Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 214: Successor (Part )
Yang Heng was surprised at the system that Lu Jin implemented in the iron factory, and was even more surprised at the ingenious things that Lu Jin had created, such as the hydraulic rolling mill, the columnless large factory building, the bead-turning machine, etc. However, he soon saw something that opened his eyes again.

In the forging area at the other end of the factory, two rows of automatic spring forging hammers placed back to back were hammering steel. These hammers were connected to an axle and driven by a belt made of coarse cotton cloth. The axle was connected to a waterwheel outside.

There are a total of twenty-eight forging hammers in two rows. Some are used to roll gun barrels, and some are used to make spear heads, swords, horse lances, infantry lances and other cold weapons.

Looking at the forging hammers tirelessly hammering the red-hot steel, and people only need to use pliers to clamp the iron pieces and move them back and forth to control the angle, which is very labor-saving. Looking at the scene in front of him, Yang Heng was immediately amazed.

"As the saying goes, there are three hardest things in life: rowing a boat, forging iron, and making tofu. Now, forging iron doesn't even require craftsmen to swing hammers? It's truly ingenious, what do you call it?" Yang Heng asked, pointing at the forging hammers.

The leading craftsman quickly introduced, "This is what the Marshal taught Master Xue to make. It's called an automatic spring forging hammer. The waterwheel outside drives the axis, which in turn drives the forging hammer to rotate. It can forge steel day and night, saving time and effort. The hammer keeps working even when the worker is resting."

Yang Heng was filled with admiration and murmured, "No wonder the ironworks has such a large output, producing more than 4,000 sets of armor per month and nearly 1,000 muskets."

He walked around the forging hammers again, trying to get a closer look, and soon discovered something peculiar about them. The shape of the hammer heads of some forging hammers, as well as the frequency and speed of striking were actually different. Some struck fast, and some struck slowly. Looking at the overhead crane, it was obviously rotating along an axis at the same speed. Why did the speeds of the forging hammers below differ?
Yang Heng raised his doubts, and the craftsman replied, "Master, please look, there are three wheels of different sizes on the belt behind this forging hammer, corresponding to the three wheels on the axis. The middle is driven by a cotton belt, and there is a device on it, which the Marshal calls a clutch. The speed can be adjusted by adjusting the size of the wheel corresponding to the belt, which can be fast or slow, with a maximum of nine speeds.

"If it is used to forge objects that do not require too many shapes, such as gun barrels and bayonets, the forging speed can be adjusted to the fastest speed. If it is used to forge fine weapons with curves and edges, such as rifle lances, long swords and waist knives, the speed can be adjusted to be slower."

"It's a masterpiece, it's really a masterpiece." Yang Heng couldn't help but admire it. He was amazed by Lu Jin's wonderful ideas, but he didn't forget the main thing Lu Jin asked him to do, so he asked again, "How many gun barrels can be shot here in a day?"

"Night and day, I can shoot thirty barrels a day and night, that's nine hundred a month."

"Nine hundred guns are enough to equip a battalion. But this is not enough. The Marshal has put forward new instructions, requiring you to double the production of muskets and artillery in the next six months. I'm afraid you will have to fire sixty gun barrels a day in the future. Can you do it?" Yang Heng asked again.

"This..." the craftsman frowned when he heard it.

"Master Rong, to make a gun barrel, you need to first make a long iron plate, then heat it red and roll it on the iron shank, hammer and forge it, so that the seam is airtight and strong, otherwise it will easily explode.

"We have that rolling mill in our ironworks, so we have no shortage of thin iron plates, and we can make them very quickly. We also have an automatic forging hammer for rolling gun barrels, so it's not too laborious. In fact, our speed in making tubes alone is actually quite fast. If we allocate a few more forging hammers to make gun barrels, it won't be difficult to double our production."

Yang Heng nodded repeatedly after listening, thinking that this task was not that difficult, but the craftsman then gave him a twist.

"But if you want to make a musket, you can't use this iron pipe directly. You need to grind the inner hole of the barrel until it's smooth. And the Marshal is very strict. The barrel must fit the bullet perfectly. Even if there is a gap, it must be controlled within one millimeter. Otherwise, it will be scrapped and redone.

"Boring the gun barrel is the most time-consuming and labor-intensive step. We now have apprentices do it, and they work twelve hours a day without a break. But even so, it takes at least four or five days to make a qualified gun barrel."

Upon hearing this, Yang Heng looked in the direction of the craftsman's finger. There, a group of two half-grown children were shaking a small wooden frame boring machine non-stop. One of them was holding the gun barrel and moving it forward, while the other was shaking the rotary reamer and drilling hard into the gun barrel. From time to time, they had to stop to clean up the debris, apply some castor oil, and then use a ruler to measure the size of the gun barrel and the depth of the cut.

