter 253 Steel
There is enough pig iron, and the molten iron in the furnace is more useful.
The craftsman closes the ditch used for casting, and opens the ditch leading to the wok iron furnace, which is nestled below the horizon, and the molten iron flows into the wok iron furnace that has been burning for half an hour.
This kind of wok iron furnace looks like a cup of Kung Fu tea, but the bottom and wall of the cup are hollow. The molten iron is placed in the cup, and the coal burns at the bottom of the cup. Warm, then smoked from the chimney.
The section where the root of the chimney extends from the furnace is buried under the groove into which the molten iron flows, which serves to preheat the molten iron.
Heating the molten iron in the furnace, preheating the molten iron on the furnace groove, warming the air blown into the combustion chamber at the bottom, and the flame exerts the waste heat all the way to maximize the use of its own energy, and finally turns into a wisp of smoke and dissipates in the air...
Looking at the thick smoke and dust, Fang Jun felt his heart pounding, wondering if it would turn Chang'an into the world's first smog city?
The fuel and molten iron are completely separated, so coal can be used. It can be directly dug out and used, which is much cheaper than charcoal that needs to be fired in a kiln. Anyway, it does not come into contact with iron, and harmful substances such as sulfur and phosphorus will not be mixed into molten iron. .
Coal can be made into coke. As far as Fang Jun knows, coke is the most authentic way to make iron. However, time is really tight right now, and the high cost of charcoal is ignored.
At this time, the molten iron has been heated, and there are already dots of light—it is the fine slag mixed in the molten iron...
The craftsman started the mixing equipment, and the large disc on the top of the furnace slowly rotated, driving the wrought iron rods to circle and stir in the molten iron.
Once the molten pig iron smelted in the blast furnace is stirred, the carbon and the oxygen in the air react violently at high temperature to produce carbon dioxide and release a lot of heat. When the molten iron is boiled, bubbles bubble up, pushing the slag to the edge of the furnace to accumulate.
The melting point of pig iron is lower than that of pure iron. When carbon is combined with oxygen, the carbon content in pig iron water gradually decreases, and its melting point gradually increases, so the molten iron in the frying iron furnace gradually becomes thicker, from clear soup to sauce, from sauce to jelly...
In the end, they gathered into iron clusters with cute shapes, which were molten.
After stopping the stirring, the craftsmen picked up a lump of iron with long-nosed pliers and put it under the forging hammer to beat it.
There was a tinkling sound, and the carbon element in the iron cluster was squeezed out in the form of simple graphite, together with the fine dross inside and the iron oxide debris on the surface, it turned into a little spark in the air due to the high temperature.
There is no technical content in this forging, it is just to remove impurities. The process is very simple. Just use pliers and hit it a few times under the forging hammer. Wrought iron is very soft at high temperature, so it is easy to shape.
The so-called "wrought iron" that has been beaten is not actually wrought iron in the sense of modern textbooks.There is no such thing as raw and wrought iron in the international metallurgical circle. In the modern iron and steel industry, domestically called wrought iron with a carbon content of less than 0.02%, and foreign called pure iron, are very soft in texture; those with a carbon content of 0.02%-2.11% are called steel. ; The carbon content above 2.11% is called pig iron in China, and it is called cast iron in foreign countries.
In our country, iron ore smelted directly by blast furnace is called pig iron, and wrought iron is made by frying iron furnace or steel frying furnace.
The carbon content of this "wrought iron" is inversely proportional to the frying and smelting time. The longer the frying, the more carbon oxidation, the lower the carbon content of the iron, and vice versa, so the carbon content can be between 0.01% and 1.5%. Float contains "pure iron" and "steel" in the modern sense.
So frying iron in ancient times was equal to frying steel.
It's just that the process is difficult to master. The finished products are mainly iron and medium and low carbon steel, and you can get one or two pieces of high carbon steel by shit luck—the probability is not much different from winning the lottery...
In steel products, the lower the carbon content, the softer, and the higher the carbon content, the more brittle and hard.
