In the next month, in addition to handling the official affairs of the theater headquarters, Claude spent most of his extra time on the development of the iron mine in the East Mosilaga Mountains. Although Mr. Veblen didn't know why Claude was so concerned about the development of this iron mine, the fact that Claude paid so much attention to it also showed that his investment of two thousand gold crowns had not been wasted. With his strong assistance, he quickly recruited grassroots management personnel and young Nikancha mining workers, and it took only a month and a half to start producing iron ore.
The next step is to establish a foundry. It is a very simple task to turn iron ore into molten iron to cast molds. It only requires a refining furnace and a mold manufacturing workshop. These are things that Mr. Veblen is familiar with. It's done simply. But Claude also asked for the establishment of a woodworking workshop, a black powder preparation workshop and an assembly workshop. This made Mr. Veblen start to worry. He didn't understand what Claude wanted to do.
It was only when Mr. Veblen went to find Claude that he discovered that Miss Anna, the rarely seen member of the Field family, was also present. He quickly saluted and then raised his own questions. Claude smiled and said that since Mr. Veblen has signed a confidentiality agreement, he can see what kind of weapon he wants to make.
Mr. Veblen saw the tall lieutenant next to Claude carrying two boxes. Each box was filled with cylinders with a diameter of ten centimeters. The top was made of black iron and the bottom was a wooden handle. Then the big lieutenant took out two iron plates from another box. One thicker one was placed on the ground as the bottom plate, and the other thinner iron plate was inserted into the groove at one end of the thicker bottom plate. It became an L shape.
Then the big lieutenant broke down the L-shaped upright iron plate, and the iron plate became an arc shape. The elasticity is good. Mr. Veblen then discovered that this iron plate was the anti-shock spring iron plate under the carriage, but what Claude used this spring iron plate for here, he couldn't figure out.
The big lieutenant held the spring iron plate with one hand, took out one from the box full of black iron cylinders with the other hand, and placed it in a round hole at the end of the spring iron plate with the wooden handle facing down. . Then the big lieutenant pulled off a thread exposed on the wooden handle with one hand, and loosened the spring iron plate with the other hand.
With a "bang" sound, the spring iron plate bounced back, and the black iron cylinder inserted into the round hole of the iron plate was thrown high.
Not bad, Mr. Veblen admired in his heart. Isn't this the principle of the ancient trebuchet? Claude is so particular about smashing a pig iron egg. It seems that he can sell his so-called weapons for a higher price in the war zone. price, which means greater profits
But before Mr. Veblen could finish thinking about it, he heard a "boom" and an explosion in the distance. He turned around and saw that the cylinder made of black iron had fallen to the ground and exploded. A small crater had been blasted on the dirt hillside in the distance, and smoke was rising.
"This, this thing will explode" Mr. Veblen asked in surprise.
"Of course, otherwise you would think that I opened the iron ore workshop just to throw iron lumps at the enemy." Claude replied, then turned to his sister Anna and said: "Oh, this black powder is not very powerful, and it is far inferior to safe explosives. , if one is thrown at it, it will make a sound like the earth is shattering, and it can scare people into fainting."
Mr. Veblen didn't care whether Claude was talking about black powder or some kind of safety explosive. He was surprised that this thing could explode. Even though he had no experience in the military or war, he knew that the throwing weapon designed by Claude would play a big role in the war. If one explodes, it may not be a threat, but if you throw dozens or hundreds of them and explode, just thinking about it makes you mourn the enemy defending the position.
What Mr. Veblen had seen most before was the local garrison armed forces in overseas territories suppressing indigenous rebellions. Basically, rows of guns passed by, and the vicious indigenous rioters fell down in the front row, while those behind them ran around like chickens and dogs. If you imagine the result of dozens of these explosive cylinders being thrown into the crowd and then exploding, Mr. Veblen believes that in the future, those Nikancha people who want to gather a crowd to launch a riot will have to think twice about whether it is worth it.
"Can I see it?" Mr. Veblen asked the big lieutenant, pointing to the cylinders in the box. The lieutenant nodded and gave up his seat.
Picking up a cylinder, Mr. Veblen immediately understood why Claude used spring iron plates to set up a throwing structure. This thing was too heavy. Even though the wooden handle on the back was comfortable to hold, Mr. Veblen estimated that he could only throw it about ten meters.
"Can it be taken apart?" Mr. Veblen asked.
