Under the night, an unknown factory in the suburbs of Bashuiban was brightly lit in a large factory. There was a room on the second floor. Behind the iron windows inside the factory, Yuwen Wen, with a serious face, stood.

Yuwen Wen, who had been busy for a day, was a little exhausted at this time. He was busy in the shipyard for a day during the day, but he was not in the palace at night but took time to come here, so he naturally came for a big event.

I looked up at the wall clock and it was now 9:20 pm.

He was in the room, and the iron windows in the room could be said to be iron nets, occupying more than half of the area of ​​a single wall, separating Yu Wen Wen and others from the cans in the first floor hall inside the factory outside the room.

The room, floor, wall and ceiling are made of wooden, but the hall is very ordinary floor and walls.

Through the iron window, Yuwen could clearly see the details of the can in the hall. This thing was like a large pressure cooker (a counterfeit pressure cooker of this era), and there were several sticks inserted on the "pot lid".

The end of each rod-shaped object is connected with thick cables, and it is unknown where the other end of the cable is connected.

In the room where Yuwen Wen was in, there were several Taoist priests in Taoist robes busy. The oldest one was gray in hair and thin in shape. His right arm had shrunk and curled up on his chest.

The Taoist priest from Wuzhuang Temple is named Zhao Jingming, who is the "host" of the experiment tonight. The other Taoist priests are his assistants, or "experiments".

At 9:30 pm, all preparations before the experiment were over. Zhao Jingming and Lin Youdi talked for a while, then looked at Yuwen Wen and nodded firmly.

Yuwen Wen nodded, and then turned his gaze to the can.

Zhao Jingming walked aside and stretched out his left hand to pull the knife on the wall, but because he didn't have enough strength, he didn't pull it.

Seeing this, several assistants next to him rushed forward to help, but were pushed away by Zhao Jingming.

The stubborn old Taoist used his left hand to pull the switch knife again and finally closed it. At the same time, the can in the hall suddenly made a strange sound, buzzing.

This voice is familiar to most of the people present, and Yuwen Wen is no exception.

This is the current sound of high voltage electricity.

Yuwen Wen then thought of the tragic situation at various leakage accidents, and felt a chill on his back. His technicians were actually unable to effectively control high-voltage electricity, so not only did the practical results of power equipment, but also often had accidents during experiments, so...

His eyes then turned to the iron window (iron net) in front of him.

The room where Yu Wenwen is located is actually an iron cage, which is used as a protective facility. This iron cage is a Faraday cage, and the iron window is part of the iron cage.

The Faraday cage can shield current and even protect against lightning. Once something happens when the thing in the hall runs, relying on this iron mesh to protect the body, Yuwen Wen will not be hit by the current and will not become the first emperor in the world to be electrocuted.

Of course, there was no Faraday in this era, so the term "Faraday cage" does not exist, but the principle will not change.

Yuwen Wen should take a look at it with his own eyes and see how the electric arc furnace can smelify iron.

Two years ago, he received an application report from Wuzhuangguan. Zhao Jingming and other Taoist priests applied to allocate funds to study arc furnace smelting technology in order to achieve steelmaking using arc furnaces.

At that time, Yuwen Wen was skeptical about this technology.

But it is difficult to refuse. He is afraid of striking everyone's fanatical desire to study technology, so he asked the Taoist priests to first take out some practical results that can be used in the electric arc furnace. Because electrical research is a bottomless pit that swallows money, and there is no technology with practical prospects, he does not want to waste money and continue to invest.

The Taoist priests immediately came up with the results, which was the "calcium carbide" that they accidentally discovered during the experiment using an electric arc furnace.

Put coal into an electric arc furnace, and after "electricity", you will obtain "calcium carbide". This thing will react with water to produce combustible gases, which can be used for lighting.

Yuwen Wen was speechless about this result because he still remembered calcium carbide and heard of calcium carbide lamps, but he didn't know how calcium carbide was made.

As a result, it was made out by the Taoist priests.

Just in terms of producing calcium carbide, the arc furnace used does not require excessive voltage when running, which means that the production cost is not high, so the first calcium carbide factory appeared in Huangzhou.

The reason why the location was chosen in Huangzhou is naturally that only the Bashui River section of Huangzhou has the only permanent high-power hydropower station in the world (confidential to the outside world).

In order to maintain the normal operation of this hydropower station, Yuwen Wen has to pay out of his own pocket every year, spending at least 500,000 kilowatts of money (including physical discounts), but the economic benefits of the power station are very small, which to some extent is equivalent to being useless.

Before this, the electricity emitted by hydropower stations was not able to effectively control current and voltage and could not be used in fine detail, except for telegraph lines that supply optical ecliptics, it was only used for scientific research.

The emergence of the calcium carbide production process of arc furnaces has given power stations a place to work.

Mass-produced calcium carbide can be used for calcium carbide lamps. Although calcium carbide lamps are not worry-free and have a peculiar smell, they are relatively low-cost lamps. After large-scale promotion, they illuminate countless mines and are also used as channel lights.

Carbide lamps can also be used for ships sailing at night and carriages traveling at night. Therefore, with the booming development of the mining and shipping industries, the demand for calcium carbide has gradually increased, which Yuwen Wen did not expect before.

