Chapter 183 Town Construction Plan

"What is this?" Nightingale asked, looking at the shiny black stone on the table.

"Obsidian." Roland focused on drawing the blueprint in his hand without raising his head.

"Black... what stone?"

"No, I'm talking nonsense." He sighed, just looking at the shape and color, the ghost knows what kind of stone it is. He didn't study geological prospecting, and he might not be able to distinguish pure metals in front of him, let alone ores. The only bit of knowledge in his head told him that most ores are compounds with complex components, and different impurities have different colors. Let’s take iron ore as an example. Hematite, pyrite, and siderite can only be seen from their appearance. It is completely different, especially pyrite, which sometimes shows a light yellow metallic luster, and is often mistaken for gold mines, so it is also nicknamed fool's gold.

As for high temperature resistance...the compound itself does not have a fixed melting point, which is also related to impurities and ingredients, and its species cannot be distinguished by temperature alone. Moreover, metal elements exist in an ionic state, and the purification method is unknown, and it is useless to burn them.

"Is there something you don't know?" Nightingale asked in surprise.

"There are too many." Roland put down the quill and made himself a cup of black tea, "Do you want to drink?"

"No," she waved her hand. "By the way, beef jerky is not as good as grilled fish fillets. You should put fish fillets in your drawer from now on."

"..." Roland was silent for a moment, deciding to pretend that he hadn't heard this sentence. He also planned to throw this stone to chief alchemist Kaimo Strull to deal with. Minerals are more or less radioactive, so it is really not a good choice to place them as decorations in the office.

After Soraya's ability evolved recently, he found that he could make a lot more things suddenly.

The first is the running water system, which can greatly improve the happiness of residents. When you think about it, coming home sweaty after a busy day, trying to wash off your slimy body, only to find that the water tank is empty, and you have to fetch water from a nearby well, must feel terrible. Moreover, Roland is also very tired of the process of scooping water from the water tank to wash his face and hands. He always feels that if the water is left in the tank for a few days, parasites will grow, not to mention that the water tank is rarely cleaned once a month. Take a closer look If you get there, you can also see the scale deposited on the bottom of the tank fluttering like caterpillars.

If a water tower is used for water supply, there is no technical difficulty to use a steam engine to pump water from the Chishui River into the water tower, and then rely on the siphon principle to flow into each household along the pipeline, forming an automatic water supply system. The reason why Roland has not implemented it is... the material.

The water supply pipes are either made of iron or copper. If the iron pipes are not treated with anti-rust treatment, they will have to be scrapped after a few years of use. Copper pipes are perfect water supply pipes, corrosion-resistant, non-scaling on the inner wall, non-toxic, and even copper ions have a bactericidal effect, but use the metal of minted currency to make water pipes? The output of the North Slope Mine is far from being extravagant. Even in later generations, copper water pipes are something that only high-end residences would consider.

Currently, Border Town is not only unable to export minerals, but even imports metal ingots. Therefore, whether it is an iron pipe or a copper pipe, Roland is reluctant to use it to build a water supply system that is purely for enjoyment and cannot benefit.

But it’s different now, with Soraya’s coating, it means that he can use nothing but magic power to produce water pipes. For example, take an iron pipe as a mold, wrap it with paper, and let Soraya cover it. Layers, which become pipes after being pulled out of the mold. Even if such a water pipe is not pressure-resistant, it only needs to be placed in a water pipe ditch with a cover.

The second is the power supply system... I am afraid that this will not be able to spread to the whole town in a short time, but filling the castle with light has always been what Roland wants to achieve. Reading with a weak candle is too painful, and it will cause great damage to the eyes. In addition, summer is coming, how does it feel to be full of torches and candles on a sultry night?

Now that there are generators and wires, it doesn't seem so far away to bring castles into the electrical age. As for the filament of the light bulb... He vaguely remembered that before the use of tungsten filaments, people generally used carbonized bamboo filaments to make incandescent lamps. Bamboo is not a rare thing, it can be found in the woodland south of Chishui River.

However, what Border Town needs most at the moment is iron smelting facilities. The output of iron is directly related to the scale of machinery production and weapon manufacturing, and it is also the basis for the survival of the town.

"This is... a tower you drew?" Nightingale sat at the table and asked curiously.

"Almost," Roland nodded, "but the inside of it is empty and is used to fill fuel and ore. It works like a shaft furnace and can smelt iron ore into pig iron."

This is an upgraded version of the ancient shaft furnace of the blast furnace.

He once went to the construction site to watch the shaft furnace designed and manufactured by Losia. To be honest, except for the small capacity and low furnace temperature, the structure of this kind of furnace is already very close to that of a blast furnace. In order to be able to produce refractory bricks, he planned to build a dozen more such shaft furnaces.

But with refractory bricks, it is natural to consider a blast furnace with higher furnace temperature and higher output.

The height of the newly designed blast furnace is nearly eight meters, which is four times that of the shaft furnace. The furnace body is tower-shaped, with a maximum inner diameter of three meters. In order to prevent collapse, there is a support frame at the bottom. The furnace wall is thin at the top and thick at the bottom, with a thickness of half a meter at the bosh. The innermost layer is made of Soraya brand-coated fireproof bricks, and there is a circle of air supply ports, and the air is drawn into the bosh by a steam engine.

In order to make full use of the power of the steam engine, Roland also designed a set of automatic feeding equipment for the blast furnace, including a climbing rail and a special feeding car with a movable door at the bottom. After the trolley climbs to the top of the furnace under the traction of the steam engine, the buckle at the bottom of the trolley will be inserted into the hook, thereby opening the discharge port and dumping fuel or ore into the furnace. For this era, the system has been regarded as the top technology.

Unlike shaft furnaces with large openings and low heat, once a blast furnace is put into production, it will not stop operating for a long time. It must continuously input fuel and ore, and its output is much higher than that of a shaft furnace. As long as five or six such blast furnaces are built, the town's pig iron production will increase exponentially.

...

After drawing all the drawings, Roland rubbed his numb wrists, took out a box from under the table, and pushed it in front of her.

Nightingale was startled, "This is...?"

"Well... I planned to give it to you earlier, but it took me a while to carve the pattern. After all, I'm not very proficient in using the machines in the factory," Roland smiled, "Open it and have a look."

She reached out to open the box and couldn't help but let out an exclamation.

I saw two revolver pistols staggered left and right inside, which were different from the prototype guns used on the day of Carter's test. These two pistols were shining silver, and the surface was so shiny that they could reflect the silhouette of people. The handles and gun bodies were engraved with exquisite patterns , and the name of Nightingale is also printed on the barrel: "To Veronica".

This plan has been brewing in Roland's head for a long time. Compared with the front-loading flintlock guns that are inconvenient to carry and use, the newly developed revolver is quite complete, and both safety and firing rate are maintained at a high level. For a witch with high mobility like Nightingale, it is exciting to think about how powerful a gun can be in her hands.

"Thank you," she smiled and picked up two pistols, jumped off the table, and made a shooting gesture, "will you teach me how to use them?"

"Of course," Roland nodded. The other party was dressed in a white assassin suit and a dazzling smile, which made him instantly understand what it means to be handsome without friends. "It's not difficult, just sneak into the target, pull the trigger, and at the same time Just shout out that noon is here.” (To be continued.)