Chongzhen and I became partners

Chapter 76 Unconsciously changing

"At this time, what you lack is a method to directly smelt steel." Liu Weichao said, "The most critical factor is actually temperature. But don't you already have a glass factory now? The method of increasing the temperature, It is also suitable for smelting molten steel...!"

Emperor Chongzhen already had a very big psychological expectation, thinking that the knowledge taught by Liu Weichao would be very difficult, and he might have to ask a lot of questions.

But unexpectedly, when Liu Weichao said this, he was immediately surprised and confirmed, "That means, I can get steel with such a simple method?"

Seeing him like this, Liu Weichao suddenly felt funny in his heart, so he was about to hit him, and asked him, "I ask you, what is steel?"

"What is steel? Isn't steel just..." Emperor Chongzhen blurted out without thinking about it.

In his opinion, such a simple question, so why ask?
However, just halfway through the words, he was suddenly a little dumbfounded, because he found that he couldn't continue talking.

Fortunately, he was also smart, so he had an idea, and hurriedly said: "... Is iron harder than iron?"

Liu Weichao smiled and continued to ask: "Then why is one called iron and the other steel? Why do they differ in hardness? What causes it? And what means can we change the hardness to get what we want? What about steel?"

"..." Emperor Chongzhen was dumbfounded when he heard this, and couldn't utter a single word.

If there are craftsmen who are skilled in smelting steel, maybe they can answer it, but Emperor Chongzhen has never been in contact with this aspect, so it would be strange to be able to answer it!

Of course Liu Weichao knew that it was impossible for Emperor Chongzhen to answer the questions he asked.And this is what he wanted.

The reason why they did not give the information directly, but had to go through such a dialogue first, was to let Emperor Chongzhen have a deep impression and understand the importance of science.

Because he estimated that if he did not emphasize so much, the promotion of science might have been postponed.

Fortunately, Emperor Chongzhen had gotten used to his ignorance, and when he came back to his senses, he quickly and modestly said to Liu Weichao: "Please tell me about it!"

"In fact, there is no essential difference between iron and steel, they are both iron elements." Liu Weichao's science popularization came here, and he added, "Oh, by the way, use your previous microscope to observe everything in the world. Of course, some need to be changed. By observing with a high-magnification microscope, we can see the molecular level. According to the different molecular compositions, we classify them, and there is a periodic table of elements. Iron is something that contains iron elements."

Having said that, he got to the point: "Wrought iron or pure iron is called iron with a carbon content of less than 0.2%, steel with a content of 0.2 to 2%, and pig iron with a content of more than 2%. Different, their hardness is different. If you add other metals, it is an alloy. Some alloys are harder than steel, but let’s not mention it here, I’m afraid your brain will be confused!”

"The melting point of iron, or the melting point of any metal, is actually related to the impurities contained in it. The more impurities, the lower the melting point. For example, the more carbon in steel, the lower the melting point and the earlier it melts. Generally, pig iron usually has a melting point of about 1100-1300°C. Steel contains less carbon and has a higher melting point, around 1600°C, while wrought iron is around 1800°C. The temperature on your side is not high enough to directly obtain molten steel. , but now it has been resolved..."

In fact, at this time, Emperor Chongzhen was a little confused.It’s iron again, carbon, and steel, what’s the degree, what’s the situation?
Seeing that he didn't ask any questions, Liu Weichao continued to preach: "So, the purpose of your steelmaking is to control the carbon content in the molten iron. Only when you understand this principle can you do it purposefully!"

Knowing what it is, and then knowing why it is, Emperor Chongzhen still knew this point of view, and immediately nodded.

"And why the steel in the past was good, but the quality of today's steel is much worse; or that the steel in the north is poor, while the steel in Foshan in the south is good, this involves another issue." Liu Weichao further elaborated, "In today's Ming Dynasty, coal is basically used for heating. And coal contains phosphorus and sulfur, which are other elements like iron. With these two things, the hardness of steel will be reduced..."

He really spent a lot of effort to understand the content of today's explanation.Although he thought he was like this before, in reality, there was still a difference.

When he first came into contact with Emperor Chongzhen, many of his suggestions to Emperor Chongzhen were actually random.

For example, at the beginning, Yuhuatian's prestige appeared in his mind, so he directly quoted that famous sentence to give advice to Emperor Chongzhen.At that time, he felt more domineering in Yuhuatian's words, but he didn't think about it from the perspective of Emperor Chongzhen.

Of course, Emperor Chongzhen did not listen to him completely, otherwise, if it were really "imperial power concession, cut first and play later", it would definitely cause great chaos, and it would not help the situation much.

Also, later he casually told Emperor Chongzhen to invent new gunpowder, but in the end he found that, with the acceptance of Emperor Chongzhen, it was impossible to invent new gunpowder at all.

But now, he has investigated the situation at the end of the Ming Dynasty in detail, and then based on this situation, he gave Emperor Chongzhen popular science to improve the technology at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

The reason for such a change is that the world of Emperor Chongzhen is becoming more and more important to Liu Weichao.This also forced him to pay more attention unconsciously.Because the reason is very simple, only when Emperor Chongzhen is well, can he get the most out of his golden finger of entrepreneurship.

Otherwise, not to mention the subjugation of Emperor Chongzhen, just worrying about state affairs every day, it is impossible to have the spirit to serve Liu Weichao exclusively.

In this way, Liu Weichao told Emperor Chongzhen about the improvement of iron and steel smelting in the late Ming Dynasty. In addition to refining coke as raw material and reducing the phosphorus and sulfur contained in it, he also introduced the importance of iron and steel forging in detail, that is, the introduction of water power as power. Auxiliary facilities such as forging.

Even the reverberatory furnace was introduced, that is, iron and coke separated instead of mixed iron and coke smelting.Including the impact of the pH of the refractory bricks in the smelting furnace on the iron and steel smelting process, it was also told to Emperor Chongzhen.

During this process, Emperor Chongzhen could understand most of the questions. Only when elements, pH and specific temperature were involved, he would have difficulty understanding and had to ask questions.

For this reason, Liu Weichao also told Emperor Chongzhen about the creation of measuring tools.For example, a thermometer.

Now that glass can be made, mercury thermometers are easy to come out.Just remember that freezing water is 0 degrees and boiling water is 100 degrees, and then average the scale between these two marked points, and the thermometer will come out.

In short, Liu Weichao has been teaching for most of the day on this course on iron and steel smelting.Even Emperor Chongzhen just ate some snacks and listened while eating.

This time also exceeded Liu Weichao's expectations.Because he didn't want to see it, there were too many things that Emperor Chongzhen didn't understand, so he needed to ask him to explain.

But no matter what, after the lecture, most of these are the content of physical knowledge, and Emperor Chongzhen finally understood.

(End of this chapter)