Claude nodded, and the big lieutenant standing next to him came over, took the cylinder from Mr. Veblen's hand, and twisted it counterclockwise. The black iron cylinder separated from the wooden handle below, and the black gunpowder contained inside All poured out.
In fact, the so-called grenade design is very simple. The black iron shell is filled with granules of black powder, but the flame design inside the wooden handle is very exquisite. As soon as the thread exposed on the outside of the wooden handle is pulled, the flint inside the hollow wooden handle is heated by friction, igniting a short gunpowder twister inside. However, a large section of the gunpowder twister is exposed on it. It is obvious that this is to detect the black gunpowder particles contained in the black iron shell. As long as the short gunpowder twister in the hollow wooden handle burns to the large section above, the granular gunpowder loaded in the black iron shell will explode.
This should be considered a very simple grenade design, only more advanced than the kind where the gunpowder twister is exposed and ignited directly by fire. But this is already Claude's limit. After all, he was a computer manager before time travel, and he is not a science genius who can build anything.
However, this shocked Mr. Veblen very much. He said in admiration: "General, you are such a genius. You can design such a powerful weapon. What is its name?"
"The grenade." Claude sighed and shook his head and said, "It's not very powerful, and the effective damage range when it explodes is too small. As you can see, it would be too heavy if you add more charges."
This is true. Mr. Veblen took one just now and already knew its weight. But Mr. Veblen said something: "General, since you have designed the throwing device, there is no need to design a wooden handle. Anyway, if it is not thrown by hand, it should be made of cast iron and filled with Gunpowder, will that increase the power of the explosion?"
Things are always so wonderful, and perhaps it is often the words of a layman who can hit the nail on the head and break through the confusion that obscures the eyes, pointing directly to the truth of the thing itself. Claude and his sister Anna's eyes lit up almost at the same time. Yes, soldiers can't throw it very far with their hands anyway. Why not just cancel the wooden handle, enlarge the black iron shell, install more black powder, and improve the throwing device, I believe the explosive power of the grenade thrown will be greater.
"I'll go back right away to improve and test it." Sister Anna drove the carriage away in a hurry. Claude had no choice but to ask the big man Germi to lead someone to follow her to ensure her safety.
Only three days later, Mr. Veblen was invited by Claude again to watch the new grenade throwing explosion test.
Mr. Veblen discovered that the grenade to be thrown and exploded this time had completely changed its appearance. The wooden handle was removed and the black iron cylinder was lengthened, making it look like a black iron bottle. Moreover, the simple throwing device has been changed to a fixed mode, and the spring iron plate on it has been lengthened and thickened, making it impossible to break it off by hand. There is a hook and turntable next to it. Before throwing, you need to turn the turntable, use the hook to break off the spring iron plate, fix it according to the scale marks on the turntable, and then put the grenade.
The thread was also pulled, and green smoke came out from the back of the grenade, which meant that the gunpowder twister inside had been ignited. Then the hook was disconnected, the grenade was thrown high and flew into the distance, followed by a "bang", an explosion, and smoke filled the air.
It was obvious that the explosion of the improved grenade was louder than the previous one heard by Mr. Veblen, which meant that the explosion was more powerful. Claude nodded. He was also very satisfied with the explosive power of the grenade tested this time. Of course, every gain must come with a loss. The speed of the improved throwing structure is much slower than the previous one. However, in order to ensure the throwing distance and throwing accuracy, this loss in throwing speed is still tolerable.
"Now this grenade can't be thrown by hand, brother, you have to give it another name." said sister Anna.
Indeed, without the wooden handle, this kind of iron can-like grenade is really difficult to hold and throw with your hands. Claude thought for a long time and came up with a name for the grenade.
But Mr. Veblen frowned as he held the projectile that looked like an iron can.
"What's wrong? Is there any problem?" Claude asked.
Mr. Veblen pointed to the ravines on the surface of the black iron shell of the projectile and asked: "General, why does this shell have such cracks?"
Claude laughed: "It's very simple. With these cracks, the black iron shell will break into more than thirty pieces when it explodes, causing great threats and damage to items within a five-meter radius. . If there were not these cracks, the black iron shell might only be blown into two or three pieces during the explosion, and the threat and damage would be greatly reduced."
Mr. Veblen smiled bitterly: "General, I understand. This requires us to process the black iron shell after casting it to create cracks on the surface, right?"
