Lord of Industrialization

Some people are born to be the protagonist, even if it is not their own play, they still have to find a way to grab the audience's attention.

Fatih is such a guy. After Frederick's speech, the expo officially started, and he held a signing ceremony on the stage.

He came early, and a lot of business was done while chatting and having fun with the businessmen. Today he just wanted to show off to others how rich he was and how much he bought more things than others.

The first person to come on stage to sign a contract with Fatih was Hoffman. He recently opened a new four-leaf clover armor factory. It is two brands and one team from the original four-leaf clover hinge factory. The signing was signed today. A contract for three thousand sets of scale armor.

Next on the stage was a steel pipe factory. Fatih ordered from them 10,000 specially thickened water pipes with an inner diameter of 15mm and a length of 1.3m and five hundred specially thickened water pipes with an inner diameter of 100mm and a length of 1.5m, with rifling inside.

Frederick ignored this guy. Fatih said that he would have an in-depth discussion with him on political issues after the World Expo, and we would discuss anything later.

Today's World Expo is divided into vehicles, ships and accessories, large machinery, hardware tools, building materials, raw materials, daily consumer goods, handicrafts and gifts, jewelry, furniture, lamps, home accessories, clothing, shoes and hats, office and school supplies, medicines, food and There are a total of 16 exhibition areas including military supplies, and more than 600 large and small booths.

From the very beginning, Frederick found the northern guests headed by Waldorf Lei and Kosdorf, and took them to the large machinery exhibition area by the lake.

When they arrived at their destination, Kosdorf pointed to a machine and asked Frederick: "What is that big iron barrel used for?"

He had received news earlier that Frederick planned to import large quantities of ores, including iron ore, from the north.

The ore contains a lot of impurities, and the higher the purity, the better for long-distance transportation. Those weird machines should be used for mineral processing.

Frederick pointed to the machines over there and said: "This is a set of iron ore beneficiation machines. The hammer here can smash the washed ore into particles smaller than a finger, and then send them to the ball mill."

The big iron barrel that Kosdorf pointed to just now is a ball mill. With Wesson's current industrial strength, the most mature mineral processing ball mill has a diameter of 0.6 meters and a length of 1.2 meters. It feeds and discharges materials indirectly, and can process them every hour depending on the ore conditions. 0.5 to 0.05 tons of ore.

After listening to the working principle of the ball mill, Kosdorf held up several steel grinding balls of different sizes and marveled at them. He couldn't help but sigh: "When the machine rotates, the ore and the balls fall together, which is equivalent to countless hammers beating the ore. , faster than hitting slowly with a hammer, and smashing extremely finely."

"Who has such a smart mind to come up with such a good idea?"

The northern businessmen behind him nodded in agreement.

Frederick just smiled and didn't explain much. The excuse he used to make a ball mill was that he discovered it when he was using big rocks to hit small rocks when he was a child. After being embellished, it was included in the Chinese textbooks of primary schools.

He pointed to another piece of equipment next to him and said: "The ore powder is initially screened, then water is added, and then poured in from the top of this spiral chute..."

The spiral chute here is just a sample. It is one story high. The steel wire frame and hard glue are installed on the iron frame to spiral downward in layers, like a rotating slide.

The ore powder is mixed with water to form a slurry and then poured into the water tank from above. When the ore slurry flows in the spiral water tank, the denser components are thrown to the outside due to centrifugal force. When the ore slurry flows to the bottom, the outer part of the particle density is larger and the inner part is smaller. , setting the diversion plate to separate the flow can obtain different ingredients.

"That's it, it's so awesome!"

Kosdorf nodded repeatedly as if he understood.

After the spiral chute is the grinding bed, which further refines the roughly selected ore.

There was no way to demonstrate on site, but samples of the ore processed in different steps were prepared on the side, as well as a complete set of equipment to measure the quality of the ore using the slime acid extracted from the acid slime that can dissolve the female knight's armor.

This set is enough for this era.

Frederick said to Kosdorf: "The higher the quality of the ore, the more valuable it is. A ship of refined ore can earn twice as much money as the ore."

As the king, Kosdorf was the largest landowner in the Kingdom of Sverriers. There were many mines in the territory. After receiving a piece of information, he said: "This is not bad. I will order thirty sets first."

He had a plan to monopolize the ore beneficiation industry at home and in the eastern North Sea to raise funds for the coming war.

"Duke Wesson, I want fifty sets."

A rich man suddenly appeared among the crowd. He was wearing a navy blue silk robe that was somewhat waist-slim and had gold embroidery on the collar.

The most eye-catching thing is the unfolded wings embroidered on his chest, which is a unique symbol of the uniforms of the Piast Kingdom's Hussars.

"Your Excellency, we meet again."

He bowed deeply and respectfully to Frederick.

"His Royal Highness Casimir?" Frederick had already learned from intelligence that Casimir, the crown prince of the Piast Kingdom who had been defeated by him at the Elbe River, was also here, but he kept a low profile and negotiated with agents.

As the saying goes

Organize an expo and entertain sixteen parties,

Everyone who comes is a guest, and they smile when they meet.

