Steel, Guns, and the Industrial Party in Another World

Chapter 186: Iron Ambition 1

TL: Etude

Although the year was nearing its end, Paul Grayman had no plans to slow down.

After multiple discussions with the Administration Council, he finally decided to make a foray into the heavy industry sector.

He needed to make a significant profit before the clarity of the kingdoms civil war situation, as the kingdoms army was set to quell the unrest in the south come spring. He aimed to secure this potential major client, hoping fervently that their conflict would last a bit longer.

Papermaking, canning, and ceramics were merely initial strategies to address the shortage of funds. Unquestionably, inventions like papermaking had a profound impact on the course of history. However, for a considerable time, the most important indicator of a nations strength was its steel production.

Even in the information age before his time-travel, steel production remained a crucial metric of a countrys overall power.

Of course, the first step was to increase iron production, as it laid the foundation for boosting steel output.

Before embarking on his Iron Ambition, Paul needed to investigate and study the worlds existing metallurgical techniques. After discussing with blacksmiths like Herman and combining his knowledge from his previous life, he gained a more intuitive understanding of current metallurgical technology.

While blacksmiths like Herman were skilled in forging iron tools, they were also well-versed in iron smelting.

The iron smelting technology adopted by countries in this world was based on the bloomery process, which involved:

First, construct an iron smelting furnace, then stuff it with iron ore and charcoal and light it. In an oxygen-deficient environment, copious amounts of red-hot carbon monoxide were produced, stealing oxygen from the iron ore (iron oxide), leaving behind reduced, solid wrought iron.

The challenging part was that since the solid wrought iron couldnt be removed through the furnace, the furnace had to be dismantled after each smelting process.

Moreover, the resulting solid wrought iron was merely soft and porous sponge iron. Since it never melted, it contained all impurities from the iron ore, requiring repeated hammering to remove pores and impurities to become usable metal materialiron ingots.

Paul sighed at the cumbersome process. Merely expanding production scale wouldnt achieve the output he envisioned. Given the labor shortage in his territory, it was essential to upgrade the current iron smelting technology.

He planned to use blast furnaces for iron smelting, but upon thoroughly reviewing the relevant technological tree, he realized this wasnt something that could be developed overnight.

Firstly, regarding fuel, the current iron smelting primarily used charcoal. However, using charcoal on a large scale would be extravagantly expensive.

Massive deforestation for charcoal production was something Paul wished to avoid. Even setting aside environmental concernsstill a premature topic at this timewood was a crucial raw material for many other industries.

Some had attempted to use coala fuel only used in a few places at the timeto replace charcoal. However, the sulfur in coal caused the pig iron to become hot-brittle, unsuitable for forging into shape. This iron, known as sulfur iron, was weak and practically unusable.

The only fuel that was both affordable and abundant enough to replace charcoal was cokedesulfurized coal. High in carbon content and classified as pure carbon, it still contained about 0.5% to 1% sulfur, but it was suitable for iron smelting.

This meant he first needed to build facilities for producing coke. To produce coke, the mining of coal needed to increase. Although coal wasnt widely used worldwide yet, fortunately, the northwestern bay region had finally advanced to the forefront, with coal as a fuel already being widely adopted.

But even after solving the fuel issue, Paul faced the problem of insufficient airflow. Traditional wooden and leather bellows couldnt meet the air requirements for coke combustion. Since cokes porosity is much smaller than that of charcoal, a much higher airspeed was needed. The existing bellows, powered by human or animal labor, couldnt produce the consistent and strong airflow required.

Therefore, he had to develop a piston bellows system, initially powered by waterwheels at this stage. This setup would barely suffice for coke-based iron smelting. However, this solution was only adequate for small-scale blast furnaces. For larger blast furnaces, the airflow generated would still be insufficient. Satisfying the needs of large-scale furnaces would only be possible after the invention of the steam engine, a far-off achievement.

For now, Paul had to settle for using small blast furnaces, progressing step by step.

The task of developing more efficient bellows and the accompanying hydraulic transmission systems was delegated to the band of mechanical engineers he had recruited from the capital. He already had a preliminary plan in mind, starting with simpler designs.

Within days, an open-air kiln for coke production was built near a coal mine in Aldas territory.

Coal extracted from the mine was directly sent here, waiting to be turned into coke.

The kiln was an open pit, manually dug to be over one meter deep and about eight meters in diameter. Its sides were raised with stones or dirt to a total height of around 2.5 meters.

Dozens of workers bustled around this kiln.

First, they constructed two layers of flues. The first layer was built at the kilns center using lumps of coal. Coal powder surrounded the flue, and once it reached a certain height, it was compacted. Then, they built the second layer of flues. This layer, more complex than the first, had one center with 16 or 18 flat flues, each 0.67 meters wide and 0.17 meters high, built from random stones and interconnected with the center.

Next, they added more coal, covering all the flues with half a meter thick coal powder. The ignition process began by lighting easily combustible wood chips and dropping them into the central flue to the bottom layer. As the coal lumps and powder burned, more wood chips were added when the flames reached the second layers central flue.

A third layer of coal powder was added, now 0.83 meters thick. As the burning progressed, the central flue collapsed, and flames spewed from the smaller flues outward, growing more intense and eventually breaking through the center.

At this point, the workers hurriedly surrounded the kiln with stones or broken bricks and tiles. When flames and blue smoke appeared outside the bricks, it indicated the coke was ready. Then came more hustle as some workers sealed the entrance, others covered it with sand and soil, and finally, they doused it with water.

After cooling down, the processed coke was extracted, completing the coking procedure.

Paul had adopted a more primitive and straightforward method for producing coke. He planned to refine the process once he successfully used it for iron production.

According to practical tests, the kiln could produce two batches per day, with a daily coke output of one and a half tons.

Of course, once blast furnace iron smelting commenced in earnest, more kilns would be built, or new production techniques would be employed.

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