boom!

As the mountain shook, a large area of ​​mine suddenly collapsed.

With the smoke of gunpowder, thousands of miners were busy there.

These miners in "Lifu suits" waved shovels to shovel the tons of ore onto the mine truck. Although some of the ore was large, they would soon be sent to the ore dressing ground to be crushed by a steam crusher.

After these broken ores are processed, ores with high iron content will be poured into the iron-smelting blast furnace. As for those with low iron content, they will be further broken and used to pave roads or build houses.

Because the iron ore is close to Nanjing, there is never a worry about the ore tailings here.

The miners in the mine come from Nanzhili and Huguang. Most of these workers do not know any technology, but they do not need technology here. They just need to work hard. They need to work thirteen or fourteen hours a day in the mine. Although they work for a long time, they eat well. Not only do they have three meals a day, but all three meals are dry meals, and both meals come with meat. Although meat is the cheapest whale meat, it gives them enough strength to do heavy physical work in the mine.

The work done by miners is heavy and lasts for a long time. Although it is harder, it is the best place for many men who have left the countryside. After all, if you work 25 shifts a month, you can get more than four taels of wages. For these villagers, the income from working in the mine is far greater than that of farming at home. After all, the income from farming is far less than that of miners.

It is precisely because of this considerable income that these people who left their hometowns have re-established their homes here. Like any mine or factory, a city has emerged around mines and factories since when.

But there are nearly 300,000 people living here. In addition to tens of thousands of iron factory workers and miners, there are hundreds of iron factories of varying sizes here, employed tens of thousands of workers, and their families and vendors gathered here have flourished the city.

It is called a city, but it has neither a city wall nor a county magistrate. In terms of organization, its population is far greater than that of Dangtu County, where the nearby Taiping Prefecture is located. But even so, it is still called "Iron Factory Town", a "town" that flourishes because of iron.

Almost the moment he entered Tiechang Town, Zhang Ying felt the difference here. Most of the people here wore "Lifu suits". More than ten years ago, many people called it "Qiu Bayi", which means the meaning of the word "Qiu Bayi". This kind of clothes made of canvas is similar to military uniforms. Because the canvas is thick, wear-resistant and washable, it is very popular among porters and coolies. It quickly became popular among the people at the bottom, and it is called it and everything. However, the most popular name is "Qiu Bayi", because it imitates the style of military uniforms. However, no one calls it that now, not only because the government repeatedly dictates, but also because of this kind of clothes, which became popular in factories in the Ming Dynasty, had long become ordinary work clothes.

In Tiechang Town, most men wear such work clothes. Many people's work clothes are washed white, but there are quite a few people wearing them because... it costs money and is a welfare for the factory and mine to give to workers. In short, this is also the biggest difference between Jinling Iron Factory. After all, the largest shareholder of this iron factory is the emperor. How could Emperor Qian Sheng treat everyone badly?

Blue canvas top, fur shoes.

This is the typical iron factory worker's outfit, and the miner... is also the same outfit.

After entering the iron plant, Zhang Ying found that it was very lively. The workers all looked very strong, and they seemed to have endless energy to vent their energy. They were also very loud.

The iron factory is very big, and the air is filled with the smell of coke and rotten eggs. The iron furnace in the distance is spitting thick smoke. From here, we can see that there are six blast furnaces in the factory, divided into six workshops. However, the place Zhang Ying is going to go today is the wrought iron workshop.

When building ships with iron, iron plates must be used, and iron plates can only be made in the wrought iron workshop. When it is still a hundred meters away from the wrought iron workshop, the sound of wrought iron came into my ears.

Amid the deafening sound of wrought iron, Zhang Ying, who was approaching the workshop, even felt the workshop trembling. When he entered the workshop, he saw a huge steam hammer. As the smoke fluttered, the huge steel hammer head was constantly forging an iron ingot weighing about tons.

The iron ingots hanging on the iron chain are like fiery red dough, and have changed shape under the forging of the steel hammer head.

"Is this a steam hammer?"

Listening to the sound of the steam hammer moving, Zhang Ying was immediately impressed by the power of this machine. Although he had seen a steam engine, it was the first time he had seen a steam hammer.

"Yes, that's right! This 20-ton steam hammer is the largest steam hammer in the world, and is specially used for forging steel, etc...."

A young man in a light gray work suit walked over and said, his tone seemed quite proud.

This is indeed the largest steam hammer in the world!

Even the iron ingot weighing dozens of tons will be forged into various shapes like dough in front of it.

Traditionally, blacksmiths relied on using anvil and hammers to forge iron, and later relied on hydraulic forging hammers. However, in the era of steam engines, with the development of steam engines, hydraulic forging hammers gradually could not meet the needs of steam engines. So steam hammers came into being, which not only forged metals faster, but also forged large iron and steel parts with higher strength.

"In recent years, more than 60% of the railway bridges and beams in the Ming Dynasty were produced in our workshop. Those iron bridges could not be built without steam hammers..."

As an engineer, Zhang Ying certainly knew what this person was saying. Now there are only two iron plants in the Ming Dynasty that have steam hammers, one is the Dalian Iron Factory and the other is the Jinling Iron Factory. Two iron plants in the north and the south supply the iron bridge and iron beams of the Ming Dynasty. Although some small factories use hydraulic hammers to produce iron beams, those iron beams can only be used for ordinary road and bridges. The production of large-shaped iron parts still depends on steam hammers.

And this is also the purpose of Zhang Ying coming here.

"I haven't asked yet, sir, who is here?"

"That's right. I came from Jinling Shipyard. I have a business that I want to consult you."

Like the iron factory, the largest shareholders of the Jinling Shipyard are royal, and they are all "imperial products". This is also the reason why Zhang Ying entered the factory directly. The Nanjing Iron Factory headquarters issued him a certificate and asked the iron factory production workshop to assist him in making the iron plates he needed.

“What business?”

“I want to produce a kind of iron plate.”

"Iron plate? Isn't that the product of the rolling workshop?"

The Ming Dynasty rolled iron plates very early. As early as in Dalian, Zhu Guoqiang drew on the experience of later generations and designed a double-rolling mill for rolling cooked iron plates. The water-wheel-driven two-roll rolling mill can not only produce thin iron plates, but also roll bars. It is also thanks to this that the Ming Dynasty's breastplate became a bargain, and even the large-scale production of canned food is also due to the large-scale production of galvanized horse-mouthed iron sheets.

The young engineer looked at the man in front of him with some confusion. Why did he get here? Does it require a steam hammer to produce iron plates? Isn’t this a waste of money?

If this person was not introduced by the headquarters, he would even think that this person was here to joke. Who made iron plates with steam?

No joke, what?

"It's like this. The sheets made by the rolling mill on our side are only two minutes thick (3.7 mm). What I hope is to get at least half an inch thick iron plate, which can only be produced by steam hammers."

Although the two-roll rolling mill in Daming has achieved steaming, the rolling capacity of the rolling mill is still very limited and cannot process thick plates. This is why Zhang Ying came here.

"A half-inch thick iron plate? How long and how wide?"

"As long as possible, as wide as possible. That's why I came to you, after all, only you have such a big steam hammer."

The iron plate must be kept as wide as possible. After all, rivets will take up weight. It is always wrong to save weight. Not to mention whether its buoyancy is sufficient, at least it can save some costs.

"I'm afraid this is a bit difficult. Have you seen that person over there..."

The engineer pointed to the person standing in the corner of the workshop and said.
Chapter completed!