"Uh..." Sylvie scrutinized the shell for a while and compared it with Roland's design sketch for a long time. She then pointed at the detonator and said, "It seems that this copper pipe is not aligned with the nail at the top."
"What about the springs?" Anna asked. "Are they still stuck on both sides of the iron plate?"
"One is crooked."
"Left or right?"
Anna asked for details and then wrote down each question in her notebook.
After collecting the reasons for the failure, it was time for the next round of shooting. Four shots were enough for Summer to use all her playback ability. In this way, the efficiency of the improvement was naturally higher than ever.
Unfortunately, the next two rounds of shooting also failed. Roland had to announce that they would continue the test the next day.
For Summer and Sylvie, their work for the day was over. After that, they could go back to the castle to enjoy the delicious afternoon tea, or go to the Convenience Market to see if there were any novel products. However, for Anna and Agatha, the grenade test was just a small part of their busy work. In particular, Anna had to improve the fuse according to the reasons for the failure, and then she had to complete the development and assembly of the steam turbine.
Roland planned to follow her to the backyard of the North Slope to see the progress of the steam turbine model, but his guard, Sean, brought him news from City hall.
"Your Majesty, the Deputy Minister of Construction, Losiya, hopes that you can go to the furnace area. He said that the first retort has been set up."
...
As a necessary facility for the coking plant, the planned 10 retort towers were set up next to the furnace group at the foot of the North Slope Mining Area.
Due to the wantonly cutting of bricks and iron, the furnace group had changed from a small open space of less than 1,000 square meters to a vast empty area extending along the mountain. If Roland had not strictly prohibited the workers from using the woods near the town, there would not have been a single tree left in the north of the Border Area.
Although there was coal now, the convenient and easy to obtain charcoal was still the main source of iron smelting. As they moved further and further away from the furnaces, the workers set their sights on the North Slope Mountain. Every day, hundreds of logs would be chopped off and thrown down from the top of the mountain. From a distance, the verdant mountain peak already had a small "bald spot".
Naturally, Roland wouldn't ask them to protect the environment. As long as the dust didn't affect the town, he didn't care even if they chopped down the entire North Slope Mountain. After all, compared to the Impassable Mountain Range, this protruding small mountain range was just an insignificant corner. With Leaf maintaining the basic vegetation, there was basically no need to worry about soil erosion.
The flat land at the foot of the mountain naturally became the most suitable place for the coking plant to stay.
Roland led Nightingale and his guards through the noisy furnace area and came to the first distillation tower. Losiya immediately came forward and bowed to him. "Your Majesty, I built this double-storey furnace with refractory bricks according to your request. According to the blueprint, the upper storey should be sealed with an iron door, and the middle storey should have an iron plate that can be moved freely. However, I don't know who to find to make these two things. The copper pipes and chimney of the small furnace are the same. Except for these metal components, the rest of the parts have been completed. "
Roland got into the furnace and examined it. As a former member of the Mason Guild and an old friend of Carr Van Bate, Losiya was indeed very knowledgeable in masonry. The walls of the distillation tower, which was nearly two stories high, were uniform. The gap between each brick was basically the same, and the brick joints were interlaced layer by layer. There was not even a single straight seam. Not only was the arrangement of the bricks excellent, but the construction was also very serious. Even if the same blueprint was used, the finished product built by different people could be very different.
"Well done," Roland praised after examining it. "I will arrange for someone to cast the iron door and iron plate. After that, you just need to cover the fire-facing surface with refractory bricks."
"Your Majesty," Losiya hesitated and said, "can you tell me how this furnace works?"
"Why? Do you want to be a coking worker?" Roland joked.
"Of course not," Roland quickly shook his head. "I have never built such a strange furnace before. Therefore, I can only make guesses about the parts that are not clearly described in the blueprint. If I know its specific usage and function, not only will I be able to build the second furnace faster, but I will also be able to improve some of the parts that I am not sure about. "
"I see," Roland said with a smile. "This type of furnace is mainly used for the distillation of coal. You should have seen how charcoal is burned, right? This one is similar, but on a larger scale. The lower storey is burned, and the upper storey is baked. The filler is coal. "
"Using coal to bake coal?" Losiya said in surprise.
"That's right. After the distillation of coal, it can be turned into coke, which burns at a higher temperature. It is a good fuel for making steel. In addition, the distillation process will produce several by-products. The pipes on the tower wall are used to collect them, not to exhaust the chimney. "
"Then... why is there a small furnace next to the furnace?
"During the distillation, there must be no air in the upper storey, otherwise the coal will burn directly." Roland pointed to the hole between the two furnaces. "The limestone calcined in the small furnace will produce a lot of carbon dioxide. You can think of it as a kind of gas that can't be burned..."
"Your Majesty, I know this," Losiya said. "This part is taught in the evening classes."
"That's easy." Roland was pleased. It seemed that the content of universal education was being broadened little by little with Scroll's efforts. "The carbon dioxide will enter the upper storey of the furnace through the pipe, and all the air will be squeezed out, so that the coal can achieve the distillation effect. As for the limestone, it is the grayish-white stone used to bake cement. It is everywhere on the North Slope Mountain. "
...
After inspecting the First Tower of the Distillation, Roland retraced his steps back and stopped by the furnace area for a while.
Just by looking at the busy scene in front of him, Roland could not help but feel a little excited. All kinds of brick furnaces stood side by side. At first glance, it looked like a neat red forest. Dozens of smoke columns rose from the forest. Gray, white, and black intertwined with each other. Together with the workers in plain clothes and the outdated equipment, it formed a very contemporary picture. More than ten steam engines were rumbling, pulling the conveyor belt to send the raw materials and charcoal into the blast furnace. The track system had also been laid from the mine cave to here. Small mining carts were running between the two places. The iron ore transfer speed was much faster than before.
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