Medium and low carbon steel is soft, but it is not sharp when used to make swords. The ancients also regarded it as "wrought iron" and can only be used to make ordinary iron such as farm tools.Only the toughness, hardness, and strength of high-carbon steel meet the needs of making weapons, and that is "steel"...
The level of carbon content determines the softness and hardness of steel, so through the performance when it is struck by a forging hammer, experienced blacksmiths can distinguish which piece is soft iron, which can only be used to make hoes, and which piece is good steel, which can be forged with incomparable sharpness. swords and swords.
So far, Fang Jun's historical tasks have all been completed, and he can call the curtain call with peace of mind...
He doesn't know whether good steel can be produced. His level of knowledge can only allow him to understand the principles, but he has never had practical experience in operation. In this regard, he is not even comparable to these craftsmen of the Tang Dynasty who have been working hard all their lives.
"Master, master! Come and see, the piece I punched may be steel!"
A little apprentice yelled over there, attracting all the idlers.
Wang Xiaoer went over in person, picked up the piece of iron with long-nosed pliers, put it under the forging hammer and knocked it a few times, and said in a deep voice: "It's still a long way away, it's still good for a kitchen knife, and it's also good for an adze and a chisel." Reluctantly, swords and swords won't work!"
"Oh!"
The little apprentice was slightly disappointed, and responded with a muffled voice.
Seeing this, Wang Xiaoer stretched out his palm and slapped the apprentice hard on the back of the head, cursing: "You bastard! How can you be so dissatisfied? Your master, I have been making iron all my life. How many pieces of steel have I seen? It's you!" This piece in my hand is already a rare good thing!"
The apprentice next to him snickered, and the little apprentice covered the back of his head with a bitter face, and dared not speak.
This time, Wang Xiaoer's eldest apprentice shouted in a muffled voice: "Master, come and see this piece!"
He clamped a piece of wrought iron and beat it repeatedly under the forging hammer. With every strike of the forging hammer, sparks flew everywhere, but no trace was left. This piece of iron is tough and hard, obviously it is a high-quality piece steel!
"Uh... ugh!"
Wang Xiaoer's eyes were red, his whole body was shaking with excitement, and his voice was trembling: "Erlang, you are amazing... No, it's the patriarch who came down to earth! This old man has worked hard all his life, but he has never seen the first It is unbelievable to fry iron in a furnace to produce refined steel!"
Regarding this question, Fang Jun didn’t take it seriously, he pouted and said, “It’s just a probability, how much iron was in your previous furnace, how much is this furnace now? With so much wrought iron, the time it took for the craftsmen to get it out of the wrought iron furnace The order is different, the carbon content is more or less, there should always be one or two pieces of good steel, this is not worth it too happy! What you need to pay attention to is, where is the piece of iron that produces good steel? When did it come out, turn this chance of being lucky into a technology that can be controlled! From then on, you can have as much steel as you want!"
Wang Xiaoer was stunned for a while, then suddenly came to his senses, he yelled "Aw", his eyes were red with excitement!
In the past, when frying iron, pig iron was first hammered into pieces, and put together with charcoal into a much smaller iron-making furnace, and the bellows blasted from the top of the furnace.
After burning for a long time, the pig iron melts, and then stirs it with a stick until the iron condenses into a ball, and finally takes out the forging and squeezes out the slag.
In this way, only tens of hundreds of catties of iron are fried at one time, and Erlang’s iron frying furnace directly uses molten iron smelted in a blast furnace, and can fry tens of thousands of kilograms of iron at a time, which is equivalent to frying more than a hundred furnaces of iron in the past, producing one or two pieces of refined steel. , should not be surprising.
Coupled with groping experience and precise control... oh my god!
Isn't that as much steel as you want?
"Who can write? Hurry up and write it down for me..."
Wang Xiaoer's eyes widened with anger, and the little apprentice next to him raised his hand vigorously in fright: "That...Master, I have learned to write from my master in the school, but I don't know much..."
