Lord of Industrialization

"Are you kidding me? You can get steel right now?!"

All Might's mouth twitched as he looked at the hot molten steel in the crucible in front of him.

At present, ordinary iron-making furnaces are more than one person tall and about one meter in diameter. In the past, they could only produce lumps of iron. More than ten years ago, new iron-making furnaces began to use waterwheel-powered bellows and coke as fuel to produce molten iron. The quality and output of iron have been greatly improved.

Ogilvy considers himself to be at the forefront of the times and has extensive research on various smelting techniques. However, when he saw the steel-frying process, he was still stunned. Could it be that steel can be cooked like batter?

"Who came up with this?" he asked excitedly, "Can it really be turned directly into steel?!"

Frederick handed him a large roll of parchment and said at the same time: "This is what the wandering scholar told me. He said that the difference between wrought iron, steel and pig iron is caused by the different carbon content, which can be caused by sparks. Determine the carbon content in molten iron.”

Last year, after his father went off to war, his mother prayed in the church all day, and the unsupervised children ran around, so they came to the blacksmith shop to cause trouble.

Anyway, when someone asks, they say it was from a wandering scholar they met before. Believe it or not.

Frederick winked at Alfred, the blacksmith who was stirring the molten iron. The latter picked out a little molten iron and dropped it on the stone slab nearby. The molten iron exploded into several fireballs the size of ping pong balls.

These fireballs are composed of one-two, two-four, and four-eight sparks, and they bounce a few times when they fall on the ground.

Ogilvy found the content of "Carbon Estimation of Steel Flowers" from the parchment and immediately said: "Quick, add some rust to it!"

Frederick nodded, and Alfred immediately scooped a little rust from the wooden barrel on the side with a spoon and poured it in. At the same time, he asked his son who was helping him to open the air valve on the air pipe connected to the bellows to the maximum.

The lower the carbon content of the molten steel, the higher the melting point. To obtain carbon-free wrought iron, the furnace temperature must be increased, otherwise it will solidify.

This is one of the reasons why the stir-fried steel method has not appeared yet. The melting point of pig iron is about 300°C lower than that of wrought iron. Blacksmiths have not mastered the principle, so they will not waste fuel to increase the furnace temperature.

It was different here in Frederick. Simply preheating the air in the bellows before entering the ironmaking furnace could increase the furnace temperature by about 200°C.

After stirring for a while, Alfred's son scooped out the scum, and Alfred made a little molten steel drip on the stone slab.

"It's really gotten smaller!" All Might exclaimed, "It's a pity that the crucible is a bit small."

The mouth of the current crucible is only about twenty centimeters in diameter and about the same depth.

Frederick said with the same helplessness: "There is no way. There is a problem with the material of the crucible. It is too big and heavy and will not be lifted up. It will break. We can only stop the furnace and let the steel harden before moving it away."

"There was an accident before. Fortunately, it fell into the furnace, otherwise someone would have died."

Ogilvy thought for a while and said, "I have a way. When the time comes, I will use heat-resistant fire steel to make a crucible shell as big as a water tank, and then apply a layer of crucible material inside. I can do a lot at one time."

"We can even purchase pig iron, process it into steel ingots and sell them. I'm afraid the blacksmiths will hate us by then."

After hearing this, Frederick pointed to the end of the parchment and said, "You can look here."

All Might immediately looked over, and his expression became particularly solemn after seeing the converter steelmaking method.

"It's a pity." He said after reading it, "The wind pressure of the bellows does not meet the requirements."

Frederick nodded.

The theory of indigenous iron-making and indigenous converter steel-making is not a problem for him. In his previous life, when he was visiting Station A, an UP owner named "One meter ninety-five to convince people with virtue" shared a doomsday survival folder. There are a variety of local crafts, including but not limited to iron and steel making, bearing machine tools, canned salted fish, hatching eggs to treat pig diseases, etc.

The theory is one thing, but the actual operation is another. The problem with the crucible material almost made him hiccup again.

The same goes for converters. Although converters can be built using local methods, the blower is currently missing. If the air pressure is not enough, the molten iron will block the air outlet or even flow backwards.

Ogilvy watched the molten iron pour into the mold, and studied the content on the parchment while waiting for the iron ingot to cool. Only then did he believe that the "batter stirring method" could quickly produce wrought iron and steel.

He held a piece of wrought iron ingot and thought about it and said: "Wrought iron is relatively soft, which is easier to process, but when used to make bearings, the hardness is much worse than steel. In the end, does it need to be simmered with paste?"

"Since the different properties of iron and steel are caused by the difference in the amount of carbon, then wrought iron becomes steel because the carbon in the carbon paste enters the iron at high temperatures."

Frederick nodded. The "paste and stewing" he was talking about was the carburizing process. "Carbon paste" is a mixture of charcoal powder, grease and other things. It is applied to the surface of the workpiece and then coated with high-temperature resistant clay. Something like this is wrapped and heated in a fire, a bit like making a beggar's chicken.

"Generally speaking, there is quenching and tempering next," Frederick added.

All Might thought thoughtfully and said: "The magic strengthening step can be placed before quenching. The material is fine. Next, we can discuss the specifications."

Frederick thought for a while and said: "I suggest that the waterwheels and lathes in the workshop use bearings first, so that they can practice their skills, and secondly, they can sharpen their axes and be good at chopping wood."

All Might said: "It can be done."

The two left the blacksmith shop and walked towards the carpenter shop not far away.

Currently, the tools are limited, so we can only run in both directions.

It was already afternoon tea time, and the weather was good. In the wheat fields not far away, farmers used draft horses to pull wheel plows to turn straw and root stubble into the ground, and then poured diluted compost on top.

The microorganisms in this world are very powerful. With the current high summer temperatures, the microorganisms in the compost can quickly degrade part of the straw and root stubble. Without delaying the planting of beans later, the land will be planted with pasture next year after the beans are harvested in late autumn.

Frederick looked at the farmland and said, "I got some inspiration recently and am designing a machine powered by magic crystal that can plow the fields quickly."

All Might smiled bitterly and said: "Actually, I have also considered using golem puppets to cultivate the fields, but the magic crystal is too expensive and the cost is too high."

Frederick smiled and said: "Your understanding of the Golem Puppet is too one-sided. In fact, it has a wide range of uses."

"You can teach the control core arithmetic. Then make a golem puppet specially used to calculate numbers, and don't stick to the human form."

"For example, keys are used to input numbers, and rings driven by rotating gears are used to display numbers."

"I think many businesses will like a machine that only requires inputting numbers and will not make calculation errors."

"Also, in fact, many processes in making bearings are repetitive labor, especially those on machine tools."

"If you can make a golem puppet that specializes in these processes, the production efficiency will be much higher."

"I'm just going to talk about one thing, the axle. Is it possible to have such a golem puppet that can turn the rough embryo into a suitable size?"

All Might was stunned for a moment after hearing this. At first, he just thought that this kid was being crazy, but after thinking about it carefully, it seemed to make sense.

"Let's make the bearings first," All Might said. "You can research new golem puppets only when you have money."

Frederick nodded. This matter cannot be rushed. If we want to build automatic machine tools, we must at least solve the power problem. This requires the emergence of steam engines.

He didn't know it at this time. Next, because of his own negligence, he almost failed to get the bearing out.