Chapter 297 It's a Bit Like the Most Primitive Blast Furnace

Compared with burning ore, burning clay does not require extreme high temperature. It only requires charcoal and firewood to be mixed together to achieve a low-temperature smoldering environment of seven hundred degrees. It only takes four hours to complete the firing of low-temperature ceramics. And this kind of low-temperature smoldering pottery is the craftsmanship of the potters of the Ross tribe, and it is also the craftsmanship of annealing glassware. After all, glass and pottery are mainly composed of silica.

A brand-new bonfire is blazing fast, brighter than the others.

Because what is being roasted in the core of the flame is a brand new stove, which is changing from wet earth to hard clay stove.

This furnace can be built higher, with more refractory ore piled up in the inner chamber, thicker clay furnace wall, and the hole for the blower of the skin bag is processed, and a special hole for hot metal is drilled.

In this way, a small blast furnace at the pre-Qin level was completed. It looks simple, but the performance is really excellent. That kind of blast furnace can smelt pig iron.

Of course, the new furnace owned by Kawei is more primitive. It is not a blast furnace at all. No matter what kind of air is supplied, it cannot breed a stable high temperature environment of 1200℃. It is already the limit when it reaches 1100 ℃, and this temperature is impossible to smelt pig iron water, only tin bronze water can be produced.

Rurik was very tired, and although the woodcuts had been built, he couldn't stand the strong smell of fresh pine. He rested in the longship until the smell dissipated, as did most of the other children.

Compared to the sophisticated people, a large group of Ross warriors are not so particular about the accommodation environment. They just made the bedding by the campfire and fell asleep comfortably, and before they went to bed, many people went to the river and scrubbed their sweaty bodies with the river water. Of course, this scrub was done with soap, and they gave themselves Perfect for cleaning.

Even some people who brought a change of clothes gave the dirty clothes to the Kewen women and asked them to wash them for themselves. Here, the women of the Iron Squirrel Tribe, although they are weak, are now fully responsible for the logistics of the builders.

They cook rice and cut fish, collect firewood, and wash clothes. This division of labor really supports the construction of settlements, but these tribal women are not so willing. They are very willing to wash their own people's clothes, but the thought of washing the Ross warriors, the feeling of disgust is long-lasting. They can say that Rurik is a person worthy of respect and trust, and other Russ, it is doubtful.

Rurik hid in the boat and fell asleep, and not many people were awake on the entire construction site.

There are some people who are wandering, they actually get up and go to the toilet.

Kawei is completely because of the strong expectation in his heart,

He kept his spirits high, staring at the burning bonfire, and the smell of the burnt earth, he felt, was a strange fragrance.

In places invisible to the naked eye, violent chemical changes are taking place in the furnace.

In the inner chamber, a high temperature environment has been formed. Of course it can't melt the iron, and it can't melt the chromium it contains. But the 31% silicate in the ore has melted and began to penetrate into the clay, and finally merged with the clay to become a kind of high temperature material.

After all, unable to resist exhaustion, Kawei fell asleep in a daze.

The sky was getting blue, and some women who got up early had the task of cooking, and their noise suddenly woke Kawi.

The young and promising blacksmith got up and was delighted to see that his furnace was finished!

Even though it had been smoked to a dark black color, after violently wiping off some of the carbonized ashes on the surface with a sackcloth, Kawi saw exactly the color he expected.

In fact, these clays have been fired into "blue bricks", which seem to have a pale bluish gray color, and a large number of glass crystals already exist inside them, and the whole is integrated into one.

The furnace was still hot, and through the touch of the long iron tongs, Kawei was delighted to notice that the ore in the inner chamber had completed the transformation to refractory bricks.

This also proves another extremely important thing: the local ore can be processed by traditional methods.

Kawi is completely confident, and seeing Rurik's cautious attitude, he is also a little worried. By now, his worries were all gone.

A young man was yelling in excitement, and the continuous roar woke up a lot of people.

Rurik was also awakened.

"Damn! Don't let people have a good rest early in the morning?!"

He held the little head with his left hand, took away the arm that was wrapped around his neck by Cypolova, and pulled out the right arm that Carlotta was holding.

Rurik sat up straight, stuck his little head out of the colorfully decorated shield mounted on the side of the ship, and saw a shaggy-headed guy jumping excitedly around the dark stove, like a samurai. Full of wizards dancing.

"Oh, it's you! Kawi! You succeeded?!" Rurik stumbled, and quickly jumped off the long ship that was deliberately stranded.

