Chapter 218: Smelting Iron in the Ground Furnace A new conspiracy has arisen, and Wang Kang naturally doesn’t know about it.

After the "Mountain God" incident, all parties were more motivated, and Wang Kang was also very generous in eating.

It was hard to keep up with the daily high-intensity work, so Wang Kang hired women in the city to cook and cook at the construction site.

Xinfeng County itself is barren and lacks food. The food brought by Wang Kang obviously cannot supply such a large demand. So what should we do?

At this time, the good relationship established by Wang Kang and the Jinyu Chamber of Commerce came into play, and a large amount of meat and vegetables were delivered.

Not only that, but the tools and wood needed for construction on the construction site are also purchased from Jinyu Chamber of Commerce.

In order to facilitate transportation, the Jinyu Chamber of Commerce also funded the smoothing of the Erdaogou road from Xinfeng County to Yangzhou City.

Because Wang Kang is now the largest customer of their Jinyu Chamber of Commerce.

In the past few days, with the participation of Li Zheng and others, the first set of floor furnace equipment was finally built.

As the name suggests, the earth furnace is built underground. Wang Kang walked down and saw a huge excavated space in which two tall earth furnaces were built.

Each furnace is nearly three meters high and nearly two meters in diameter. This scale can be said to be quite large.

There are platform stairs on both sides of the furnace, which can lead directly to the top, and there is a sealed circular passage from the bottom directly connected to the next furnace.

This is the result of several days of work. It looks like two huge cylindrical barrels on the outside, but in fact there is something else inside.

The inner and outer walls of the furnace are made of refractory bricks and sealed with high alumina and alumina mixed with clay. This makes the entire furnace completely sealed and makes it difficult for heat to escape.

There are two blowers on both sides of the floor furnace. They are called blowers, but they are actually advanced versions of the bellows. Wang Kang just called them that.

It is smaller than the bellows. There is actually no difference from the outside, but the structure inside is very complicated. The biggest difference is that this blower is not a hand-pulled type, but a foot-operated type.

This kind of design can save a lot of effort compared to pulling by hand, and the efficiency can also be improved.

And its wind power and sustainability are much greater than those of traditional bellows.

This is the biggest improvement. You must know that people in this era are still using the most primitive bellows, and the air filling technology is backward, which requires a lot of manpower to accumulate.

It takes a long time to make each furnace of iron, and it is also very tiring...

When Wang Kang walked down, several craftsmen were already making preparations.

They laid charcoal in the earth furnace, and iron ore was arranged neatly on top of the charcoal, so that the entire earth furnace was filled.

Since the floor furnace designed by Wang Kang is built in layers, and there are gaps between each layer, ventilation is not a problem at all.

After the preparations are completed, it is time to start lighting the fire. This is also very simple, because there is a special ignition port at the bottom of this new type of floor stove.

"This design does have some uses." Li Zheng, who was watching from the side, nodded in approval.

After several contacts, they also participated in the construction of the furnace. Although they did not think that Wang Kang could smelt anything harder than iron, they did not despise him as before.

Because there are some aspects of this floor furnace that are indeed worth learning from, especially the various structures inside the furnace, which are far more complex than conventional floor furnaces.

There are some places that even they can't understand.

It can be seen that the fire in the furnace has been lit, and the craftsmen on both sides have begun to step on the blowers to pour air into the furnace.

The mouth of the blower is a cylinder made of animal skin, which is directly connected to the air inlet of the furnace, which ensures maximum utilization of wind power.

"Master Kang, is this the new type of bellows you made? This foot-operated bellows is a good invention. It seems that they are not strenuous when using it." Master Xi asked from the side.

"Yeah," Wang Kang nodded in response. The inside of the bellows was complicated. The transmission part was equipped with gears, and the gears were made of wood.

There will definitely be wear and tear during use, and the lifespan is very short. After a period of use, it needs to be replaced, but there is nothing you can do about it.

Under the current conditions, it is definitely impossible to make iron gears.

wáng fǔ chén asked: "Master Kang, are you really sure you can melt iron into molten iron?"

This is a big difficulty when making iron. The melt temperature of pure iron must reach at least 1,500 degrees, which is very difficult to achieve.

For example, iron smelting in the Smelting Bureau basically burns iron ore into pig iron, and then continues to smelt it, and sometimes it will appear in a liquid state.

Because pig iron only needs a temperature of 1,200 degrees to dissolve.

But Wang Kang wanted to directly refine iron ore into molten iron, which was what they didn't believe.

"Just watch."

Wang Kang smiled and said without further explanation. In ancient times, there was no specific temperature data. Everything was based on experience. I'm afraid it would be difficult for them to understand the explanation.

"Then we'll wait and see!" Li Zheng said, and then the eyes of several people turned to the furnace.

As the wind blows in, the charcoal in the furnace begins to burn rapidly, and the firepower becomes more and more powerful. Of course, this cannot be seen.

But the temperature can be felt, even though the refractory bricks insulate most of the heat in the furnace.

But the high temperature in this space still makes people feel like they are being scorched, and a heat wave hits them.

"Why is the temperature so high?"

Li Zheng was surprised and said, now that the outside of the stove feels like this, what about the inside?

Wang Kang smiled lightly and said nothing, because the stove used not only charcoal as fuel, but also coke, which was an additional harvest discovered during the excavation of iron ore.

Coke is the main raw material in modern iron and steelmaking. It is more suitable than earth charcoal and can reach higher temperatures.

Although he felt uncomfortably hot, Wang Kang also had excitement in his eyes because he was presiding over this and it was a milestone development in this era.

The progress is still going on, and the craftsmen who blow the wind have changed a wave. They are bare-chested, all of them are generous, and they take turns to replace them.

"Master Kang, the temperature here is too high. Do you want to go out and wait?" At this time, a craftsman who was promoted to foreman came over and asked.

"It's okay, I'll just wait here." Wang Kang said, these craftsmen would be more motivated with him, and he also wanted to witness the production of steel with his own eyes.

The temperature was getting higher and higher, like a big steamer, Li Zheng looked at Wang Kang in surprise.

Doesn't it mean that he is just a rich young man? How can he still withstand such an environment?

In the past few days, they also specifically inquired about Wang Kang. Knowing Wang Kang's reputation, he was increasingly a prodigal son. No wonder they agreed to the bet of 100,000 gold coins without blinking...

It was because of this that they were confused. Wang Kang's behavior did not look like a prodigal at all.

At this moment, even a few of them took off their coats. Even though Wang Kang had beads of sweat on his forehead, he didn't move at all. His perseverance was astonishing.

Waiting is boring, and after another hour, the pipe extending from the stove finally had hot molten iron flowing out...

this?
Chapter completed!