Borrow the day to change the day

Zhong Jinwei is very satisfied with the research progress of the steam engine, because according to this progress, the practical steam engine will appear earlier than in history, and it will first be born in the land of China.

In fact, thinking about it carefully, Zhong Jinwei felt that this was inevitable.Because compared with those who studied steam engines in Europe, the research in China has too many advantages at this time.

Not to mention Fang Yizhi's family background, both parents have hard-working Confucian elders, and they are already proficient in physics, mathematics and other aspects through daily exposure, which is not comparable to apprentices like Watt in the West.

In terms of steam engines, although Zhong Jinwei has not actually done it, he still knows some concepts. If he coaches the talented boy Fang Yizhi, it will get twice the result with half the effort.

And in other aspects, it is not even comparable to its European counterparts.In Europe, there are small households, one workshop and one factory, and they are doing research by themselves; while in the land of China, it is the strength of the entire empire of Ming Dynasty that is doing research.

Don’t worry about the funds, it will be allocated as much as you spend, of course it is provided by the state-owned enterprise; any materials you want to use can be found for you immediately; any precision parts you need will be handcrafted for you by the most skilled craftsmen; and so on. It is not available in European counterparts.

Even so, after Zhong Jinwei came out of the Power Research Institute, he still couldn't help but praise Song Yingxing: "Yes, young and promising, given time, the next generation of Ming Dynasty's technological backbone must be led by him."

Song Yingxing laughed heartily. His subordinates were praised by the Duke, so he also had face.

When he arrived at the gate of the research institute, he asked for instructions: "Master Guo, which research institute will be inspected next?"

Zhong Jinwei looked at the sky and found that it was still early, so he said to Song Yingxing, "Let's go to the steel factory."

The iron and steel plant is far away, and it is impossible to walk there.A group of people walked back to the research institute, took their mounts, and headed for the steel factory.

Like the glass factory, the steel factory is under the management of the research institute.Therefore, Zhong Jinwei asked Song Yingxing, who was accompanying him, while leading the horse forward, "You should know the situation of the steel factory?"

Originally thought that Xing Guogong wanted to inspect the site, so Song Yingxing did not immediately introduce the situation.Now the Duke asked the question on the road, and Song Yingxing immediately replied, "What would the Duke want to know?"

At this time, although it is almost early summer, the weather is still relatively cold.The horse ran faster, and the cold wind poured into the mouth.

Zhong Jinwei turned his head sideways, avoiding the limelight, looked at Song Yingxing and said, "Just talk about the situation of the steel plant, whatever you want."

Song Yingxing thought for a while, then turned his head sideways, facing Zhong Jinwei, and directly began to introduce the situation of the steel factory.

All the way to the steel factory, the craftsmen inside greeted them, but after arriving at the lobby, the introduction was not finished yet.

In addition, Song Yingxing continued to add during Zhong Jinwei's continuous interjection and questioning, and finally basically told everything about the steel plant before and after.

It turns out that there is also a reason why the iron and steel plant has not yet produced ideal steel.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the iron and steel smelting process of the Ming Dynasty had reached the point of large-scale, mass production, and continuous production of raw and wrought iron.

This is to connect the iron-making furnace and the iron-frying furnace in series, let the pig iron smelted from the iron-making furnace flow into the iron-frying furnace, stir with willow sticks, oxidize the carbon in the pig iron liquid, and mature the iron.

Using a willow stick to stir the pig iron liquid, skilled iron fryers can easily control the ingredients, and can directly fry steel with a carbon content lower than that of pig iron but higher than that of wrought iron, and even medium carbon steel and high carbon steel may be fried.This is also the method of copying steel that later generations said.

This continuous production process has begun to take shape the system idea of ​​combined production, which not only improves production efficiency, but also reduces energy consumption.

In the original history, it was recorded by Song Yingxing in the book "Heavenly Creation of Things" written by himself, and thus passed down to later generations.

This technology is about 100 years ahead of Europe in history.It's just that technology has not developed much since the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and it has regressed sharply in the past few hundred years, which is very regrettable.

The disadvantage of this technique is that the temperature is not enough, so that whether it is fried steel or wrought iron, what is fried is semi-solid paste steel or iron.

Only when liquid steel is smelted, can other alloys be mixed to produce alloy steel, and steel can be quickly produced by casting or rolling.

On this plane, because of Zhong Jinwei's reminder, the temperature has been raised, meeting the requirements for steelmaking.However, with the increase of temperature, new problems have been brought, which has led to unsatisfactory steelmaking.

The first problem is the problem of high-temperature refractory bricks. The iron and steel plant has spent so long. In fact, the biggest problem is that they have been experimenting with the materials of refractory bricks. It took about half a year to find a suitable refractory brick and solve the problem. solved this problem.

The second problem is that I don't know why, the quality of the steel produced is not good, and it is relatively brittle.

Regarding this issue, fortunately there is the support of the imperial court. After comparing the north and the south, it is found that the steel produced in the south is generally better than that in the north.After a comprehensive comparison of ironmaking methods, it was found that coal was used in the north, while wood was used in the south.

As a result, the iron and steel factories in the capital also switched to wood, and found that the quality of steel was indeed improved.But the wood near the capital is limited, and the coal is abundant, so the cost of using wood alone is too high.

The craftsmen began to think about new methods again, after experimenting and testing, they really found a way, which is to use coking coal to make steel, which is much better than pure coal to make steel.

Or stimulated by research commissions, craftsmen are constantly striving to innovate and figure out better methods.After a period of experiments, they found that when adding limestone, lime and other substances when making steel, the quality of the steel is good.

But then, another problem came out, which is the erosion and damage of the furnace wall.Since the use of auxiliary materials such as limestone, it has become very serious.

The craftsmen of the steel factory had to experiment with the new refractory bricks in the furnace again. It was not until last month that they found a kind of refractory brick called dolomite, which solved this problem.

Now a new furnace is being rebuilt to make steel, and the restart of official production will have to wait until next month.

Zhong Jinwei had never been involved in such things as steelmaking, so he didn't have any special instructions.

However, compared with the ancients, Zhong Jinwei has an advantage that they do not have.Therefore, Zhong Jinwei told the researchers at the iron and steel plant that they not only came up with the experiment, but also figured out the principle and made a summary.

Only in this way can we draw inferences from one instance, achieve real mastery, and promote the development of steel technology.

Regarding this point, Zhong Jinwei also asked Song Yingxing to follow up, don't be sloppy.

After Zhong Jinwei finished his inspection from the steel plant, it was dark.Zhong Jinwei did not go to the Forbidden City again, and went home to write a summary.