Chapter 208: Hearts of Iron V

On the second day, everyone first gathered at the small pier in Huxin Town, and then set off for the location of the iron factory by boat.

In addition to the people in the castle hall yesterday, Old Ford and Hansel from the Government Council, Schroeder and Bryce from the army are also on the list.

They entered a tributary of the Weiss River, and as the boat advanced, the current became more and more turbulent, and gradually they saw a small pier, on which there were guards stationed. After boarding the pier, follow the path into a valley. The valley is full of trees, and the situation inside cannot be seen clearly.

Guy Burns, having received the report from the sentry, rode out to meet them.

"Okay, Burns, without further ado, let's get straight to the point."

"Uh...yes, Mr. Grayman."

Burns was a little apprehensive, and led Paul and the others to the "iron smelting plant" that was still under construction in the valley.

Just like the 51st district before, here is also a layer of guard posts, and the internal guards lead the vicious military dogs to patrol around, full of a sense of spookiness.

Although it is said to be "the first furnace of molten iron", Burns and the craftsmen have already gone through many tests, otherwise they would not have dared to inform Paul to visit. Wouldn't it be embarrassing for the Earl to make a trip for nothing.

Gradually, they heard the sound of water splashing. After walking through the dense forest on foot, a waterfall appeared in front of everyone's eyes. On the river in front of the waterfall, a building directly crossed the small river, covering the nearly 10-meter-long river surface.

Paul asked, "That building on the river is...?"

"Water wheel room, the power of the blower is output from here."

Paul was a little surprised. Is it necessary to be so exaggerated? It directly covered the river.

There are openings on the wall of the water wheel room, and transmission chains protrude from the openings, and then extend into another building by the river.

Burns said to Paul, "There's a blower regulator in that house."

"Take me to the water wheel room first."

Burns led Paul into the wheelhouse, while the others were stopped by guards.

The scene inside opened Paul's eyes.

He thought that the hydraulic drive device that Burns could produce was the common water wheel that he usually knew, because it was used for blowing wind, and the transmission device was at most complicated.

But I didn't expect this set to be so "powerful", at least visually.

I saw several large water drains placed in the center of the room. Under them was the river flowing rapidly. These water drains almost filled the water surface of the room.

Driven by the water flow, the water row rotates slowly, and the power is continuously transmitted through the transmission chain.

"In order to facilitate maintenance, we built houses on the river to prevent these drainages from being eroded by the external environment."

It can be seen that Burns takes great care of his creations. The interior of the water wheel room is quite elegant. The floor is paved with stone slabs. For the convenience of maintenance personnel, ladders, railings, and aisles across the river were also built.

But Paul was most concerned with its efficacy.

"Burns, how much power can these... these 'water discharges' generate?"

"75 horsepower, you know the word 'horsepower'? It produces at least 75 horsepower per second."

The two walked out of the water wheel room while talking, and the others who stayed outside followed immediately.

Burns brought them to the iron-making blast furnace. The craftsmen stood beside the blast furnace and waited for the molten iron to be smelted. Seeing Paul's arrival, they all saluted.

Even though it was already winter, the energy emitted by the blast furnace still made the surrounding heat wave roiling, making everyone who had just approached suddenly feel a double heaven.

In addition to the iron-making craftsmen, there are two other people here—Herman and Marlowe from the Ordnance Factory in District 51. They are responsible for the research and development of muskets and cannons respectively. They no longer need to participate in the manufacture of those finalized firearms. Naturally, Some of the craftsmen under their command were engaged in production, and the navy even separated some of the craftsmen to build a second ordnance factory near Fulan Port. The main job of the two now is to try various improvements to firearms and cannons.

As for what the two of them are doing here, it is natural to evaluate the impact of the new ironmaking method on weapon production.

The female advisor, Ladi, has a little knowledge of iron smelting. She has never seen such a tall smelting furnace, and she can't help but sigh: "Wouldn't it be very troublesome to dismantle and rebuild such a smelting furnace over and over again?"

Paul proudly said: "You don't know that. This furnace is reusable and can be used continuously. Add ore and fuel from the top, release molten iron from the bottom, and then add ore and fuel from the top. Then let the molten iron come out from below... a steady stream of continuous, continuous."

"Cough! Of course, this is only theoretical, and how long it can be used is actually subject to the refractory properties of the furnace material. The current one is just a test product, but I believe that with the proportion of refractory materials The summary and improvement of this kind of blast furnace must be able to continue to work for a long time, I estimate that a smelting furnace can smelt more than ten tons of iron~www.readwn.com~ more than ten tons?"

Those who don't know anything about ironmaking don't care about this, but those who know a little bit about this industry are stunned by the figures Paul said. This is too exaggerated. No wonder the lord said yesterday that he would monopolize the supply of steel in the Northwest Gulf.

Hansel even covered his mouth with his hands. He was shocked at first, and then ecstatic in his heart.

The novelties that the lord had created before made everyone not doubt his words very much.

In fact, Paul was indeed a bit bragging just now. He had no idea how much iron a blast furnace could smelt, and the specific value could only be known in future practice.

The name of the leader in charge of managing this group of ironworkers is Conrad, and he is also an old craftsman who has served the Greiman family before. Holding a nail in his hand, he ran to Paul with a smile on his face.

"Master Greiman, take a look, this is the pig iron that was smelted in our previous experiment."

Paul took the iron ingot and looked at it several times.

While everyone was being attracted by the blast furnace, he pulled Conrad aside and asked quietly: "Conrad, did your experiment go well? Did you encounter any difficulties?"

Conrad replied honestly: "The biggest difficulty is the manufacture of refractory materials. The previous one-time smelting furnaces can't use this. Later, hard clay was used as the main raw material to get a little bit of the door. Uh... to tell the truth, Earl My lord, in fact, we haven’t found the best formula and production method until now.”

Paul encouraged him: "This thing can only rely on continuous accumulation of experience, don't stop here."

"Please rest assured that we will continue to improve."

At this time, someone from the blast furnace shouted: "Molten iron is coming out!"

Paul's attention was immediately attracted, and he turned and ran towards the blast furnace. 11