Survival skills maxed out, I feed my wife and daughter by catching fish and shrimp

Chapter 248 Something went wrong

Producing 1000 kilograms of pig iron per day?

Chen Changfan raised his eyebrows.

"This number doesn't seem right, it's a bit too little..."

Han the blacksmith scratched his head and said helplessly:

"Boss, didn't you ask that workers not work for more than four hours straight?"

Chen Changfan recalled that he seemed to have said this.

Is it because my eight-hour work system has slowed down production progress?

“How do you schedule the workers?”

"Boss, I have arranged two shifts for the workers, morning and evening. However, we only have five blast furnaces in our village. A daily output of 5 kilograms is already considered good."

"Oh, such production capacity is simply laughable if told to others. Also, we have 10 furnaces in Xiaofeng Village, so why are there only 5 that are usable now?"

Compared with insufficient production capacity, furnace damage is the most serious problem.

He is now thinking about whether to replace this blacksmith Han?

Such a big thing happened, but it was only reported now. Moreover, they have the nerve to ask me to take credit for this little production capacity?

This is because now that the snow has stopped and the temperature has risen, the furnace effect is not so obvious. If it were really heavy snow, the furnace would have stopped working halfway and a few people might have frozen to death.

"Old Han, do you admit your guilt?"

Chen Changfan's voice suddenly turned cold, which frightened Han the blacksmith. He couldn't understand how he had committed a crime. He only knew that he seemed to have made his boss angry.

"I...I know my crime, please don't be angry, sir."

"Do you know what crime you have committed?"

"This...this..." Han the blacksmith was speechless.

Seeing that Han the blacksmith's attitude of admitting his mistake was good, but he looked confused, Chen Changfan didn't bother to talk to him anymore. He directly ordered people to call Han the blacksmith, Tang Shao and others.

"Five of Xiaofeng Manor's ten furnaces have stopped operating. Are you aware of this?"

Chen Changfan suppressed his anger.

Hu the bricklayer and Tang Shao looked at each other and said, "Boss, it's true. These five furnaces have stopped working recently. I asked Tang Shao to take a look. They can't be repaired, so we have to rebuild them. We're firing refractory tiles these days."

Tang Shao also nodded. "Boss, I've noticed the same problem with the other furnaces. There's too much slag. Even though we clean it out regularly, it keeps piling up. We can't just shut down the furnaces at this time of year. If this continues, I'm afraid the remaining five furnaces will also be clogged with slag."

It is indeed unrealistic to stop the furnace firing.

If the operation is improper, it is very likely that the molten iron and slag in the furnace will solidify into a large lump, and the furnace will be ruined.

However, if the problem of excessive slag is not solved, it is only a matter of time before the remaining five furnaces stop operating.

It seems that Hu the Roofer and Tang Shao have realized the seriousness of the matter and are trying to solve it with their own abilities.

But it seemed that Han the blacksmith still didn't understand what was going on. He was still working hard on smelting iron and came to him to take credit for it.

However, if it weren't for his action, Chen Changfan would not have realized the problem he was facing now.

"Bring me some of the slag."

Chen Changfan knew that with the knowledge these people had, they probably wouldn't even realize the key to the problem, let alone solve it.

If we want to solve the problem, we have to start from the slag.

After a while, a bowl of slag was placed in front of everyone. Chen Changfan picked it up and twisted it in his hand, then moved closer to sniff it, and a look of understanding appeared in his eyes.

"Blacksmith Han, has the yield rate of your sword forging decreased?"

"Boss, you can even see that?" Han the blacksmith scratched his head in shame. "Indeed, I don't know what's going on, but the ring-handled swords we've been forging lately are too brittle. They often break in two after just a few hits. I've scolded them for this quite a bit."

It would be strange if it continued to forge. The sulfur content of such pig iron is too high and it cannot withstand forging. It is a problem with the material itself and has little to do with the skills of the craftsmen.

"Call Blackhorn."

After a while, the dark-skinned and muscular Hei Jiao walked in and saluted Chen Changfan, the archer. "Boss, are you looking for me?"

"Have you encountered anything strange while digging coal recently?"

Hei Jiao pondered for a moment, then said uncertainly, "Coal mining has been going quite smoothly recently, and production has even increased. We've discovered a dark brown coal seam with a loose structure, so it's easy to mine..."

"Dark brown coal seam? Bring some over here so I can see."

Chen Changfan felt that he seemed to have found the key to the problem.

Heijiao handed over a basket of coal with some confusion. Chen Changfan picked up a piece and found that it was indeed loose in texture and dark in color.

This is obviously a manifestation of excessive sulfur content.

You know, the process of iron smelting is to reduce the iron in iron ore through the carbon in the coal. However, if there are too many impurities in the coal, the carbon content is insufficient, and the sulfur content is too high, the reaction efficiency will inevitably be greatly reduced.

The most intuitive reaction is that there is too much slag and the iron produced contains many impurities.

"So this is the root of the problem. We are just stupid."

"Thank goodness the boss is knowledgeable, otherwise we would still be in the dark."

After Chen Changfan briefly explained this principle to everyone, everyone understood it.

Hu the roofer and Tang Shao looked as if they had learned a lesson, while Han the blacksmith knew that he had caused trouble and looked a little uneasy.

But to be honest, this is not anyone's fault. To put it bluntly, it is the limited vision of people in this era.

All the chemical knowledge they know combined is probably not as good as that of an elementary school student, let alone analyzing problems from a chemical perspective.

"It seems we can't use coal directly to make iron in the future. We have to use coke instead."

Chen Changfan directly provided a solution. "At the same time, the reactor cannot be too small. The smaller the furnace, the more likely it is that the reaction will be incomplete. If I'm not mistaken, the first ones to be damaged will be those small furnaces, right?"

Using coke to make iron is more efficient and of better quality, but it also requires meeting three conditions.

Simply put, it is the quality of the fuel, the size of the blast furnace, and more powerful blast equipment.

"You are right again, sir. We are planning to build a few more large furnaces, which may help alleviate the slag problem." said Hu the bricklayer.

"The direction is right." Chen Changfan nodded.

Coke ironmaking requires the construction of a large-scale blast furnace to ensure that the iron ore and fuel are in contact for a long time.

And by installing more powerful blast equipment to increase the furnace temperature, ensure the full combustion and oxidation of coke.

Another thing is to talk about the preparation of coal into coke in advance.

"How is coke prepared industrially?"

Chen Changfan began to try hard to recall the chemistry knowledge he learned in his previous life.

"Damn it! The textbook doesn't seem to teach that..."

Chen Changfan decided to try to imitate the method of making charcoal.