Wang Xiaoer slapped it with a slap: "Little calf, if you don't know how to write, just draw circles..."
Wu Meiniang pursed her lips and smiled.
Fang Jun glanced at the craftsmen around him, faded his smile, and said seriously: "This method is the foundation of my Fang family, and it is to be passed down from generation to generation, and you will also be the craftsmen of the Fang family from generation to generation. This skill will be admired and respected by the world, so this method must be strictly kept secret, if someone leaks it, don’t blame someone for being ruthless!”
Everyone changed color.
None of them are fools. This kind of precise steel refining technology will definitely make those iron factories red-eyed, and there must be countless threats and lures.
Not to mention that everyone is loyal to Fang's family, and they are shocked by Fang Jun. Even if they are poached by another iron factory, can Fang Jun let him go?According to Fang Jun's temperament, even if you hide in the mouse hole, he will have to drag you out and wring his head off!
Wang Xiaoer hurriedly expressed his opinion: "Our craftsmen, since we are servants of the Fang family, have absolutely no way to go elsewhere. Besides, although this method is not difficult, the important part is operated by old apprentices. Even they only know how to do it. I don’t know why, and I will never disclose this method, Erlang, but please rest assured! If there is any mistake, the old man will take eight apprentices and compensate Erlang with dozens of lives from each family!"
Fang Jun remained silent, and glanced at Wu Meiniang.
Wu Meiniang understood, and said with a slight smile: "Master Wang, why do you have to do this? Mr. Lang is just a warning, be careful when sailing for thousands of years. But from now on, when you enter and leave the manor, you must report in advance, and you must go with three or more people. Mutual supervision is the only way. I hope Master Wang can understand."
Wang Xiaoer said in relief: "Mrs. Wu, don't worry, this old man understands it. You should, you should. If anyone dares not listen, you don't have to do it. I will personally break their legs!" Such secret matters must be strictly guarded against. Well, the Fang family did this out of kindness.If you change to another family, you may not sign a life-and-death contract with you, and you will never even think about stepping out of the iron factory...
(End of this chapter)
There is enough pig iron, and the molten iron in the furnace is more useful.
The craftsman closes the ditch used for casting, and opens the ditch leading to the wok iron furnace, which is nestled below the horizon, and the molten iron flows into the wok iron furnace that has been burning for half an hour.
This kind of wok iron furnace looks like a cup of Kung Fu tea, but the bottom and wall of the cup are hollow. The molten iron is placed in the cup, and the coal burns at the bottom of the cup. Warm, then smoked from the chimney.
The section where the root of the chimney extends from the furnace is buried under the groove into which the molten iron flows, which serves to preheat the molten iron.
Heating the molten iron in the furnace, preheating the molten iron on the furnace groove, warming the air blown into the combustion chamber at the bottom, and the flame exerts the waste heat all the way to maximize the use of its own energy, and finally turns into a wisp of smoke and dissipates in the air...
Looking at the thick smoke and dust, Fang Jun felt his heart pounding, wondering if it would turn Chang'an into the world's first smog city?
The fuel and molten iron are completely separated, so coal can be used. It can be directly dug out and used, which is much cheaper than charcoal that needs to be fired in a kiln. Anyway, it does not come into contact with iron, and harmful substances such as sulfur and phosphorus will not be mixed into molten iron. .
Coal can be made into coke. As far as Fang Jun knows, coke is the most authentic way to make iron. However, time is really tight right now, and the high cost of charcoal is ignored.
At this time, the molten iron has been heated, and there are already dots of light—it is the fine slag mixed in the molten iron...
The craftsman started the mixing equipment, and the large disc on the top of the furnace slowly rotated, driving the wrought iron rods to circle and stir in the molten iron.
Once the molten pig iron smelted in the blast furnace is stirred, the carbon and the oxygen in the air react violently at high temperature to produce carbon dioxide and release a lot of heat. When the molten iron is boiled, bubbles bubble up, pushing the slag to the edge of the furnace to accumulate.
