Daming kill

Chapter 194

Since a large amount of sensitive information of later generations was involved, Li Ping and Song Baolai decided to go for a walk along the lake alone to talk.

Regarding the making of cannons, they had discussed it when they were making bird guns in Xiangyang, and they had already made certain theoretical preparations.

The main constraint that was not attempted at the time was the serious shortage of raw materials.

After deciding not to leave Fuchi for the time being, in the face of sufficient raw materials and the strong demand to prevent the peasant army from crossing the river, making artillery was naturally listed as the top priority, and its priority was even ranked in the making of bird guns and broadswords. before the spear.

Moreover, in order to save time and difficulty, they did not seek practicality to develop breech-loading guns that were much ahead of their time, and took the simplest route to manufacture existing types of artillery.

And only two types of artillery are planned to be manufactured, namely the ordinary muzzle gun and the Frang machine gun.

However, each type of gun is divided into two categories: small caliber and medium caliber.

The large caliber was directly abandoned, mainly because the cost-effectiveness ratio is not high, and the use is not much, and the mobility is still a big problem.

But unexpectedly, even so, Song Baolai still encountered a big problem.

This morning, among the group of craftsmen from Daye County, some were able to make cannons, which aroused Song Bao's thoughts.

He wondered whether to let these craftsmen use the old methods they are familiar with to make cannons, and he himself will not do it for the time being, but mainly to test and demonstrate the technology. Anyway, it seems that Li Ping tried these old cannons these days Yes, the previous guns are also acceptable.

These days, the various tasks have almost driven him crazy, and the series of difficult problems encountered in the first cannon making made him collapse even more.

Artillery manufacturing is definitely one of the most complicated technologies of this era, and it is far beyond the imagination of ordinary people.

Song Baolai has lost confidence in whether he can quickly produce qualified artillery.

But Li Ping sternly rejected Song Baolai's question without any hesitation.

Li Ping couldn't afford it, nor could he be hurt.

At this time, China's artillery manufacturing is mainly based on the mud mold method, and the biggest problem with the mud mold is that it needs to be dried in the shade. Normally, it will take several months, and it will take a month at the earliest before it can be cast, and then it can only be casted one by one. mold.

What's more terrible is that the cannons made by the clay mold method have many inherent defects, and even the latest clay mold method just passed from Europe has no essential improvement.

In fact, by the Qing Dynasty, more advanced European methods had been adopted for all the clay model cannons in China.This method was invented in Europe in the middle of the 16th century and introduced to China in the early 17th century, that is, not long after it was introduced into the Ming Dynasty at this time.

Its advantage is good integrity, but its shortcomings are also obvious.

First, due to the poor air permeability of clay, it is often dry on the outside and wet on the inside when baked with charcoal fire, and the water evaporates into moisture during casting, so the cast artillery often has honeycomb holes inside and outside, which makes it easy to burst when fired.

As a result, the guns cast from the mud mold must be strictly tested, and the craftsman who wins one out of ten can be called a national player, that is, the yield rate is extremely low.

Second, since each gun needs a new set of molds, no two guns can be exactly the same in size and performance.

Thirdly, when the pig iron is poured, the molten iron often excites the gun core, making it almost impossible for the core and the center line of the mold to be in a straight line, which will inevitably affect the shooting range and shooting accuracy.

Fourth, pig iron metal is generally poured directly from the furnace, since no further processing is done so that the metal is impure and highly carburized.Therefore, the artillery is relatively fragile, so it is necessary to increase the weight (thickness) to obtain sufficient strength.

Due to the above defects in the clay mold casting technology, the cast cannon is thick and heavy, has many casting defects, rough surface, and is easy to burst.

In order to prevent the explosion, the gunners often dare not charge higher charges, which further weakens the normal power and range.

In order to overcome the defects of mud casting cannons, the Ming and Qing dynasties gradually invented the composite layer cannon manufacturing technology.

This is the iron core copper body gun.

China's iron-cored copper-bodied cannon is a very important advancement in artillery technology, and its representative is the Dingliao General Cannon (a real cannon handed down) that was built in Chongzhen for 15 years.

It skillfully utilizes the physical properties of copper whose melting point (1083°C) is much lower than that of iron (1538°C). After the iron tire is cooled, it is molded by clay casting or lost wax method, and the copper wall is cast.

Compared with the previous iron or copper cannons, the artillery produced by this method is more durable, and the durability can be increased by five to ten times.

You must know that according to a less serious and unreliable statement, the average firing life of the old Chinese artillery is about one hundred rounds.

That is to say, after firing one hundred shells per cannon, the inner chamber is basically damaged and cannot be used. The tube will therefore become thinner, greatly increasing the risk of bombing).

