Europa Universalis 1867: Start by inheriting an armory

A few days later, the low-carbon steel from Monmouth finally arrived in Swansea.

The carriages were piled with dark silver steel billets. The workers used iron chains to lift them up, load them onto flatbed carts, and transport them along the gravel road into the Landor Steel Plant.

Richard jumped down from the carriage, which was towing a huge plaster mold behind him.

The mold is rod-shaped, about two meters long, and thicker than an adult's thigh in diameter, with a grayish-white surface.

Its shape is regular, with smooth transitions to the arcs, like a graduated cylinder magnified countless times.

Siemens knew Richard would be coming today, so he went out to greet him, only to be stunned by the mold.

"Is this... plaster, Richard?" His voice was hesitant.

Richard walked over to the mold and gently tapped its surface with the back of his hand.

"Yes and no," he said, feigning profundity. "This is a mold made of a mixture of plaster, talcum powder, and silica powder. To prevent it from cracking, I calcined and dehydrated it in a factory furnace for more than ten hours so that it wouldn't explode during pouring."

Siemens moved closer, bent down, put his face close to the mold, and squinted at the dense micropores.

"You're going to use this new material to pour into these molds?" Siemens was still very confused. "But all these tiny holes... won't they make the finished product just as rough?"

Richard chuckled. "On the contrary, these small holes allow air to seep out of the mold walls during pouring. With the air having a place to escape, it won't form bubbles in the molten metal. The alloy poured this way will not only be free of pores, but will also be exceptionally smooth."

Siemens frowned, put his hands behind his back, and rubbed his lips together as if considering his next words.

"I have reservations about this idea," he said.

"Come on, we need to get moving." Richard patted the surface of the mold. "Time waits for no one."

Siemens stroked his chin, remained silent for a few seconds, then turned and waved to the foreman behind him.

"Move the mold in," he said. "Be careful not to break it."

The foreman responded and led several workers over. They carefully lifted the plaster mold off the cart with wooden levers and hemp ropes, and steadily placed the mold into the workshop.

Richard and Siemens followed closely behind. The workshop was as hot as ever, with the flames in the furnace reaching their maximum temperature. Orange light seeped out from the furnace door and the gaps in the regenerator, illuminating the strong arms of the workers near the casting tank.

The first batch of special steel has been smelted.

The workers opened the taphole, and dark silver molten steel gushed out of the furnace and poured into the mold along the casting trough.

Molten steel fell to the bottom of the plaster mold, splashing up a small amount of sparks.

The workers stirred the steel slurry to make the molten steel flow more evenly, and tiny bubbles floated to the surface of the liquid and burst and disappeared instantly.

The pouring continued for several minutes until the molten steel filled the mold. The workers then used iron hooks to remove the pouring trough, allowing the remaining molten steel to flow into a spare cast iron mold.

Then everyone stepped back a few paces and waited patiently.

White steam slowly rose from the surface of the mold; it was water vapor formed when residual organic matter in the plaster mold evaporated upon heating.

The workers stared silently at the steel bar, which was cooling and encased in plaster.

Siemens walked over to Richard, and the two stood side by side. He asked, "What are you thinking about?"

"Hmm...pudding," Richard said.

Siemens glanced at him, taking it all as a joke from Richard.

Finally, cooling is complete.

Richard took out his pocket watch, glanced at it, and nodded to the foreman beside him.

The foreman picked up a hammer, walked to the mold, and swung it down on the plaster shell.

Click.

A crack appeared in the plaster shell.

After being struck several more times, fragments broke off from the steel bar and fell to the ground, shattering into tiny pieces.

Others gathered around, using shovels to pry open large pieces of plaster shells, and then using steel brushes to clean the plaster powder adhering to the surface of the steel rod.

Bluish-white smoke filled the workshop, mixed with the smell of rust and coal soot, making people's noses itch.

The entire steel rod was exposed.

Its surface is as smooth as a mirror, so smooth that even the light from a gas lamp appears as a blurry bright spot.

There are no air holes or shrinkage cavities on the steel rod, only some tiny ridges on the edges. These are parting lines left when the plaster mold was not fully aligned during pouring, and they still need to be polished.

Overall, however, it is a perfect steel bar, one and a half meters long.

Siemens came over and examined the steel bar repeatedly.

He reached out and gently rubbed its surface with his fingertips, feeling a smooth and cold sensation on his fingertips.

"I..." Siemens looked somewhat dazed. "The last time I saw this kind of craftsmanship was in an ancient book from the Middle Ages. People used clay molds to forge armor. It seems that the wisdom of our ancestors... is still very useful in modern times."

Richard smiled sheepishly.

He dared not say that the idea of ​​encasing metal in a mold came to him while eating Christmas pudding.

The chicken-and-egg dilemma actually stemmed from Richard's plan to use a completely new technique to manufacture cannon barrels, but he could only think of that technique as the way to create the right mold.

However, it is clear that using simple plaster molds is also feasible.

He touched his nose: "We're lucky."

"This is 1.5 meters long," Siemens said, looking at the top of the steel rod. "I thought we were going to build a cannon, Richard. What's the use of this steel rod? Are we going to add a ramming rod to the cannon?"

Richard squatted down, picked up a piece of plaster from the ground, crushed it into powder in his hand, and let it slip through his fingers.

He stood up, dusted off his hands, and said, "This is only part of the mold, and the most crucial part at that."

"And Armstrong's factory is already making another part for me." Richard put his hands back in his pockets.

"You can still have Sir Armstrong do your work?" Siemens' eyes narrowed, his tone a mixture of worry and admiration.

"No, not at all," Richard shook his head. "We're in a cooperative relationship now."

Siemens curled his lip slightly: "Sir Armstrong is not exactly an ideal partner."

Richard gave a wry smile: "I'm afraid I don't have many options either."

The most crucial part of the entire project is this iron rod. It must be strong and heat-resistant, so it must be made of this special chromium-nickel steel.

Such material must never be revealed to Sir Armstrong, since Richard had not yet completed the patent application at this time.

As for the other part of the mold, it was actually a hollow steel pipe, so there was no need to keep it a secret. Sir Armstrong's factory had the technology to produce it.

However, he could never have imagined that Richard would be using a technology that would only gradually take shape twenty years later.