He quickly came up with the answer, and it was the answer he wanted the most.

The excited Kawi no longer cares about Rurik's dignity. He put his excited hands on the boy's shoulders and said while shaking wildly, "The furnace has succeeded! We can smelt it now! We will win a big victory!"

Kawei's excited appearance is actually a little scary, Rurik hurriedly broke free, and responded with an excited smile: "You calm me down. Since it's successful, you smelt it for me. I want to see the sponge iron return sooner. Iron ingots! It would be great if you could make me an axe."

"Okay!" Kawi didn't say more, as a doer, he took action immediately.

A great smelting began, but at first it went unnoticed.

After all, it is iron smelting. That is the work of blacksmiths. Ordinary Rus warriors don’t care about this matter. What they are most passionate about is fighting and looting the enemy’s wealth to nourish themselves. By then, what iron tools will not be readily available?

Those who are good at plundering cannot feel the hardships of blacksmiths, nor can they feel the joy of smelting.

Watching the unremarkable ore finally turn into a tool in his hand, the sense of accomplishment really fascinated Kawei.

It was like seeing his own child fall to the ground.

Kawei first put red-hot charcoal in the hearth, and then threw in a lot of sticks.

This is the first step of smelting, namely "warming the furnace".

As a matter of experience, he preheats the furnace to a relatively high temperature. He quickly carried the leather bag blower he was carrying, and aimed the blower at the air inlet at the lower end of the stove. At the same time he started to control it, a very turbulent flame burst out from the top of the stove, like a roaring fire dragon!

Rurik and his young boys watched with relish, and everyone stopped to watch, thinking of giving the blacksmith a little help.

Perhaps the current situation shows people's worship of the flame from the depths of their souls!

There was a mighty force behind him that urged Rurik to add another piece of wood to the already burning hearth.

The clay stove has become a fiery existence. It has been baked for a long time by Kawei desperately, and its hard clay shell is so hot that it can easily cook the wheat cakes, and a piece of fresh meat is put on it, and it is quickly cooked.

Even in his own blacksmith's shop, Kawei didn't dare to touch the stove with his bare hands. It was really hot for him. When he touched it, the skin on his fingers was instantly burnt white, which was called cooked.

Based on this reason, Kawei prepared some fresh fish for the experiment.

He stood on the bracket around the stove, which was made out of wood that he could get anywhere.

His technique is obviously weaker than that of his father Kravason. If the old blacksmith stood here, he only needed to stand by the stove to feel the heat, and then look at the color of the flame sprayed from the top of the stove, and immediately estimate a temperature.

Kawei felt that the time was ripe, and then a large amount of ore was thrown in.

The ore hit the burning charcoal block, and in an instant, it was like a tyrannical dragon. Rurik knew that he could not effectively help Kawei now.

The ones who can really help are the little blacksmith Kamne and ten other blacksmith apprentices.

At this point, smelting has also reached its most critical moment.

In their daily work, Kavey and Kravason realized that only by making the furnace hotter can the smelting be better completed. These were nothing but their experiences, until Rurik threw out his miraculous "atomic theory".

Possessing strong arm muscles that have been trained for a long time by blacksmithing and rowing, Kawei can control his own skin blower very well. A large number of charcoal blocks were continuously thrown into the furnace by his blacksmith apprentices, and he inflated desperately, and every time he blew fiercely, the furnace also spewed out a lot of red flames.

What a long process! Rurik tried his best to keep his interest in watching, and had to say that the whole process of smelting was getting a little boring.

Until Rurik noticed that the flames that spewed out were no longer red, but bright yellow!

"The real high-temperature flame should be blue! They use the current technical equipment to achieve a blue flame, and at most can only achieve a white flame. He created a special yellow flame that is close to a white flame, doesn't it mean that the furnace temperature is already very high? !"

Rurik was no longer just a spectator.

He walked into Kawi, standing very close to the stove, and saw Kamne, who was barely smiling at him, and Kawi, who had thrown away his sackcloth shirt and had his sinewy arms covered in sweat.

Kawi seems to be in a no-man's land, he is smothering his head and doing his work, as if tireless.

Rurik coughed twice to get his attention.

"The flames are almost white! Kawi."

"Really?" Kavey looked up at the blazing flames slightly. "It's yellow. Rurik, I don't know what other white flames there are."

"No! Only when the highest temperature is reached, the real white flame will be born. When the white flame is reached, most of the iron ore will be completely melted, and you can cast a cast iron like smelting and casting bronze."

