A brand new furnace rises from the ruins.
Having learned the previous lessons and even holding the engineering blueprint provided by Rurik, Kawei was full of confidence. Of course, in order for the furnace to operate smoothly, Rurik himself simply took root at the construction site.
Continue to train those children? Of course.
Rurik assigned the task to his mercenaries, and they would conduct the most rigorous training for the children, but he really did not need to be there as a supervisor every day.
As a supervisor, he supervised the construction of the furnace, and as a technical consultant, he always answered questions for Kawei, who was holding a blueprint, and gave guidance to the construction workers.
With thirty strong mercenaries, they have become a fairly cheap labor force. They mixed the clay and made it into lumps that looked like bricks. They stacked them layer by layer until they formed a chimney-shaped stove.
The clay has not yet undergone a long period of sintering, and it is now just a very fragile existence. If it has been burned for a long time, it will become a very solid existence.
Although it is strong, it will also experience continuous erosion and damage from molten iron and slag during long-term use.
Just like the collapsed furnace before, although it has unexpectedly achieved everything a blast furnace needs to have, it naturally inherits the challenges that a blast furnace will face.
The collapse of the furnace was in the fragile waist part, which was burst by the molten metal.
So in the construction of the new furnace, Rurik's plan was to make a furnace with a thick bottom and a conical structure as a whole.
Is it just a cone-shaped structure and everything will be fine?
No! What Rurik needed was a furnace that could be used for a long time, not a defective product that would collapse again after only ten days and a half.
The most critical thing is the refractory material inside the furnace.
The furnace that collapsed earlier, Rurik analyzed the reasons for its collapse. Unexpectedly, Kawei still used the old idea of smelting bronze, so-called laying ordinary iron ore inside the furnace as refractory material. If only bronze was to be smelted, it would be perfectly suitable. But the smelting temperature inside the furnace must have reached the level of melting molten pig iron. The so-called refractory material has been melted into part of the molten iron.
Even the clay used as the furnace wall, its high temperature resistance is greatly reduced under real high temperature conditions.
After all, smelting pig iron is actually a smelting miracle spontaneously created by the Russians. It is undeniable that Rurik played a very important theoretical role in this accidental miracle.
Now the real theoretical experts began to actually build the new furnace.
Even if it is an earthen blast furnace, in order to resist the erosion of molten metal, it must use more high-temperature resistant materials to make an extremely fire-resistant inner tank.
Are there any suitable materials?
Theoretically, if some aluminum metal is added to ordinary clay, such clay canFired into cheap refractory bricks.
Where does aluminum metal come from? Corundum must be the best source.
But wait! The mountainous area near Roseburg is rich in iron ore and a small amount of copper ore. As for aluminum metal...
If corundum can be obtained, the construction of the furnace becomes very fast.
The fact is that Rurik could not find suitable refractory materials in the fjord of Rossburg. However, the refractory materials are not lacking. It is located 180 kilometers away in a straight line from the Russian settlement point Alonao. Rava Fort. The chromite there, itself is an excellent refractory material!
Presumably a blast furnace can smelt it into sponge iron. If it is smelted into molten metal, it may not be possible without 1800°C. As for the earthen blast furnace that burns charcoal or coal, the ultimate temperature it can reach in a short time is only 1450°C.
To obtain chromite, we have to send ships to the north to bring it back.
The solution to this key issue naturally falls on the shoulders of the Gould family.
Under Rurik's instruction, a cargo ship carrying a batch of catches left the dock of the Gould family, and her target was Fort Ailon Orava.
Rurik bought all the catch, removed the internal organs, and roasted it over fire to prevent it from rotting.
These catches are actually rewards for the Corvin people of Ironburg. Rurik wants to take away a batch of pure ore and buy the labor of his servants with fish and meat. Oh, of course he can issue an order ordering his servants to send an additional batch of ore as tribute.
Since he wanted to spread the idea called "Spirit of Contract" among the vast tribes, as a person of high status, Rurik felt that it was necessary to enforce contracts for his servants, and placed his hope in Other tribesmen can understand the importance of the contract.
The ship has already set out to sea. Even if the weather is fine and the waves are calm, it will take them five days to return at the earliest.
The furnace still needs to be built before the liner of the furnace is laid with high-temperature resistant chromium ore.
The stove mouth is designed to converge inward, and it can only allow a slightly thin adult to get in, while the internal space of the stove is obviously larger.
The narrow furnace mouth is to be able to fill the material while locking in the temperature as much as possible.
Rurik even hired stonemasons from the tribe who were good at carving monuments to carve a granite slab and cut a hole in the slab. This thing is the lid of the stove. It allows enough outlets for exhaust gas while ensuring the extreme temperature lock of the stove.