Frederick said with a smile: "Okay, it would be better to buy more."

Casimir breathed a sigh of relief, worrying that Frederick would not sell him anything because of the war.

The Piast Kingdom has plains and mines. In addition to mining equipment, they also import large quantities of fertilizers, agricultural tools, and improved seeds.

Over the years, Casimir has sidelined his father and queen to carry out reforms in the country, which has offended the interests of many people. He needs advanced agricultural production tools to win over small landowners. If they are banned, it will be very troublesome.

Frederick was happy for others to buy more mineral processing equipment. Importing the concentrated mineral sand himself could save a lot of trouble, and maybe it could also promote the export of snakeskin bags.

"Ahem..."

Frederick suddenly coughed twice, and the tense atmosphere between Kosdorf and Casimir instantly disappeared.

The Kingdom of Sverrier and the Kingdom of Piast look north to south across the North Sea. In recent years, when Kosdorf sent troops pretending to be pirates to go south for reconnaissance and plunder, they often invaded the coast of the Kingdom of Piast, and even went upstream.

Casimir did not show weakness, and the Piast Kingdom also sent pirates it supported northward to retaliate.

Frederick ignored them and left after saying something. Next, he had to sell river boats to little Louis.

Just when Valqiule was hesitating whether to follow her, Casimir whispered to her in a parental voice: "Follow, what are you doing?"

Frederick was at the lake not far away. There were several paddle steamers of different sizes parked here, and people were being let aboard in batches to visit.

Now the shipyard has launched two basic ship types, with a load capacity of 50 tons and 100 tons respectively. The width is 5.5 meters, the length is 30 to 40 meters, and the draft is about one meter. The steam engine and paddle wheel are located at the stern of the ship. Both are available in passenger and cargo models.

Some passenger models are enclosed, directly copying train carriages, with soft and hard seats, soft and hard sleepers, and kitchens and instant noodles.

The cost of the wooden hulls of these ships is not high, about 20 florins for a 100-ton cargo ship hull, and the cost of a 100-horsepower steam engine has dropped to 70 florins.

Little Louis saw Frederick coming over on the terrace on the top of the passenger ship, thinking about how to get him to lower the price. 200 florins should be enough, and the current three-masted large ship only costs more than 100 florins. Forest.

There are many rivers in the Kingdom of Gaul, and water transportation is quite developed. The plain area of ​​the country is located in the north. Next, troops will be deployed in the south. If one or two hundred ships can be bought back, the transportation of materials will definitely be much more convenient.

"No." Frederick shook his head helplessly, "260 florins is already the lowest price. If you lower the price any further, you will lose money."

Just kidding, if the price drops, where will I get the money to build a maritime transport fleet and navy.

Frederick continued: "A ship of this size usually requires 10 oarsmen, but now that is omitted, the cost is 50 gold florins a year."

"Ships in the past didn't move so fast, especially when going upstream. What used to be one trip can now be done twice."

"Also, when we used rowers in the past, they had to sleep at night, but now the machines don't have to sleep. If we find two more people to take shifts, it's equivalent to doing four trips instead of one trip before."

"Look, if you calculate this way, you can get your money back in two or three years, and it will be pure profit in the future!"

At this moment, he looked like a scammer running a takeout, completely ignoring the issue of maintenance and the window time when he did not receive the goods.

Little Louis was deceived. He and the nobles who traveled with him only understood the macro data of water transportation, but did not understand the specific operation of the integration. They regarded the boats on the river as workers on the assembly line.

"Make it cheaper." He tried to make a last ditch effort, "I'll place an order for two hundred ships."

Frederick gritted his teeth and reluctantly lowered the price to 250 florins. This was still the friendship price with him and no one else could get it.

He is not afraid that the ship will not be sold, because the efficiency of the ship is too high, and the core technology of the steam engine is still in his own hands and not available elsewhere.

It’s not that no one has thought about imitating steam engines. There are many people who plan to reverse-engineer them. However, the export of various machine tools in Wesson is prohibited. Just cylinders and pistons, the success rate of hand-made ones is less than 1%.

Not to mention the pits dug by the guys at the steam engine factory. For example, the bolts on the top cover are all made of high-strength elemental steel. Bolts of the same size made by others using ordinary steel cannot withstand the pressure in the boiler. The first experiment was finished. .

A few people have imitated one, but the power, efficiency, size and cost are far less than the Wesson product. It is okay to use it in your own mill. If others want to buy it, it is faster and cheaper to go to Wesson directly.

And now the propeller-powered boats are about to set sail. Use paddle boats to harvest a wave first to build your own fleet, and then you can harvest again.

Little Louis could only grit his teeth and admit it. There was no other way. When the imitation steam engine of the Royal Mages of the Kingdom of Gaul exploded, the cover flew hundreds of meters away. Four of the mages in charge were killed and three were injured. A knight watching the gate was frightened. .

With a kind smile on his face, Frederick said goodbye to little Louis who was going to buy a steam engine. It was expected that the order for inland river steamships would exceed a thousand ships, and this was just the beginning.

He got off the boat and wanted to take a walk around.