Rurik's remarks were understood by Kawi as a very kind prospect.

Man, you can't imagine things you haven't seen before. Kawi has never seen the so-called "real white flame", let alone what it would mean.

"Just like that, can the ore in it turn into sponge iron?" Rurik asked again.

"Definitely, it just takes time. You know..." Kawi shook his head vigorously, and a lot of sweat from his hair was thrown directly onto Rurik's face.

Rurik also stretched out his hand and licked it again, feeling the strong umami taste. Looking at this struggling man, he was glad that he had so many doers under his command, but he regretted that there were too few doers.

"How long do you need?!"

It was a tough question, and Kawhi couldn't care less. "I think when the sun reaches the sky, the work will come to an end. You know, my lord, there are unique substances in these minerals."

"Okay, please continue."

What else can you do? Rurik could only sit and wait.

It seems to be just a one-man show for a strong man of Kawei. Could it be that a smelting will make him tired?

Do not! You are not alone in the battle! not alone!

Rurik sat up abruptly, and after a while, he called over a dozen mercenaries who were able to find all the logs.

Kawei, who was already showing signs of fatigue, at first didn't want mercenaries who didn't understand, and probably didn't even bother to smelt iron, to participate in his great work, but the pain of softening his arms finally swayed his mind.

More than a dozen mercenaries began to show their strength. They frantically manipulated the blower, and the skin was deflated, and the surging furnace flame was surging to the extreme, as if the furnace was a dragon egg, and a young fire dragon was about to fly into the blue sky.

Kawi was able to catch his breath, he drank the rushing clean river water, and washed his hair with the river water.

He was sitting on the wood beside Rurik, his hands on his knees, and the way he was gasping for breath was really disturbing.

"You know what? Rurik, I think my chest is about to burst."

"Your lungs are very painful." Rurik replied calmly, seemingly not caring about Kawi.

"Yes, it's really painful. Maybe it's just that I put too much ore, my ambition is too big, I just want to smelt more in one breath, and I almost die for this."

"Your work will pay off. Now tell you, how do you feel about your furnace?!"

"It's really good." Kawhi was happy, and his pain was relieved.

Rurik still changed his face and stared at the furnace: "What I just said was not pure imagination. Kawei, I think we should build a bigger and higher furnace! We will use brand new skin blowers, at least eight of them. , let a group of strong men control. In this way, the temperature reached by the furnace can completely melt the ore."

For this imagining, Kawi couldn't forget it the first time he heard it. "You... forget it. I don't question it, I just want to ask if we can make it. Rurik, you must be blessed by Thor, if you think you can, we should build a bigger furnace ."

Bigger stove? Rurik chuckled: "That's called a blast furnace, and the furnace will need a lot of modifications. I tell you! The charcoal will mix with the sponge iron and become like liquid bronze. You can cast them, but There is just too much carbon in it. You already know my table of elements, and you should understand that it is because of too much carbon that iron ore can melt completely. Objects cast like this are definitely not suitable for weapons, but they can be used as tools ."

Kawei heard it almost like a fantasy, but he touched on the "element table" and a new theory of interpreting the world. Since many theories are completely consistent with the reality, he trusts this theory more and more, so he is very interested in this theory. Rurik's explanation he chose to believe.

The idea is this idea, as long as a larger furnace is made, with a better structure to lock the temperature, and more air is injected, the iron ore can be melted in the form of an alloy substance.

Rurik actually noticed that based on the existing materials, he could make a blast furnace, because Kawei's towering furnace already had a blast furnace meaning.

All he really lacked was an efficient oxygen-pumping blower, and as for the blower, he had a few things in mind.

A pair of blue eyes couldn't help seeing the river that was close at hand, and the summer floods became turbulent because of the melting ice.

The electric blower is also a fan! As long as it can drive a bearing to rotate wildly, its driving force can be an electric motor or, of course, a waterwheel!

Waterwheel? ! that is not……

At the end of the 14th century, the Milanese began to use water power to move and forge on a large scale, which quickly created a group of "iron can" warriors. Thinking of this, Rurik felt that he needed to recreate it. In the final analysis, the waterwheel technology is not complicated, it is just a mechanical transmission mechanism of several wooden shafts and wooden gears. Because it does not require high mechanical strength, it does not even need an advanced bearing system, and the tolerance of the mechanical structure is extremely high. . Now, Rurik has moved the idea of ​​building a waterwheel to alleviate the dilemma of the labor shortage in Elon Olava, silently making it an urgent project in the development plan.