The electric arc furnace technology has added a place to use the hydropower station. Taoist priests have proved with experimental results that this technology looks good for development.

Therefore, now he has to see the electric arc furnace refining liquid iron with his own eyes before he decides whether to add additional funds to support research and allocate funds to expand the power generation capacity of the power station.

In front of you, the tank-shaped object in the hall was an electric arc furnace. The raw materials placed in the furnace were mainly iron ore produced in Daye and some auxiliary materials. Yu Wenwen confirmed this correctly. According to the theory of arc heating, this electric arc furnace should be able to melt the materials in the furnace into molten iron.

Specifically, it is liquid iron.

Time passed, and it was unknown how long after, Master Zhao Jingming shouted "Start", so several technicians in the hall became busy beside the electric arc fireplace.

In the room, Yu Wenwen wore black glasses as requested. His eyes were pitch black and there was only a little hazy light.

Suddenly, a bright light appeared in the field of view, like a bright spring water, slowly flowing out, but the bright spring water flowed very slowly, like a gelatinous object, and looked sticky.

At the same time, a hot air rushed towards me. Although it was not as hot as the face was burning, the warm feeling was very obvious.

At this point, Yuwen Wen already knew the answer.

Pig iron and wrought iron will melt when the temperature exceeds the melting point. The fluidity of pig iron is good and it really flows like water, so it can be used for casting.

Although the melted iron is also liquid, the fluidity is not very good. Therefore, if you want to make ironware from iron, it is difficult to cast, and it needs to be forged, that is, forged.

At this moment, the electric arc furnace had finished smelting, so the furnace body was tilted under the operation of the technician and poured out molten iron into the container beside it. Whether the molten iron was pig or molten iron was clear at a glance.

Yuwen Wen took off the black glass mirror, but saw the Taoist priest Zhao Jing looking at him with a clear eye, and the same was true for the other Taoist priests.

Obviously, there is only one conclusion.

"I'm very pleased when I did a good job." Yuwen Wen nodded, looked at Taoist Zhao Jingming, and then looked at the others: "I have decided, let's continue to study the steelmaking of arc furnaces."

Hearing the emperor's decision, the Taoist priests clenched their fists, and their joy was beyond words. The Taoist Zhao Jingming was stunned at first, then his eyes turned red, and suddenly he danced and kept shouting.

This move was too crazy, and the other Taoists were shocked and were about to come forward to dissuade him, but they saw Zhao Jingming suddenly rushed to the iron window, grabbed the pane with his left hand, shaking, and crying loudly, with tears flowing down his face.

While crying, Zhao Jingming seemed to be shouting some names or Taoist names. Judging from their appearance, it seemed to comfort some people's spirits in heaven.

It’s not good for Jun Qian to lose his character. Lin Youdi wanted to step forward, but Yuwen Wen raised his hand to stop him: “Let Master Zhao cry, cry, feel more comfortable.”

Looking at the old Taoist priest who was crying loudly, Yu Wen Wen was very moved, and his eyes began to feel hot.

Taoist Zhao Jingming, since he saw the wonder of electric current and the brilliant brilliance of electric arc lamps, was attracted by electricity. He and other fellow practitioners swear to study this mysterious and mysterious "power of thunder".

More than ten years have passed, and Zhao Jingming was the only one who left the first group of Taoist priests who "practice the Tao" with Zhao Jingming.

Others did not retreat or switch to other research in the middle, but died in various electrical experimental accidents - electric currents were more powerful than tigers and killed people invisibly.

For people of this era, electrical science is mysterious and mysterious. In countless experiments, the Taoist priests who participated in the research kept testing on the verge of death. Even the surviving Zhao Jingming had atrophy and became disabled due to an electric shock accident.

But even so, Zhao Jingming did not retreat, and many Taoist priests joined the research group regardless of the danger and continued the unfinished careers of the dead Taoist fellows.

The name of the martyr is engraved on the cold tombstone, but more people have summarized their experiences and lessons and continued to explore the thorny path of electricity.

It can be said that it is the lives of countless people that paved the path of development of electrical science in this era. Even if the research progress is not satisfactory, the Taoists are still extremely fanatical.

They are not for studying immortality, nor for refining immortal pills, but simply for studying "thunder power".

Whether it is a mad scientist or a martyr, Yuwen Wen is so proud of his obsession with exploring the unknown.

The progress of science and technology is inseparable from such a "crazy man".

Therefore, he couldn't bear to directly reject the application of Zhao Jingming and others in order to save money. This approach was too cruel. Now, Yuwen Wen looked at Zhao Jingming crying and wanted to comfort him, but he didn't know what to say.

All he could do was to continue allocating funds to support Taoists in researching arc furnaces.

If the electric arc furnace technology continues to develop, when will it be able to successfully make steel? Zhao Jingming, the most optimistic, is not sure. Maybe it may take ten, twenty or even thirty years.

If Taoists want to continue their research, they need long-term support from people with strong financial resources.

Yuwen Wen is this person, the only one. His attitude determines whether Zhao Jingming and his fellow Taoists have a successful day.

Looking at Zhao Jingming who was crying, Yuwen Wen signaled others to help him up and rest well, then turned around and walked out of the room and said to Lin Youdi who was following him: "Tomorrow, you will take Master Zhao to go through the procedures and apply for funding immediately according to the procedures."
Chapter completed!