The flintlock rifle designed by Lu Jin is 1.5 meters long without the bayonet, and the barrel alone is about 1.1 meters long. It is not an easy job to polish the inner wall of such a long iron tube smooth.

But for a musket, if you want to ensure the range and power, the gap between the bullet and the barrel cannot be larger than 0.6 mm. If the gap is smaller than 0.6 mm, you can solve the problem by wrapping the bullet in paper. If the gap is larger than this, the range, power and hit rate will drop sharply. This step cannot be avoided in any case.

Yang Heng looked at the hard-working apprentices and knew they were not lazy, but the task assigned by Lu Jin had to be completed, so he asked again, "Is there no way to make it faster?"

"Well," the craftsman thought for a moment and said.

"The Marshal mentioned a method before. Just like the steel plate rolling mill, we can build a seamless steel pipe rolling mill to directly grind out seamless iron pipes. The boring machine and reamer can also be converted into fully automatic ones. The efficiency should be much higher.

“But the masters in our ironworks don’t have time to make this kind of rolling mill. The Marshal doesn’t have time either. The masters in the factory don’t know how to make it. Even if the Marshal comes to teach us how to make the rolling mill, we still need to use a waterwheel to drive it. However, the length and water volume of the canal are limited, and it is impossible to buy so many waterwheels.

"In addition to this, there is another way, which is to continue to increase the number of craftsmen and double the number of workers who bore gun barrels."

Yang Heng concluded, "It means that the production of gun barrels can be doubled now, but the process of polishing the gun barrels is slow, right?"

"That's right. If you want to increase production, you either have to improve your techniques or increase the number of workers," the craftsman reminded quickly.

Yang Heng nodded, thinking that this should not be a difficult task. He would go back and report to Lu Jin. At worst he could just recruit some more craftsmen, and it would be done anyway.

After thinking for a while, Yang Heng asked again, "I just heard you say that the ironworks works day and night, but it is dark at night. Are you working by torches and lanterns? Will the output be lower at night?"

When talking about this, the craftsman shook his head quickly and said excitedly.

"No, the Marshal sent a disciple named Meng Zhifang two months ago to make a calcium lamp. This lamp does not burn oil or wax, but it can emit dazzling white light. The iron factory uses this calcium lamp for lighting at night.

"There are five lamps on each side of the workshop. When all are lit, it will be like ten suns hanging in the air. It can illuminate the workshop as bright as day. How can it affect production?"

Yang Heng was quite surprised. The various machines he had seen before could be said to be ingenious, but no matter how powerful they were, they were just the skills of craftsmen. But this calcium light lamp did not burn oil or wax and could be as bright as daylight. This was a bit magical, so he hurriedly asked.

"What is a calcium lamp? It doesn't burn oil or wax. So what does it burn?"

The craftsman scratched his head, thought for a moment, and then said, "Mr. Meng said that this lamp burns gas. If you pour water on calcium carbide, a kind of flammable gas will come out. Then, if you ignite this gas and burn the quicklime, it will produce an incandescent phenomenon and emit a dazzling white light."

"What is calcium carbide? If this lamp burns gas, why is it called a calcium light lamp?" Yang Heng asked in confusion. "This, this I don't know either. Mr. Meng said that this is a secret technique passed down by the Marshal's family, called something like chemistry. As for calcium light, it is the light emitted by lime. Lime is calcium. Mr. Meng said that lime is also a metal ore, and something called calcium gold can be refined from it. It's a pity that I don't understand it, and I don't know how to refine calcium gold." The craftsman said with regret.

Yang Heng was even more surprised. It was the first time he heard people say that metals could be refined from lime. There were only a few kinds of metals known to the world: gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, lead and mercury. What was calcium? He had never heard of it before.

"What is indigo stone? Is this stone indigo blue? Why does it emit burning gas when it is poured with water?" Yang Heng continued to ask.

"Oh, it's not the indigo, it's the lightning in the sky. As for why this calcium carbide will emit fire when it is soaked in water, I don't understand. If I understood, wouldn't I be the Marshal's direct disciple?" said the craftsman helplessly.

"The lightning that causes thunder?" Yang Heng was stunned and still didn't know what this magical thing, calcium carbide, was.

The craftsman immediately found calcium carbide from a warehouse and brought a bowl. "Here, you see, this is it. It's grayish white and is also made from lime. This is calcium carbide."