The melting point of pig iron is lower than that of pure iron. When carbon is combined with oxygen, the carbon content in pig iron water gradually decreases, and its melting point gradually increases, so the molten iron in the frying iron furnace gradually becomes thicker, from clear soup to sauce, from sauce to jelly...
In the end, they gathered into iron clusters with cute shapes, which were molten.
After stopping the stirring, the craftsmen picked up a lump of iron with long-nosed pliers and put it under the forging hammer to beat it.
There was a tinkling sound, and the carbon element in the iron cluster was squeezed out in the form of simple graphite, together with the fine dross inside and the iron oxide debris on the surface, it turned into a little spark in the air due to the high temperature.
There is no technical content in this forging, it is just to remove impurities. The process is very simple. Just use pliers and hit it a few times under the forging hammer. Wrought iron is very soft at high temperature, so it is easy to shape.
The so-called "wrought iron" that has been beaten is not actually wrought iron in the sense of modern textbooks.There is no such thing as raw and wrought iron in the international metallurgical circle. In the modern iron and steel industry, domestically called wrought iron with a carbon content of less than 0.02%, and foreign called pure iron, are very soft in texture; those with a carbon content of 0.02%-2.11% are called steel. ; The carbon content above 2.11% is called pig iron in China, and it is called cast iron in foreign countries.
In our country, iron ore smelted directly by blast furnace is called pig iron, and wrought iron is made by frying iron furnace or steel frying furnace.
The carbon content of this "wrought iron" is inversely proportional to the frying and smelting time. The longer the frying, the more carbon oxidation, the lower the carbon content of the iron, and vice versa, so the carbon content can be between 0.01% and 1.5%. Float contains "pure iron" and "steel" in the modern sense.
So frying iron in ancient times was equal to frying steel.
It's just that the process is difficult to master. The finished products are mainly iron and medium and low carbon steel, and you can get one or two pieces of high carbon steel by shit luck—the probability is not much different from winning the lottery...
In steel products, the lower the carbon content, the softer, and the higher the carbon content, the more brittle and hard.
Medium and low carbon steel is soft, but it is not sharp when used to make swords. The ancients also regarded it as "wrought iron" and can only be used to make ordinary iron such as farm tools.Only the toughness, hardness, and strength of high-carbon steel meet the needs of making weapons, and that is "steel"...
The level of carbon content determines the softness and hardness of steel, so through the performance when it is struck by a forging hammer, experienced blacksmiths can distinguish which piece is soft iron, which can only be used to make hoes, and which piece is good steel, which can be forged with incomparable sharpness. swords and swords.
So far, Fang Jun's historical tasks have all been completed, and he can call the curtain call with peace of mind...
He doesn't know whether good steel can be produced. His level of knowledge can only allow him to understand the principles, but he has never had practical experience in operation. In this regard, he is not even comparable to these craftsmen of the Tang Dynasty who have been working hard all their lives.
"Master, master! Come and see, the piece I punched may be steel!"
A little apprentice yelled over there, attracting all the idlers.
Wang Xiaoer went over in person, picked up the piece of iron with long-nosed pliers, put it under the forging hammer and knocked it a few times, and said in a deep voice: "It's still a long way away, it's still good for a kitchen knife, and it's also good for an adze and a chisel." Reluctantly, swords and swords won't work!"
"Oh!"
The little apprentice was slightly disappointed, and responded with a muffled voice.
Seeing this, Wang Xiaoer stretched out his palm and slapped the apprentice hard on the back of the head, cursing: "You bastard! How can you be so dissatisfied? Your master, I have been making iron all my life. How many pieces of steel have I seen? It's you!" This piece in my hand is already a rare good thing!"
The apprentice next to him snickered, and the little apprentice covered the back of his head with a bitter face, and dared not speak.
This time, Wang Xiaoer's eldest apprentice shouted in a muffled voice: "Master, come and see this piece!"
He clamped a piece of wrought iron and beat it repeatedly under the forging hammer. With every strike of the forging hammer, sparks flew everywhere, but no trace was left. This piece of iron is tough and hard, obviously it is a high-quality piece steel!
