In order to cooperate with the publicity plan, Beihai Kingdom began to build brick-burning earth kilns. These brick kilns are tall vertical kilns, and the fuel used is not firewood, but coal bulbs with Beihai Kingdom's characteristics.
These spherical coal balls made of coal powder may not be as efficient as honeycomb coal. However, in large-scale production, they are much better than honeycomb coal. Because honeycomb coal has poor load-bearing capacity and high requirements for placement, it requires the air eye to be eye-catching, which is very inconvenient for production. Therefore, large furnaces and earth kilns prefer simple and crude fuels such as coal balls.
However, the problem with coal balls is that the combustion temperature is too high...
If you use a firewood kiln, the temperature is generally not very high. Generally, it will reach 700 to 1,000 degrees. It just so happens that the temperature range of burning bricks is between 900 and 1,100 degrees. If you exceed this temperature, the burning bricks are burned (also called burning bricks), and all kinds of deformations are irregular.
When burning the earth kiln with firewood, the temperature generally does not exceed 1100 degrees, and I only worry about the temperature being insufficient. However, it is different to use coal, which is so easy to burn overfire...
You should know that coal can burn to 1700 degrees or even 1900 degrees with sufficient blowing. Therefore, using coal balls to burn bricks and control the temperature has become a big problem.
Later, Marin thought of a solution - use copper wire to measure the temperature...
Marin remembered that the melting point of copper was 1083 degrees, which was very close to the upper limit of 1100 degrees of burnt bricks. So he thought of a solution - let someone use a clip to clamp the wire that helped a small piece of fine copper wire and penetrate into the stove. If the copper wire melts, it will be too hot. If it does not melt, it is naturally normal...
Of course, this is only used in the early test. If you use copper wire to measure the temperature every time, you will lose a lot of copper. At the beginning, using coal to burn bricks was a variety of situations, and there were many strange-shaped and over-rotating bricks. Later, after losing a lot of copper wire, some craftsmen who were good at burning bricks changed the path and added some air outlets to prevent the kiln temperature from being too high, and finally controlled the temperature.
Then, Marin asked someone to prepare a work manual, and used the mature coal ball kiln as the standard to promote it, and asked people to work according to the standard guidance steps. Sure enough, many low-priced bricks were easily burned.
You should know that coal costs low and burns a lot of heat, which is much more convenient than using firewood. In order to promote it, Marin specially built several coal ball brick kilns near Port Emden, burning bricks for outsiders to see. Although it polluted the atmosphere, Marin did not live in Emden, so he didn't care...
As trucks of bricks are continuously pulled out of coal balls kilns near Port Emden, they are loaded in front of the world and shipped out to sea (it is said to be shipped to the Americas), people see it as a truth, but they have to believe it even if they don’t believe it…
In fact, the brick kilns in Port Emden are just demonstrations. The real output is still on Cape Breton Island.
The local area is close to Sydney coal mines, and the soil resources are abundant, so it is not too easy to burn bricks. If you burn a lot of bricks in Beihai Country, Marin is still reluctant to leave soil resources. After all, the local land resources are not that rich, and clay is also very precious, okay?
But America is different. What is the most lacking there is land and soil, so it is not a pity to burn bricks at will. Moreover, although the Sydney coal mine on Cape Breton Island does not produce a lot of coal, in this era without industry, the amount of coal used is also small. Just so, burning bricks with coal is considered to be the best use of the goods to avoid waste.
Marin calculated that if you use coal balls to burn bricks, the cost of coal balls is lower than that of firewood and grass, and the fuel cost is much lower. In addition, the calorific value of coal balls is high, and more bricks can be burned, which expands the kiln body a lot... In this way, more bricks can be burned, and the cost is much lower... Finally, the cost of burning bricks in coal ball kiln is several times lower than that of firewood and grass kiln...
Moreover, coal gangue and cinder can be crushed, mixed into bricks, and fired bricks, saving soil...
After calculating and calculating, Marin finally found a secret - that is, although bricks are expensive, they are also made by humans. The cost is actually mainly consumed by manpower.
For example, when setting up a brick kiln near the coal mine on Cape Breton Island, fuel coal is produced by Marin's own coal mine, and only labor costs are required. Burning bricks is also the same, whether it is making bricks, burning kilns, and the subsequent shipping bricks... In fact, the material cost can be almost neglected. The real cost of bricks is still generated from human labor.
In other words, as long as there are enough people to burn bricks in a place with abundant coal and soil resources like Cape Breton Island, you can burn a lot of cheap bricks by just paying labor costs. Even if you transport them back to the local area, it is lower than burning bricks in the local area. After all, not only does it cost to burn bricks in the local area, but also coal balls must be transported from the far-reaching Ruhr area or Newcastle.
This kind of low-cost brick is very conducive to urban construction. In the past, in order to save money, Marin promoted adobe houses with very low cost in China. However, this kind of house is OK in rural areas, but it seems not very harmonious in cities. Therefore, Marin's plan is to gradually replace all adobe houses with brick houses in the future.
At that time, this kind of low-cost sintered brick-built tiled house will be popular in the cities of Beihai. In addition, this kind of house will also use cement as the adhesive between the bricks. After being built, cement will be applied outside the house, just like the square that was popular in rural China in later generations. Then, a layer of lime is painted outside the cement, which is white, very eye-catching and beautiful...
Although the cost has increased significantly, Marin knew that this would also drive GDP. Besides, the brick-burning business is also owned by Marin himself. Even if he makes less money, he will make a profit. In short, it can also be considered to drive domestic demand. This is the ultimate trick of China's economic construction in the 21st century - infrastructure maniac and driving domestic demand...
In order to gain fame in France, the brick transport ship sent by Marin deliberately stopped and replenished at the port of Le Havre at the mouth of the Seine in France, allowing the French to see with their own eyes that many bricks were taken to the Americas to "build the Great Wall". Then, this news would be transmitted back to Paris along the Seine...
In fact, in history, the port of Le Havre was an important port that was ordered to be built in 1517 by François I. Now, Le Havre is just a small fishing village port.
But Marin knew the potential of this port, so he had already arranged for merchants from the North Sea Chamber of Commerce to sneak into the place, purchased a large area of ​​land, and built a dock to build it into an important mooring port. By the time François I began to build this place, the merchants sent by Marin could drink soup and get a lot of benefits.
Because of the arrival of the merchants under Marin, Le Havre, the originally small fishing village, has gradually formed a port town, but the wall has not been built yet.
Marin's merchants built several long bridge wharfs here, built many warehouses for rent, and opened taverns and hotels. In time, even if François I did not order the port to be built again, it could develop here. Because the conditions here are so good - it is located at the mouth of the Seine River, which can connect to the capital Paris, and is definitely a first-class transfer port...
Chapter completed!