The construction of the furnace is in full swing. As long as the cargo ship transporting the ore returns to the port, the final work can be carried out.
Kawei and the mercenaries held large wooden hammers and pounded the dry clay deliberately piled outside the furnace shell.
As three days have passed since the furnace was piled up, the wet clay has become naturally dry, and only tamping can make it stronger before undergoing sintering operations.
In this way, a building with a taper of 80° and a height of two stika's small blast furnace, judging from its appearance alone, has tended to be successful.
However, a rain that was destined to come gave the unfinished furnace the initial challenge. Thanks to an immediately erected rain shelter, the hearth was protected from rainwater damage.
The rain really interfered with the transportation of chromium ore.
What can Rurik do? Even with such rainy weather, the children's training was forced to be suspended. They stayed in their homes one by one to wait for the rain to end. Only a few brave men from the entire Ross tribe rowed to several small, bare, deserted islands off the coast of Rossburg. They set up fish stems in the hope of catching a few fish.
Due to the rain, production work in Roseburg was temporarily suspended. Fortunately, the rain only lasted for two days.
The rain was not heavy, but it swept across the entire Nordic world. If anyone loves it, it’s farmers everywhere. They were completely dependent on the weather and were worried that a late sowing season would lead to a serious loss of production this year. A rain that moistened the oat seedlings was a relief to the farmers.
With the rain like this, is there anything else you can do?
Rurik was willing to take Klavasen to his home for a long time as a distinguished guest. Firstly, he could instruct the old guy to make a "centrifugal blower" out of hard wood. Secondly, it was also a comfort. Lilia's due date is obviously not far away.
That was a rather embarrassing question. Rurik calculated and he could tell that Lilia’s due date was mid-August.
He quietly informed Lilia of his inference, but what he got in return was the girl's extreme shyness.
Lilia even pushed Rurik hard and then apologized hastily.
“You can actually predict the day when a woman will give birth?” She tried to calm down and pulled Rurik back to her side.
"I hope my prediction is right, and you and the child will be safe."
A woman's most important day is approaching, and Lilia is looking forward to a new life. The birth was a very scary and difficult birth. She often silently prays to the statue of the goddess Freya enshrined in her home in order to receive the promise of peace.
Now Rurik is sitting next to him.
She grabbed Rurik's hand, her eyes full of prayer: "I will be safe, right! The Russian god will make me safe, right!"
< p> Rurik was a little surprised by the sudden situation, so he comforted him: "Yes. God will keep you safe. Odin, Thor and Freya are all blessing us. I was at the altar during the summer solstice Go ahead and pray, now, hehe...""Why are you laughing?"
"Look, we are following Thor's guidance to build a big furnace that is destined to succeed. Yo."
Since they are generally superstitious, why not take advantage of it?
Perhaps only the complete success of the blast furnace can make Lilia completely put aside her fear.Infinite enthusiasm for new life.
The Kravassins’ living room has been transformed into a carpentry workshop.
Even if he owned a large amount of silver coins, but there were no useful consumer goods, he would rather bury all the silver coins in the ground. He was still a blacksmith, but because it was the task given by Rurik, the blacksmithing work in the blacksmith shop was completely suspended, and all orders for steel swords from the tribe were postponed.
He was sitting on the ground, working hard to make a centrifugal blower that was nearly half a meter high.
The key to this blower lies in its bearings and the impeller attached to the extractor.
Even if there is no ball bearing system, or even roller bearings, it does not mean that Klavasen cannot make bearings.
The blacksmith's two-wheeled cart has a hard-touch handle made of bronze. Although this kind of hard contact has poor resistance to wear, as long as you apply a large amount of seal grease to the bearing gap, you don't have to worry about its use.
Klavasen is piecing together the frame of the blower using traditional mortise and tenon construction, and it only takes a short time to make it.
The most critical thing is of course to install wooden blades on the finished bearings.
There are as many as six blades, which are arranged at an angle relatively close to 60°, and they are installed on the wooden shaft in a mortise and tenon manner. To stabilize it, Klavasen also applied some rosin to the gaps.
Each blade is not simply a straight plate arranged at an angle, but has been chiselled to give it a certain curved surface.
Rurik understands that only curved impellers can achieve optimal working conditions.
When he saw the huge impeller of nearly 40 centimeters placed casually on the ground, what Rurik immediately thought of was not a blower.
"Ah! This... put it on the boat, isn't it just a standard propeller?"
The huge impeller is installed in a pre-set bearing hole filled with seal oil. Here, Klavasen did not forget to show off his masterpiece to the watching Rurik.