Claude nodded: "Yes, this should be a very simple process. Are there any difficulties?"
"Yes, General, we have no problem casting this black iron shell at all." Mr. Veblen said: "But to machine such cracks on this black iron shell, we need cutting machine tools and planing machine tools. There are also threading machines. These are all processing machines that are easily available. The problem is that we don’t have the power.”
Dynamic Claude felt a little baffled. It's not like he hadn't heard about it before. Simple machine tools had already appeared in this world. When he got Master Landers's diary and magic notes, he saw the design diagrams inside. When Master Landers designed the original musket, he designed a series of alchemical synthesis furnaces and mechanical supporting machine tools for making gun barrels. Not to mention the four major gun-making workshops in the Kingdom of Overas, even the military workshops in the three southern counties of the newly occupied territory have a large number of machine tools.
Now Mr. Veblen says there is no motivation. What's going on
However, with the popularization of science by Mr. Veblen, Claude finally understood that he had thought everything too simply. Although there are mechanical machine tools in this world, they are still in their infancy. The biggest problem is that power limits the promotion of those mechanical machine tools. Generally speaking, there are only three types of power that can be utilized in this world, the most important of which is water power, followed by animal power, and the third is the legendary magic power.
The four original gun-making workshops of the Kingdom of Overas are all located in the valley. This is not to keep it secret, but because there is a large waterfall in the valley that continues all year round. A large waterfall like this also needs features such as a high drop and sufficient water volume before it can be used as the power for various hydraulic mechanical machine tools, so that these simple machine tools can be started to make various exquisite products on various metals and alloys. Objects, cutting, planing, drilling, drilling, threading, etc.
The second type of animal power is even simpler. Basically, it uses a turntable to pull the connecting piece in a circle, so that the simple machine tool device can perform a certain reciprocating motion, thereby achieving the role of machinery instead of human power. However, such simple machine tools are mostly used in small workshops and carpentry workshops, and it is difficult to handle items that are too hard. And the biggest disadvantage is that the instability of animal power will cause errors and waste in the objects produced.
As for the third type of legendary magic, I have never heard of it. It uses the magic stones consumed in the magic talisman array as energy to drive the stable operation of huge mechanical devices. It is said that there is only one place in the entire kingdom that uses magic as power, and that is the artillery manufacturing workshop located in the royal capital. All barrel production is done by machines powered by magic, so that standard artillery with uniform specifications and no errors can be produced.
In addition, there are some human-powered machines and wind-powered machines, but they cannot be mounted on the table. Manpower is not durable and wind power is unreliable. Except for those windmills, there is very little wind power that can be truly utilized. The reason is that the wind depends on God, and it changes rapidly from strong to weak, from east to west, and from east to west. Sometimes the wind direction changes just after turning the sail, which is troublesome and labor-intensive.
Mr. Veblen told Claude straightforwardly that the mountainous area where the iron ore is located does not have many waterfalls and water power that can be utilized, so it is difficult to install simple processing machinery and machine tools in the iron ore workshop. Unless you can find another place with a waterfall as a processing site, transport the projectile shells cast from the iron ore workshop there for processing, and then assemble them.
Claude asked: "Have you ever heard of steam power?"
Mr. Veblen frowned and thought for a long time, then shook his head and said he had never heard of it.
The sister Anna next to her was very interested in the magic power that Mr. Veblen just mentioned, but Mr. Veblen had only heard of it from others. He is not a magician and does not understand how to use magic stones to consume energy and convert it into power. He did remember what the magic stone was. It was the accompanying stone shell of those magic crystal mines excavated during the ancient magical civilization. Because it was born with the magic crystal, it also had a little magic power.
In the Age of Dharma Ending, magic crystals are becoming increasingly rare and precious. So when the magician discovered that the discarded stone shells of the magic crystal mine also had a little magic power, these magic stones immediately became precious magic material resources. The Kingdom of Overas has only one magic stone mine, which is still in the kingdom itself. All magic stones produced there belong to the Sterling royal family.
Claude was a little irritated. He never thought about the power problems encountered in making grenades. He asked Mr. Veblen if he had ever heard of steam power, but that didn't mean he could make a steam engine. Knowing that there is a big gap between the principle and the actual production, he could not and could not draw any structural diagram of the steam engine. He could only ask Mr. Veblen in frustration to send someone to search the mountainous area near the iron mine to see if there was any Available water power to accommodate machining workshops
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