"Uh... ugh!"
Wang Xiaoer's eyes were red, his whole body was shaking with excitement, and his voice was trembling: "Erlang, you are amazing... No, it's the patriarch who came down to earth! This old man has worked hard all his life, but he has never seen the first It is unbelievable to fry iron in a furnace to produce refined steel!"
Regarding this question, Fang Jun didn’t take it seriously, he pouted and said, “It’s just a probability, how much iron was in your previous furnace, how much is this furnace now? With so much wrought iron, the time it took for the craftsmen to get it out of the wrought iron furnace The order is different, the carbon content is more or less, there should always be one or two pieces of good steel, this is not worth it too happy! What you need to pay attention to is, where is the piece of iron that produces good steel? When did it come out, turn this chance of being lucky into a technology that can be controlled! From then on, you can have as much steel as you want!"
Wang Xiaoer was stunned for a while, then suddenly came to his senses, he yelled "Aw", his eyes were red with excitement!
In the past, when frying iron, pig iron was first hammered into pieces, and put together with charcoal into a much smaller iron-making furnace, and the bellows blasted from the top of the furnace.
After burning for a long time, the pig iron melts, and then stirs it with a stick until the iron condenses into a ball, and finally takes out the forging and squeezes out the slag.
In this way, only tens of hundreds of catties of iron are fried at one time, and Erlang’s iron frying furnace directly uses molten iron smelted in a blast furnace, and can fry tens of thousands of kilograms of iron at a time, which is equivalent to frying more than a hundred furnaces of iron in the past, producing one or two pieces of refined steel. , should not be surprising.
Coupled with groping experience and precise control... oh my god!
Isn't that as much steel as you want?
"Who can write? Hurry up and write it down for me..."
Wang Xiaoer's eyes widened with anger, and the little apprentice next to him raised his hand vigorously in fright: "That...Master, I have learned to write from my master in the school, but I don't know much..."
Wang Xiaoer slapped it with a slap: "Little calf, if you don't know how to write, just draw circles..."
Wu Meiniang pursed her lips and smiled.
Fang Jun glanced at the craftsmen around him, faded his smile, and said seriously: "This method is the foundation of my Fang family, and it is to be passed down from generation to generation, and you will also be the craftsmen of the Fang family from generation to generation. This skill will be admired and respected by the world, so this method must be strictly kept secret, if someone leaks it, don’t blame someone for being ruthless!”
Everyone changed color.
None of them are fools. This kind of precise steel refining technology will definitely make those iron factories red-eyed, and there must be countless threats and lures.
Not to mention that everyone is loyal to Fang's family, and they are shocked by Fang Jun. Even if they are poached by another iron factory, can Fang Jun let him go?According to Fang Jun's temperament, even if you hide in the mouse hole, he will have to drag you out and wring his head off!
Wang Xiaoer hurriedly expressed his opinion: "Our craftsmen, since we are servants of the Fang family, have absolutely no way to go elsewhere. Besides, although this method is not difficult, the important part is operated by old apprentices. Even they only know how to do it. I don’t know why, and I will never disclose this method, Erlang, but please rest assured! If there is any mistake, the old man will take eight apprentices and compensate Erlang with dozens of lives from each family!"
Fang Jun remained silent, and glanced at Wu Meiniang.
Wu Meiniang understood, and said with a slight smile: "Master Wang, why do you have to do this? Mr. Lang is just a warning, be careful when sailing for thousands of years. But from now on, when you enter and leave the manor, you must report in advance, and you must go with three or more people. Mutual supervision is the only way. I hope Master Wang can understand."
Wang Xiaoer said in relief: "Mrs. Wu, don't worry, this old man understands it. You should, you should. If anyone dares not listen, you don't have to do it. I will personally break their legs!" Such secret matters must be strictly guarded against. Well, the Fang family did this out of kindness.If you change to another family, you may not sign a life-and-death contract with you, and you will never even think about stepping out of the iron factory...
(End of this chapter)
