In the evening, Li Li was having dinner with Zhao Mengniang. Because the weather was cold, he started to make "hot pot" and prepared ingredients, and chatted while eating.

These days, the food is divided into separate meals, so the scene of a few people eating and drinking around a table of dishes is basically impossible to see.

However, Li Li doesn’t need to be so particular about eating at home. Besides, the way of eating ‘eat hot pot’ is indeed very comfortable and novel.

The hot pot used is a "traditional" copper hot pot, which cooks charcoal. Considering that Zhao Mengniang is inconvenient to move and Li Li doesn't want someone to serve him, so he adds charcoal and cooks the ingredients by himself.

Due to the actual conditions, the ingredients prepared are not that rich, and there are very few vegetables, and basically they are all meat: fish balls, fish fillets, etc.

There are also pasta that is rarely eaten in Poyang, such as wonton.

There are many dishes in a row. Anyway, the weather is cold and meat is not easy to break, so Li Li has to eat it today, and Zhao Mengniang's "combat power" is also very strong.

She doesn't eat it alone, so she has a big appetite and can eat a lot of hot pot. She also found that Li Li talks a lot when eating hot pot and often talks about some strange topics.

For example, the "macaroni noodles" as a staple food at this moment.

Macaroni noodles are a kind of pasta that Li Li thought of. It is like a small bamboo tube, with a diameter of half an inch and a length of about three inches. After cooking properly, the flavor is good. Zhao Mengniang likes it very much.

Since it is pasta, of course it is made of flour, but it is not easy to make by hand, so you have to use a special machine.

Stir the flour, water, and eggs, add appropriate salt, then put it in a ‘macaroni machine’, squeeze out the ‘macaroni tube’, and then cut it off and turn it into a piece of ‘short tube’.

These soft ‘macaroni tubes’ are molded after being dried (dried), and there are many ways to do it.

Therefore, if people outside have not seen the production process of macaroni, it will be difficult to make a large amount of it.

"Making a dough tube is easy, but making an iron tube is much more difficult." Li Li said, and as he was indeed "difference" again, Zhao Mengniang listened carefully.

How to make iron pipes?

Not complicated, first forge out long strips of iron sheets, then use a round iron rod (as thick as chopsticks) as the "cold bones" to "roll" the iron sheets to make short iron pipes, which is "rolled".

Then weld a few short iron pipes by hot forging welding to make a long iron pipe.

Such long iron pipes can be used as blow pipes for the production of glassware.

After years of development, the Li family’s glass kiln has mastered many glassware production techniques. For example, by dipping an iron pipe in a lump of molten glass frit and blowing it from the other end, you can blow out "glass bubbles".

Then make it into big belly glass bottles and other utensils.

This is the purpose of iron pipes (iron blown pipes). Rolling iron pipes is time-consuming and labor-intensive and cost-effective.

It is also OK to use copper to roll copper pipes, but copper is more expensive and iron is cheaper.

So Li Li thought of another way, and used a hydraulic drilling machine to drive the long drill rod, and "drill the solid iron rod through" and turn it into a "maximus tube".

This drilled iron pipe has a uniform pipe wall, uniform size, and is strong and durable.

However, the production of drill rods is quite difficult, especially the production of steel drill bits itself is quite troublesome. Because wear often needs to be replaced, the cost of drilling pipes is still relatively high, and the drilling process is quite time-consuming.

For glass kilns, because the amount of iron blown pipe is not large, the cost problem is not obvious, so just roll the iron pipe.

But in the field, in many cases, metal pipes need to replace bamboo pipes, so what should I do?

Pipes with larger inner diameters (drain pipes, ventilation pipes, etc.) can be made of clay pots (split) and cast iron pipes, but thin pipes with different inner diameters are not large or small, such as the outlet pipes of water hot stoves, and bamboo pipes are not durable.

Ceramic pipes are easy to break, and it is troublesome to make rolled metal pipes. Using a drill bit to drill pipes requires a large drill bit, which is also very troublesome; cast iron pipes are too bulky and occupy a position.

Therefore, based on the increasingly mature rolling process, Li Li used a new process to make metal pipes, that is, "oblique rolling perforated pipes".

Use two obliquely placed steel rollers to cold-roll the cooked iron rods, knead and squeezed the cooked iron rods as dough, and the squeezed iron rods are axially facing a long "head" and are "pushed" out of the tube cavity by them.

This is a newly developed process at the Hanshan Water Workshop, because only huge hydraulic power can knead the cooked iron rods as dough.

Zhao Mengniang has seen the specific structure of the inclined rolling perforator and knows the reason, but does not know why.

This process is not drilling, so there is no problem of regular drill bit replacement, and the cost of producing wet iron pipes is relatively low.

The premise is that there are dams like Hanshanyan that store water and provide strong hydraulic power. Then, steel rolls and other components have to be used. The production cost of the machine itself is not low.

"This machine is not cheap to make, mainly because steel components are expensive. After all, the machine that makes these components is cheap, and the yield rate is too low. Alas..."

Li Li sighed and put the scalded fish balls into Zhao Mengniang's bowl: "Eat slowly, I'll burn it again."

Zhao Mengniang quickly put a few fish balls into Li Li's bowl: "Sanlang eats them too, always put them here."

"No hurry, there are still many, take your time."

Li Li picked up all the hot food and put a new batch of food in it.

After the two ate for a while, Zhao Mengniang asked, "Sanlang, what is the purpose of making so many iron pipes?"

"It's not necessarily iron pipes, but also copper pipes. In short, it's metal pipes, which are very versatile."

"For example, pipes with a small inner diameter can be used on some machines or as hot water pipes for hot water furnaces. After all, bamboo pipes are not durable under high temperature conditions, and ceramic pipes are prone to damage."