He exerted force with both hands, and the entire impeller began to rotate steadily.
"Look! It's like a rolling wheel. Oh, only the best craftsman like me can make it spin stably."
Rurik took Smiling and shrugging, I just heard this old guy talking about himself.
The rotation of the impeller is indeed quite stable. Rurik is still very worried about the wear resistance of the bronze bearings in direct contact, and the entire impeller is also quite heavy. To make it operate well, I am afraid that only its strength Is the human power of men really effective?
The biggest advantage of the centrifugal blower is that as long as it keeps rotating, the wind will continue to enter the furnace. This is a technical advantage that other types of blowers cannot achieve. The key lies in how to keep the impeller rotating. Perhaps using a waterwheel or windmill to drive it is a promising development direction.
Rurik didn’t want to take one step too far. Since there were many people in the tribe,There are many energetic young people who never want to miss any opportunity to make money. At this stage, they can definitely hire these cheap labor forces.
The entire blower is placed on a huge wooden board, and eight feet are nailed to the lower end of the board for stability.
The huge impeller is covered with a larger wooden bellows. The bellows is nailed with a large number of wooden boards, and the gaps are sealed with rosin. It is a wooden centrifugal blower that resembles a giant snail shell that Rurik designed based on his own knowledge. A large hole is left on one side of the impeller, which is the air inlet. A long bearing protrudes from both sides, and the bearing outside the blower is covered with two wooden plates that tend to be perfectly round.
The wooden plate has been chiseled to accommodate the drive belt.
At the back of the wooden board that carries the blower, there are two thick columns that hold up another bearing system. The most eye-catching ones are naturally two wooden boards that are nearly one meter in length and tend to be perfectly round. .
On the outer edge of the bearing, there are two large handles.
In a sense, its structure is similar to a spinning bicycle. It is not a fitness equipment, but it has a fitness function.
Two pieces of deerskin cut into strips are tied into a leather belt and tightly placed in the groove in the wooden plate.
The rear wooden disc has a diameter of one stika, which is close to one meter, but the wooden disc on the outer edge of the blower impeller is only one quarter of a stika.
When the rear wooden disc rotates once, the blower impeller can rotate four times.
On the sixth day, although the transport ship transporting the chromium ore had not returned yet, the blower Rurik longed for was successfully completed by Klavasen's masterful hands.
It stands like a holy object in the living room, making the sawdust everywhere on the board and the various processing tools no longer annoying.
The impeller is huge, and the air outlet is only as big as a man’s clenched fist. It is designed to be well aligned with the air inlet of the stove. Likewise, the narrow air outlet is intentionally made so that the entire blower can compress the air to the maximum extent. Its essence is a turbocharger.
It’s finally time to test its strength!
Rurik crossed his arms and sat cross-legged at the outlet of the blower. In front of him were the Clavassen father and son who were holding the long handle of the rear bearing, as well as Kamnier and all the other blacksmith apprentices who were observing the grand event.
"Start?" Klavason asked.
“Let’s start!”
As Rurik gave the order, the proud blacksmith father and son waved their arms that were almost as thick as their thighs, gritted their teeth and began to turn the huge mechanical.
It can be said that this thing is the most complex machine they have built so far in their lives. It actually has two bearing systems!
Because the bearing system used is too backward, its torque is a bit large. Indeed, only strong men can drive it well. Fortunately, as long as it rotates, due to inertia, the operator does not need to continue to output hard in the future.
The impeller was obviously making money faster and faster driven by the belt. Rurik's face was facing the air outlet, and the wind force he felt was also increasing rapidly.
In the end, he had to close his eyes and crawl away.
"Kawei, stop!" Klavasen roared, and hurriedly asked Rurik, who was covering his eyes: "My little master, are you okay?"
"I...I'm fine." Rubbing his eyes vigorously, Rurik sat up straight and couldn't help but give a thumbs up with a smile on his face: "The wind is so strong! Klavasen, we succeeded!"< /p>
“Oh, it’s an honor for you to be satisfied.”
“You did a good job! I’m sure it’s much more powerful than the bladder blower it used in the past. A hundred times! Its wind force makes me blind, even more fierce than the strongest north wind in winter!" Rurik's words here are indeed a bit exaggerated, but the strong wind power and stable air supply brought by this blower are completely amazing. High-tech machinery owned by the Ross tribe.
"Klavason!"
"Here!"
"I have decided. You must make three more before the ore arrives!"< /p>
"Huh? So many?!"
"I know it is time-consuming, but our furnace must have the best blower. The four air inlets of the furnace must be arranged One!"
Klavason nodded reluctantly: "Okay, I will."