Chapter 37: Cement from the dock
Storm urged Yan Changwu to build a dry dock, which was accepted by him, and there were two in one building!
The so-called dry dock is a large enclosed space built on the seaside for releasing ships. There are gates for ships to enter, the gates are closed, and the water is released. People can repair ships in it, mostly on the waterline. The following, after repairing, put the water in, open the gate, and the boat can be driven out.
"A dry dock must be built!" Storm pointed out.
"Oh, what's your reason?" Yan Changwu listened with respect.
Storm whispered: "It takes at least 3 years to build a boat, preferably 6 years. In an emergency, a boat can be built in 6 months."
"But such ships are prone to disasters at sea. Once the hull structure is closed, the dark, warm, and humid environment will be conducive to the reproduction of wood rot fungi, which will gradually reduce the strength of the wood, and finally destroy the compactness of the ship, leading to falling apart. .
At the same time, when the ship is sailing at sea, the wood junction will be corrupted if it is soaked in the water. A large number of parasitic sea creatures will grow in the place where the ship is in contact with the sea, and it will also erode the bottom and hull of the ship. In tropical areas, this erosion will be severely reduced. The life of the ship, if not repaired! The dock can also repair battle-damaged ships immediately after the battle, which is very useful! "
"In the Netherlands, due to the large number of ships, hundreds of ships can be built a year. Rotten ships are not a big problem, even the ship can bring the cargo to the cargo owner. This is the case in many countries. Only the English built the dock very early. But in our North Port, we have few ships. In order to extend the life of the ships and reduce costs, we should build a dock.” Storm firmly proposed.
What makes him happy is that Yan Changwu built a dock after following his advice and built two more!
The dock in English is made of stone, while the dock in Northport is made of cement!
Yan Changwu has extensive knowledge and knows that the production of cement is a mixture of limestone, clay, and iron ore powder in proportions. The mixture at this time is called raw meal, which is then placed in a cement cellar for high-temperature calcination. The clinker is obtained at 1450 degrees Celsius. It is ground together with gypsum and mixed in proportion to become cement.
is easy to say, but not easy to do, but there is someone rich in Yan Changwu!
He sent people across the sea, and "invited" five of the most famous pottery porcelain and brick-burning and lime-burning masters in southern Fujian. All of them moved to Beigang to serve him.
Both the hard and the soft, the settlement fee alone was given a thousand silver dollars, which is definitely not a low price.
After arriving in Beigang, Chen Zhongji had a cordial conversation with them, making them fully aware of "Follow or not, you must accept your fate!"
As long as you recognize that you are serving the big leader and meet his requirements, then you will be rewarded, otherwise, I have to ask you to be the son-in-law of the dragon king!
Yan Changwu, who was once deeply edified by the rule of law, is handy to do bad things.
The masters concentrated on tackling key problems together,
There is no shortage of limestone, clay and iron ore powder. First, they mixed and tested together. They opened a cellar on the hillside, poured in the ingredients, and constantly adjusted the firepower to observe the results.
Anyway, the final result is powder, mixed with water, and ready to serve after drying.
At first, the masters were resistant, but when the first batch of finished products came out, they became interested!
The mud powder produced is mixed with water, and it becomes a firm mud surface after it dries hard!
Your feet won't be bad when you step on it, punching will cause pain, your hooves won't break, it's okay to drench!
is really!
Of course, this kind of cement is inevitably rough, and after a few touches, the mud pours down.
The masters keenly felt that a great invention was placed in front of them, which would change the history of architecture for thousands of years!
Although it is the capital and ideas of the big leaders, the finished product is their practice, and Chen Zhongji made it very clear: You will be named in history!
They no longer need to urge them, they open fire day and night, all night long.
After continuous testing, they have tested more mature products and summarized the production process of cement, that is, from the extraction of raw materials to the delivery of cement. It can be roughly divided into three stages, which can be simply called "two grindings and one firing".
The first stage is raw meal preparation.
Limestone (limestone, marl, chalk, shells, corals) and clay materials (clay, loess, shale, siltstone, phyllite, river mud and lake mud, mainly provided), plus Iron slag, coal gangue, bauxite, etc., after being crushed and dried, are blended and ground according to a certain proportion, and then blended into raw materials of appropriate composition and uniform quality.
The second stage: Clinker calcination.
The prepared raw meal is sent into a cement kiln (in fact, it is the structure of a lime kiln), and it is calcined at a temperature higher than that of burnt lime until it is partially melted, and the cement clinker (granular or block) is obtained.
The third stage: cement grinding.
is to add an appropriate amount of gypsum in the process of grinding the clinker to grind it into cement.
The role of the masters lies in this. They continue to select materials and ingredients, and test back and forth to get better results.
They invented a stone crusher. This is a machine that relies on hydraulic power. The heart of the machine is a few giant pressing sticks. The pressing roller has convex and concave teeth, which can be quickly rotated by the impact of the water~www.wuxiaspot.com~ The large ore weighing hundreds of kilograms is sent into the pressing roller, and immediately crushes the rocks the size of a human head, and then is conveyed by the conveyor belt. Continue to smash on the next set of pressure sticks. In this way, after several passes, the ore becomes powder.
This kind of stone crusher is getting bigger and bigger to improve efficiency. Standing next to this machine, my ears heard deafening noises, seeing those huge stones being crushed into small pieces, and what came out was powder. I was amazed by it.
The cement kiln is steaming all day long, and the workers are in high spirits and are busy with production.
The finished cement is wrapped in moisture-proof greaseproof paper and packed in a gunpowder barrel similar to Europa. It is fine to use two iron plates and one hoop, but the weight of the filled cement should be considered. It is not good if it is too heavy or too light. In this way, Yan Changwu built a wooden barrel factory for cement and his own gunpowder, and later also used for wine.
After inspecting the cement, Yan Changwu expressed satisfaction with it and named it "Beigang Cement". The statement came from his vision. It was perfected by five great craftsmen, Wang Zhao, Chen Yucheng, and succeeded. He will be named in history and he will be rewarded with 2,000 silver dollars per person. .
Yan Changwu ordered further improvements: master the exact firing temperature and the correct ratio of raw materials, and improve efficiency in one step. He also proposed adding a preheating system, a cooling system, a blast system, and so on.
In today’s eyes, this kind of cement is inferior in effect, high in cost, and backward in production technology. In particular, lime pits are used instead of rotary pits (the rotary pits can be heated evenly and grind more finely), which is neither energy-saving nor Environmental protection.
But after all, it's still cement!
came in handy immediately, wiped on the dock wall, strong and durable.
is used in the construction of Beigang lighthouse, and then there are road repairs, building houses, and the supply of cement plants is in short supply. While Yan Changwu is very happy, he naturally established the "Southeast Intelligence Agency" to keep it secret!
