In the small canyon ten miles north of the valley wooden castle, loud rumbling noises were heard from time to time.
In a light-transmitting cave on one side of the canyon, several young men wearing heavy cotton military uniforms carefully put some black powder into fist-sized clay pots with wooden spoons under the guidance of a middle-aged alchemist. These pottery pots are specially made. In addition to having thicker walls than ordinary pottery pots, there are also some protruding thorns on the pot body.
Young guys put the black powder into a clay pot, then press it gently with a wooden stick, insert a special cotton thread into it and leave a section, and then seal the mouth of the pot with unsolidified clay.
The finished clay pots were placed neatly in a wooden frame and transported to another dry and cool place in the cave for storage.
The alchemist walked back and forth in the cave with a thin wooden stick in his hand, instructing the young men to prepare and fill the medicine.
"Little bastard! Touch the iron rod first! Touch the iron rod first!!" The alchemist raised the thin wooden stick in his hand and severely spanked a young guy on the buttocks because the guy did not touch the iron rod stuck on the ground next to him as required.
"If I catch you touching the iron rod from time to time again, I will break your legs." The alchemist is the alchemist who survived the explosion of the wooden castle. Since the last explosion, he has become a stubborn maniac.
After being beaten, the young man quickly put his hand on the iron rod and touched it a few times before he dared to rub his buttocks that had been damaged by the wooden rod.
“Let me tell you, don’t think that just because you are an apprentice from the Government Affairs Academy is a big deal. In front of this kind of thing, you are nothing. This thing is not the charcoal in your fireplace.” The alchemist roared at the young guys in the cave again.
At the innermost side of the cave, in a cave that is also transparent, Jack Medici, a member of the Weapons Research Laboratory, the son of Salt, the former Minister of Commerce and General Manager of the European Commercial Bank, and a member of the Wells Legion Weapons Research Laboratory, is holding a wooden tray in both hands to show the latest development results to Art, who personally developed the weapon.
…Legion Commander, after many experiments, we made this kind of granular fire. I just installed an iron bomb myself. The power of the same amount of medicine has more than doubled. The bomb shell made of pig iron was easily blown into countless pieces. "
Matt touched the iron rod stuck in the ground beside him with his hand, then picked out a black particle the size of a wheat grain from the tray, raised it to his eyes and looked at it.
Matt knows the concept of "pellet fire*", but he only knows it.
In the more than half a year since the Black Fire* was successfully developed, the New City Weapons Research Laboratory has been testing it day and night.
From the perspective of ordinary people, the power of this black powder that transcends cognition is frightening enough. However, after the initial excitement, Art increasingly felt that the "big killer weapon" he had worked hard to develop for several years was not worthy of the reputation of "astonishing power". The first is the problem of insufficient fire deflagration. In order to load enough explosives to ensure the power of the explosion, wooden sticks must be used to compact the explosives. However, this resulted in the explosive gap inside the bomb being too small and the powder burning insufficiently, so that many powders exploded before being ignited.
At the same time, powdered fire is extremely susceptible to moisture, especially if it is stored in a dark cave, it will become moist over time, and it may even become impossible to ignite.
In addition, it is also inconvenient to transport powdered fire, because during the bumpy transportation of powdered fire, sulfur powder, charcoal powder and saltpeter powder with different weights will be separated from each other. Among them, the densest saltpeter powder will be at the bottom of the fire barrel, and the lightest charcoal powder will be on the surface of the fire barrel. This will inevitably reduce the power of the fire, or even make it impossible to light it at all!
Last month, the Weapons Research Laboratory transported a batch of black fire gun to the newly discovered iron mine in the south of the valley for secret experiments. Due to the excessive bumps in the transportation process, the raw materials of these fire guns were almost all separated, so that after arriving at the destination, all the fire gun must be poured out and remixed to exert its power.
In normal times, it is just one more process, but on the battlefield, this is a fatal flaw.
The technology of granulated firewood solves these problems. First of all, although granulated firewood will stratify after bumpy transportation, the largest particles will run to the bottom of the firewood barrel, and the smallest particles will run to the surface of the firewood barrel, but this will not affect the quality and use of the firewood.
Secondly, the moisture absorption of granulated firewood is much smaller than that of powdered firewood, because the ratio of surface area to volume of granular firewood is smaller and it absorbs less moisture from the air. During the Age of Discovery, the best pellet fuel would also use a graphite polisher to polish away the pores on the pellets to reduce the hygroscopicity of the fuel and extend its storage life. Finally, because granular fire* is in the form of granules, even when pressed, they do not fit tightly together and do not form a "whole" like powdered black fire*. The gaps left between the particle firewood allow oxygen to assist the combustion of the firewood (facilitate flame diffusion), make the burning speed more uniform, and improve the combustion efficiency of the firewood.
These things that were regarded as primary theoretical knowledge by later generations were simply the most esoteric secrets in this era. Arter understood a little bit, but it was enough. The adhesive boiled with the best quality refined wheat flour is sprayed on the powdered black fire* and shaken and sieved into particles of different sizes. After many tests, it was determined that the particles the size of wheat grains are the most suitable.
After determining the particle size, use a sieve as fine as a wheat grain to select qualified firewood. Putting the pellet fire gun back on the tray, Art breathed a sigh of relief, "With it, we really have the confidence to go south to Lombardy."
"Your weapons laboratory has achieved military merit again, and I will ask the Military Affairs Office to mark it down for you. But you must remember that everything here is the top secret of the Wells Army, and everyone must keep it secret. Once the secret is discovered, everyone will be severely punished under military law!"
Jack was holding the tray and stood up to accept the order.
"Now we're just waiting for Groland to forge a qualified weapon~" Art raised his head and looked at the blue sky after the heavy snow through the natural window, with thousands of thoughts flying in his heart...
..... .......
…"Lord Gloland, the heat of the blast furnace is already at its highest, and the strength of the steel we can smelt is this. If the furnace temperature can be raised further, perhaps the toughness and hardness of the steel can be improved a little more."
In the workshop area under Wellsburg, the weapons workshop was not relocated as planned because the new weapons ordered by Art required the use of hydraulic forging hammers, and the hydraulic forging hammer system here was already quite complete.
Since the production of the gun barrel basically failed, the weapons workshop has developed another weapon called the "Fire Gate Cannon" under the personal guidance of Art. This weapon is still made of iron, but its diameter is dozens of times larger than the original "gun barrel". The manufacturing process of this kind of weapon is also immature. Art simply mentioned casting it with wrought iron, using fine steel as the mold core, and casting the outer mold with clay. As for how to cast it, Art only left one sentence: "Study by yourself."
The weapons workshop has already cast a six-foot-long portal cannon that weighs more than 300 pounds, but the barrel is full of pores and impurities and we really dare not use fire to destroy it.
So these hundreds of pounds of fine iron were re-melted, turned into more than fifty iron hollow-point bullets, and sent to the mountains.