Chapter 650: Steel and Dream
As the molten iron surged, silicon and manganese were the first to be completely oxidized, followed by the carbon in the pig iron.
At a temperature approaching 1,500 degrees Celsius, the carbon combined with oxygen in the air to produce carbon monoxide. The heat released caused the furnace to "boil," and the flames erupting from the furnace mouth almost engulfed the air pipe and the furnace frame—hence the reason why the support also needed to be covered with a heat-resistant coating.
A large amount of carbon monoxide escaped outwards, contacting the abundant air at the furnace mouth, and then undergoing violent combustion, almost setting the furnace ablaze. The booming sound produced by the expanding gas momentarily drowned out the sound of the steam engine. Everyone retreated in the face of this volcanic eruption-like spectacle, except for Roland, who stood with his hands behind his back, facing the hot wind, completely immersed in the roar of the fiery steel.
Regrettably, current technology only allows injecting air for steelmaking. If pure oxygen can be used in the future, this spectacle of flames will be even more magnificent and bright.
Finally, phosphorus and sulfur participated in the reaction. When the oxides of these two elements reacted with limestone to form slag, the flames began to recede. At this point, the molten iron had essentially turned into steel. The lighter slag floated on top of the molten steel. By tilting the converter, the molten steel could be poured out of the tapping hole like pouring tea.
According to the regulations of modern steel mills, slag-stopping balls, slag-stopping darts, and infrared detection methods would be used at this time to prevent the upper layer of slag from flowing into the steel ladle. Winterless City's current technology could not achieve this, so Roland's solution was simple: don't pour it too cleanly. When there was still a small amount of molten steel in the furnace, lift the furnace directly and pour them out together with the slag. Wasting a little was fine. The collected waste could be remelted anyway, and he didn't need to pursue production efficiency.
To ensure the quality of the steel, the finishing touch was to remove excess oxygen from the molten steel.
The bauxite constantly transported from Longsong Stronghold happened to act as a deoxidizer. A barrel of pure aluminum separated by Lucia was poured into the molten steel. The resulting alumina slag, along with any unreacted aluminum, floated to the surface. At this point, the entire steelmaking process was considered complete.
When the bright molten steel flowed into the molds and turned into dark red steel ingots, the officials of the City Hall were so shocked that they couldn't speak.
The main method of steelmaking in this era was still stuck at the level of "hundred-fold forging." A steel suit of armor could be passed down as a family heirloom for generations. No one had ever seen steel produced like flowing water—even though the "Star of Steel" could produce steel in large quantities, most people regarded it as an appendage of the witches' abilities. Without Anna and Lucia, such steel could not be produced.
But this time was different. When they saw that converter steelmaking could be done without relying on the power of witches, solely by the hands of ordinary people, they vaguely realized what this meant.
There was only one "Star of Steel," but there could be countless converters and workers.
Steel was no longer a rare material. In the future, this sturdy metal would be produced in large quantities at the foot of the North Slope Mountains, replacing those soft and fragile wooden and bronze utensils.
Roland was very satisfied with the horrified expressions of the City Hall officials—if they couldn't be moved by the magnificent beauty displayed in the steelmaking process, they probably wouldn't be qualified leaders. The workers might only see the steel ingots in front of them, but they should be able to see the future represented by the steel ingots.
At this point, Winterless City's coal and iron complex industry was beginning to take shape—from mining to iron smelting, then from iron smelting to steelmaking, and finally casting steel into various objects. This process could be completely realized by ordinary people. With the rapid growth of the population and the popularization of education, Roland could already hear the sound of the wheels of steel rolling across the land.
Admittedly, the quality of the newly produced steel still needed further testing by Lucia. Based on the test results, the blowing time and slag removal formula would be slowly adjusted, but all of this was finally starting.
...
Roland, having completed a great undertaking, did not stop at all. With the help of the Memory Replay from the Dream World, he had a lot of work to do.
Now that the primary textbooks had been supplemented and rewritten, he turned his attention to the higher-level mechanical engineering textbooks—Winterless City now had the foundation for mass-producing steel, so high-performance processing equipment was undoubtedly what he urgently needed next. Initially,
the few batches of simple machine tools that were manufactured were becoming increasingly unsuitable for processing high-end products, and seemed somewhat inadequate when facing parts for fortress cannons, heavy jijiang, and grenade fuses.
So where to find detailed blueprints?
The school library might be a good choice. Roland had often gone there when he was in school. The legendary encounters never happened, but he did read a lot of miscellaneous books, including many that involved the principles of mechanical design.
After dinner, he went to bed early.
Since wandering in another world didn't count as sleeping, the first day would be very hard if he kept to a normal schedule. Moreover, there was no air conditioning in the apartment building, and taking a nap in the hot midday sun was a pipe dream. He could only go to sleep early and use the energy saved in his dreams.
Entering the dream, it was still a sunny summer morning.
There were a dozen missed calls on the phone at the head of the bed. Opening it, they were all from the second-hand dealers, and the same was true in the SMS inbox.
"Brother, do you still have armor there? A friend of mine happens to want to buy some for filming. Contact me immediately if you have any."
"This time the price can be higher, how about 700?"
"Swords and the like have also increased by 200. Generous enough, right? But don't sharpen them, they look scary."
"If you're not satisfied with the price, we can talk about it."
"Brother, can you reply?"
Roland scrolled directly to the last text message, which was from the bank, showing that the balance in his card had risen to 3,600 yuan, of which the newly credited 1,500 was the living expenses from Jie Luo's family.
This money was enough for him to use for a long time.
He tapped his finger lightly, deleted all the text messages, and walked into the living room after putting on short sleeves and shorts.
Jie Luo hadn't gotten up at this time.
Roland didn't bother to wait for the little girl to make breakfast, so he went downstairs and found a noodle shop in an alley to sit down.
"Boss, a bowl of shredded pork noodles, large portion."
"Okay!"
Now that he had money, he naturally had to enjoy himself, right? After all, this was a delicacy that even the king couldn't enjoy—after all, Graycastle didn't have rice.
The blanched noodles were quickly served. Roland ate breakfast while looking at the apartment building across the street.
So far, the farthest distance he had traveled was the old shop and the small internet cafe two blocks away. Because he was busy raising money and memorizing information, this was the first time he had taken the time to observe the residents of the Soul Building from another perspective.