"Or it can be used on non-strength components to effectively reduce weight. If you have been in the field for many years, you should know the benefits of structural weight loss."

Li Li made sense, but Zhao Mengniang still felt that the machine that Li Li had worked so hard to produce iron pipes could not be the only use for this.

"Look, what's wrong with this charcoal?"

Li Li used fire tongs to pick up a piece of charcoal. Zhao Mengniang looked at it carefully and was stunned: "Tong, Tongxin's charcoal tube?"

"Yes, macaroni charcoal pipe, this is mechanical charcoal, like a charcoal pipe."

Li Li put the charcoal into the hot boiler and placed the tongs: "In the Hanshan field, there is a hydraulic sawing machine, which decomposes wood every day and saws the board, producing a large amount of sawdust, that is, wood chips and chaff."

"These wood chips can have many uses, and now they can be made into charcoal with the help of a charcoal machine, which is the mechanical charcoal that looks like a macaroni."

"When wood bran is treated like this, the value will increase, isn't it much better than the original purpose?"

"This charcoal-making process is to crush branches, rice husks, bamboo chips, and wood chips, press them into pipes and mold them and then burn them into charcoal. If there is no suitable metal pipe with thickness, it is difficult to use clay molds or bulky cast iron pipes."

"Or, the barrel planer of the fish surimi machine was made by hand before, which was quite troublesome. Now it can be made of pipes of the right size, which is much more worry-free?"

As Li Li said, he ordered fish balls with chopsticks: "Now in Hanshan City, the main meat is fish meat. The demand for fish paste is extremely high. With a more powerful cylinder, the production efficiency of the fish paste machine has been significantly improved."

"Or made into hollow drill bits, used in woodworking to make larger holes in the board."

"Or make sleeve telescopic rods, telescopic rods, which are of many uses."

"It can also be used as a weapon." Li Li revealed some small secrets, "The bamboo is cut obliquely, the incision is sharp, and it can poke it on a person's body, and its empty tube can bleed."

"Similarly, a diagonal cut iron pipe with a thickness of two fingers is about one meter long. This is called a pipe fork. If it is stuck in a human body, then blood must not flow out along the iron pipe?"

"Or, a three-foot-long front end cut-out iron pipe, plus handguards, can be used as short iron rods to smash people, or as pipe stabs and bleeds."

"Or, use the iron pipe as a scabbard, which can be used as an iron rod or a knife can be drawn to chop people. If necessary, attach the head of the knife to the sheath, which becomes a long-handled knife."

Li Li said frantically, and Zhao Mengniang listened carefully and asked some questions from time to time.

She asked questions not to figure out something, but to make Li Li feel satisfied with answers, so that Li Li will have a "soul-hearted person".

Zhao Mengniang and Li Li have been together for more than ten years. She discovered that Li Li is actually a very lonely person.

This kind of loneliness is not a completely lonely person, but a loneliness in knowledge and living habits.

It is like a child of a wealthy family who suddenly lives with a poor family. The inadvertent discomforts expressed in his words and deeds make this person a little different from others.

She found that Li Li seemed to be accustomed to sitting with her feet hanging down, and seemed to be accustomed to having dinner rather than sharing meals. She seemed to have many insights that others didn't know.

I seem to have seen many complex machines, eaten many delicious foods, knew many dishes, heard many songs with different tunes, and seemed to have been to many places.

Sometimes when chatting, the more you say something, the stranger it becomes, and then it ends abruptly.

Just like the immortals in the sky suddenly wandered to the mortal world. Even though they lived with the mortals for many years, they always inadvertently mentioned the things in the mortal world during their words.

As a result, I realized that I was no longer in the sky and could only stop abruptly.

On weekdays, I always want to do something so that my life in the mortal world can be slightly closer to the various life in heaven.

This is Zhao Mengniang's feeling, so she felt that Li Li was actually very lonely inside. She wanted to help, but she didn't know how to help.

If you can do it, you can only listen to Li Li’s nagging. After all, Li Li is good at mechanical manufacturing, and she has been helping in the workshop for many years, so she has entered the door and has many topics.

Not only do you listen, but you also have to ask questions to let Li Li know that he has listened with sincerity, rather than perfunctory.

"What's wrong, it looks like you're thinking." Li Li asked, and Zhao Mengniang replied: "Sanlang, this oblique rolling perforation process must have an important purpose in making metal pipes, right?"

"Yes, otherwise why would I mobilize people to think about this craft?" Li Li smiled, but did not continue talking, and Zhao Mengniang didn't ask.

What does it mean to be able to make wrought iron pipes with a length of about four or five feet in batches at low cost?

It means mass production of muskets.

The production cost of the iron pipe made of oblique rolling and perforated is cheaper than that of the iron pipe drilled out of the hydraulic drilling machine.

However, because the metallurgy level is not good now, the inner wall of the iron pipe made of oblique rolling and perforated seems to be prone to hidden injuries, cannot withstand the pressure of gunpowder when it explodes, and is prone to explode.

The reason may be that there are still many impurities in the iron rods. Physical deformation such as extrusion, twisting, tearing and other physical deformation during the oblique rolling and perforation process leads to the extruded iron pipe walls, resulting in the invisible appearance of the microstructure cracks.

Such iron pipes can be used as water pipes. If you use them a gun pipe, the risk of blowing the chamber is higher after using them a few times.

Therefore, it is more practical to use a hydraulic drilling machine to drill a hard iron pipe to make a gun pipe.

Thinking of this, Li Li was a little confused.

Once the musket is used in actual combat, he has only one way to go and there is no choice.

Therefore, be careful.
Chapter completed!