"Made of burned lime? It releases fire when it comes into contact with water? Why does it smell bad?" Yang Heng picked up the calcium carbide and sniffed it. He felt that this stone was very ordinary. Apart from the bad smell, there was nothing special about it. Why could it be used to light a lamp?
"Well, you still don't believe it, just watch." The craftsman put the calcium carbide in the bowl, and took a teapot to pour some water on it. The calcium carbide immediately released smelly acetylene gas. He picked up a small piece of charcoal from the furnace of the craftsman next to him and put it on the bowl. The bowl immediately made a banging sound, and clusters of flames could be seen coming out of the calcium carbide, which made Yang Heng stunned.

"It can really be used to light a lamp. Is this slightly smelly gas the anger?"

"Exactly."

"Wrong, wrong, that's not fire, that's acetylene gas, a hydrocarbon."

Just then, a half-grown apprentice who was boring gun barrels nearby finally couldn't stand it anymore and hurriedly corrected him, but he didn't stop the work in his hands.

Hearing that, Yang Heng looked over curiously and saw that the young man had a delicate and handsome appearance, about fourteen or fifteen years old, but his eyes were bright and lively, unlike those of an ordinary dull boy.

Seeing this, Yang Heng asked, "What is acetylene gas, and what are hydrocarbons?"

The young man immediately started talking, "This is the content of the chemistry book in the Gongshu Secret Book that was passed down by our ancestors. It originated from the book of Mozi. Mozi believed that everything in the world can be decomposed infinitely. When it is decomposed to the point where there is no more room for division, then everything is made up of the same thing.

"But Gongshu was different. He discovered that everything can be decomposed, but when it is decomposed to a certain extent, it will become a single substance that cannot be decomposed any further. These single substances are different from each other, just like gold, silver, copper and iron. In other words, everything in the world is composed of many tiny single substances.

"Chemistry is the science of breaking down and reorganizing these simple substances to create all things.

"For example, in the production of calcium carbide, coke and lime are placed in a furnace and heated together, so that carbon can penetrate into the lime to form calcium carbide. The water we drink every day is a compound composed of two elements, hydrogen and oxygen, also known as dihydrogen monoxide. Therefore, when water and calcium carbide coexist, the active hydrogen will attract the carbon in the calcium carbide to form a hydrocarbon gas that can be burned.

"The calcium that has lost its carbon will combine with the remaining water to form calcium hydroxide, which is commonly known as slaked lime.

"Look, if you don't believe me, look, the stone that has been soaked in water is the common slaked lime."

Yang Heng was amazed when he heard this, and took out a white stone from the bowl. It seemed to be ordinary quicklime, which was the stuff that ordinary people used together with plaster to build houses. Of course he could tell the difference.

I didn't expect that this thing could be refined into calcium carbide and used for lighting.

"You said that lime can also be refined into metal like iron ore? This metal is called calcium? Is this what you said, that when it is divided into an indivisible single substance, it is calcium gold?"

"That's right." The young man nodded in response.

Yang Heng frowned and said, "How is this possible? Lime has to be burned in a furnace, and it has been mined for thousands of years. If metal can really be refined from it, how come no one has discovered it for so long?"

"Oh, who said that fire is necessary to smelt metals? And who said that there are only gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, lead and mercury in the world? The salt we eat every day also contains metals. Its chemical name is sodium chloride, which can decompose into poisonous chlorine gas and sodium gold. However, ordinary fire can only melt the salt. Only lightning can decompose these two elements.

"No one knew about this for thousands of years because they didn't know how to control lightning. How could they forge new metals?"

Wow, what a big tone.

Yang Heng secretly laughed in his heart. This timid charlatan appeared out of nowhere, pretending to be a god and even controlling the thunder and lightning.

He immediately laughed and said, "So you can control lightning?"

The young man shook his head. "I did learn how to generate electricity, but the voltage is not high enough to produce dazzling lightning. However, I can use salt water batteries to light up the electric lamps made of carbonized bamboo filaments. However, the power is too low, so they go out after a short while. For now, this electric lamp is not as practical as the Marshal's gas lamp."

Seeing the young man's determined and serious look, Yang Heng suddenly became confused again. Could it be that this kid was not lying?
He thought for a moment and asked, "What's your name, and who did you learn these things from?"

"My name is Fang Lanyue. All these things are taught in the night school of the iron factory. However, the night school currently only teaches the first two volumes of Gongshu Secret Canon, Gongshuzi and Gongshu Suanjing.

"Electricity generation is in the physics book, and refining calcium carbide is in the chemistry book. These are not taught in the factory's night school. I asked Mr. Meng Zhifang, the Marshal's direct disciple, for advice when he came to the factory a few days ago."

"."

Yang Heng was speechless. If that was the case, then wouldn't the boy in front of him be Lu Jin's apprentice?
(End of this chapter)