Chapter 88 – Iron and steel smelting

Chapter 88 Steel Smelting
Workers lined up and climbed up to the feeding port, put the selected iron ore, together with charcoal, into the steelmaking furnace, and lit the fire to start iron smelting.

The Morning Sun Continent iron smelting came out of a unique technology tree.

Alchemy included steelmaking technology, and many specialty steel refining required the help of magic.

Sophia had seen alchemy blowers, and special catalytic reductions, in the Markholm Kingdom.

The alchemy blower could provide energy through magic crystals, and the ventilation effect was very impressive, comparable to a large electric blower.

But the price of the alchemy blower was very high, and there were no sales in Grant Kingdom.

If you want to buy this kind of large alchemy item, you can only go to Markholm and other magically developed countries to order it.

Buying an alchemy blower from Markholm, tens of thousands of gold coins couldn’t be beaten.

Without an alchemy blower, the vents could only be replaced with large airboxes.

The windbox manufacturing technology was very simple, Richard found two carpenters and after a little description, the carpenters manufactured a qualified windbox.

The territory was not short of wood, and the large airbox was quickly manufactured.

Three people worked together to pull the large bellows, and a stream of air entered the steelmaking furnace.

The primitive smelting process, coupled with the fact that the charcoal was not burned at a high enough temperature, smelted out pig iron of average quality.

Not only was the texture loose, but there were also large and small holes on the surface.

However, the workers’ interest was very high.

After all, without the use of magic alchemy technology, a furnace can be refined a few tons of pig iron, this efficiency in the morning continent unprecedented.

Morning Sun Continent ordinary iron furnace, usually smelted out of the pig iron, not only the quality of the general, the weight is also particularly small, a furnace can only be smelted out of pig iron dozens of pounds or so.

This kind of iron smelting furnace is the kind of clay furnace that is more than one meter high.

After smelting the pig iron, the iron smelting workers will give the pig iron to the blacksmith and enter the next round of process.

It is constantly pounded and forged, and after a thousand hammers, it is put into the cooling liquid to be quenched and become qualified steel.

This kind of steel is very expensive, according to the normal price in peacetime, a kilogram is about twenty copper coins or so.

If it entered a wartime state, the price of the iron material might double several times.

Of course the price of steel fluctuates with the quality, the better the quality the higher the price of steel, the lower the quality the lower the price.

The worst quality freshly baked pig iron is around six copper coins a kilogram.

For short-term labor in the market, each person could earn about four copper coins per day.

A day’s labor would be less than a kilo of the worst quality pig iron.

Purchasing a long knife of a little more than two kilograms would cost more than three silver coins, requiring an ordinary person to labor for a month without eating or drinking.

In fact, it usually took half a year to a year for an ordinary person to raise a family and save up the money to purchase a knife.

A set of full body armor weighed more than twenty kilograms, and the money for materials was about two gold coins.

Making iron armor also requires a lot of charcoal, labor.

Blacksmiths who could make iron armor were excellent talents wherever they went, and their wages were a step higher than even the main legion’s warriors.

A piece of iron armor often cost more than ten gold coins in the market.

An ordinary family struggling for ten years might not be able to save up the belongings to purchase a piece of iron armor.

In addition to blast furnace ironmaking, Richard also knew a crucible steelmaking technique.

But what percentage of graphite clay is mixed into the crucible, Richard is still unclear. In addition to the manufacture of high temperature refractory crucible, is also the crucible steelmaking predecessor technology.

Richard is not clear about the technical details, and can only explain to Thomas, the director of the steel mill, so that he can study this technology. Thomas cast a successful large iron cauldron and became the head of the blacksmith class.

His iron smithing skills were not the best among the many blacksmiths, but the man was very smart and liked to specialize in the smelting process, and he succeeded in casting the iron cauldron, received Richard’s reward, and stood out from the many blacksmiths.

The steelmaking factory was divided into four workshops: digging, selecting, steelmaking, and forging.

For the time being, there are more than six hundred male and female workers, in addition to the steel mill barracks there are more than five hundred old people and children living in the barracks, all of them are the families of the steel smelting workers.

After these people entered the Harland territory, they likewise became indentured servants and needed to labor for the lord for five years before they could gain their freedom.

After the steel mill was put into operation, the furnaces could be opened four times a month, making about eight tons of steel a month.

Eight tons of steel production a month looks very funny, a village-run steel plant in a big steel province in the previous era can engage in a capacity of several million tons.

But the Harland territory’s eight tons of steel production per month is already the lord with the most steel production in the Gerda province.

The only ones with more steel production than Richard were a few great nobles. The population of the great nobles invested in the steel industry was at least more than ten thousand people.

The efficiency of the territory’s steel factory was already about ten times that of the other lords.

Eight tons of steel, one and a half tons of the territory’s own use, mainly used to make agricultural tools, weapons and equipment.

Most of the steel products that come out, if there is a surplus can be sold by opening stores in Black River Fort.

Two and a half tons will be used to make weapons to equip the new squadrons and increase the coverage of iron armor.

With the increase in the number of blacksmiths, the annual production of iron armor in Harland’s territory has reached a level of eighty pieces of iron armor.

The remaining four tons of iron and steel, Richard was prepared to sell out.

Four tons of steel, according to the market price was around 222 gold coins.

Even if a large amount of steel from Harland’s territory was put into the market and caused some market fluctuations, resulting in a ten percent decrease in the price of steel, Richard would be able to earn 200 gold coins every month.

An increase of two thousand four hundred gold coins in cash in a year, and also saves the expense of purchasing steel.

Coupled with the income from the city brick orders every month, the development of the territory finally formed a positive cycle.

By August, Richard had already started to pay off the debts he owed.

After the Harland family was granted the territory and William became a hereditary baron, he had already owed eight thousand gold coins in debt in the last few years.

In the first year of buying slaves and running the territory, he owed four thousand, and in the following two years, he needed to borrow every year to make ends meet. With the addition of some interest, the size of the debt has doubled to eight thousand gold coins.

The first thing to be repaid was the loan sharks that William owed.

These loansharks, with an annual interest rate of twenty percent, plus the interest rolled over once a year, would double in three years or so.

To be able to put loan sharks in Black River Fort, so that people like William did not dare to default, there was bound to be a big man standing behind them.

Such a big man, the Harland family can not afford to offend.

Territory has income, Richard has a bottom in his heart, immediately draw cash, loan sharks to pay back.

As for the money borrowed from uncle Soros, Olaf’s brother Rand, can only pay back a part of it first, and slowly pay it off in installments of two years.

Now the Harland family has been the more important nobles in the Gerda province, controlling three territories, holding more than seventeen thousand people.

There are five squadrons of soldiers in the territory, and their strength has exceeded that of most baronial families.

Having such a noble relative was very beneficial to the development of the in-laws.

Rand would not be easily bullied when he did business in Fort Black River and Fort Wright. Uncle Soros can also use the Harland territory as a channel to make war honors and not worry about letting people withhold.

Although the money owed to relatives, everyone can still accept it for the time being.

(End of chapter)