According to an unconfirmed statement, the Ming people had already cast tens of thousands of iron-core copper-bodied Frang machine guns during the Jiajing period (1522-1566). Mature.

Li Ping's first few tiger squat guns and Fran cannons also proved a point.

The two tiger crouching cannons with the lowest utilization rate have been severely worn out and are on the verge of being unusable due to the lack of iron core copper body technology, while the two Fran cannons with iron core copper body technology and high utilization rate are still not good. use.

Although the uncomplicated iron core and copper body technology can be used, due to the inherent defects of the clay molding method, especially the low yield and long production time, Li Ping naturally hopes that Song Baolai will adopt better technology.

And they chose to cast iron cannons.

A technology that can quickly produce a large number of guns of basically the same quality.

With regard to iron mold cast cannons, due to Song Baolai’s proficiency and love for steel technology and steel history, he had a certain understanding of the iron core copper body cannons created by China in the late Ming Dynasty when he visited historical sites.

And because of this opportunity, I also came to understand Gong Zhenlin's iron mold cast guns in the late Qing Dynasty.

The iron cast cannon produced by Gong Zhenlin in the late Qing Dynasty is almost a must-have artifact in many novels of later generations. Compared with the clay mold and the lost wax method that appeared later, the casting speed of the cannon is much faster, and the positioning accuracy of the internal mold is high. , better concentricity.

In particular, its firing speed is enough to be called miraculous in this era.

龚振麟于1841年8月在浙江镇海炮局发明了铁模铸炮技术。迄至9月的中英浙东之战前夕，就已铸成117门铁模炮，并于1842年刊印《铸炮铁模图说》分发沿海应用。

However, although the iron mold casting improves the efficiency, the casting condenses quickly after pouring, and it is easy to obtain white cast iron.That is to say, castings are prone to defects such as shrinkage cavities and shrinkage porosity. In addition, white cast iron is brittle, so the performance of the artillery is poor, and it is prone to cracks when fired, and it will burst after repeated use.

To put it bluntly, its performance is far inferior to that of iron-cored copper-bodied guns made by clay molding.

At that time, the British army captured a lot of iron model guns in the battle with the Qing army, and the general evaluation was relatively low.

Although the iron mold casting technology appeared in Europe 30 years later than the Qing Dynasty, due to its inherent defects and the Europeans had already adopted more advanced sand casting and solid drilling technology, the iron mold casting technology was Europe was quickly abandoned.

This is similar to composite layer artillery technology.

Europe and India also invented composite layer artillery technology in the middle of the 16th century at the latest, but because their cast iron industry was inferior to that of China at that time, the quality of composite metal guns was inferior to that of China.

After the 17th century, due to cost considerations, this type of gun did not continue to develop in Europe.Due to the need for war in India, many large composite metal guns were successively produced in the second half of the 17th century, and the gun cores were mostly forged from wrought iron.

After the technology of sand casting guns and solid drilling gun bores matures, the composite layer technology will naturally be unnecessary.

Moreover, the key to the durability of composite layer artillery is to use the difference in metal condensation time. Its more advanced casting method was invented by officer Thomas Rodman during the American Civil War.

This technology adopts the cooling water into the hollow model, so that the iron barrel is solidified from the inside to the outside.Not only can the walls be thinner, but it is also lighter and less expensive.

Because of his curiosity and thirst for knowledge, Song Baolai had acquainted with China's iron core copper body technology and Thomas Rodman's technology, and even briefly read Gong Zhenlin's "Illustration of Casting Iron Molds".

But understanding the principle and actually making it by hand are not the same thing at all, especially since you know the defects of the iron mold cannon, you must start to improve it.

But in the end, this initiative to improve made Song Baolai collapse.

The inherent problems of iron model guns in the Qing Dynasty could not be greatly improved, but ironmaking from coke blast furnaces (coke provides high temperature and strength), water turbine technology (power blast), hot air technology (cast iron hot air pipes or refractory brick storage) hot chamber) and reverberatory furnace for pig iron refining.

For example, the pig iron refining reverberatory furnace can carry out secondary smelting of molten pig iron to remove impurities in the molten iron and make the molten iron more pure.

This technology appeared in the late 18th century. At that time, the cannons used by the British Navy were all produced by this method, and none of them were blasted.The French at the same time did not use this technology, and even the gunners hated their cannons. -- "History of Technology"

In other words, iron mold casting guns are not such a simple matter in many novels that they can be mass-produced and used as soon as they have a concept, but are actually quite complicated and require a lot of relevant knowledge and experimental data to support .

Unless the whites just want to get a batch of undurable artillery that is not as good as the mud mold iron core copper body gun.

Or it is less than live ammunition training like the Qing army, and it is all about firing a few rounds in battle.

And these are absolutely unacceptable to Li Ping, who attaches great importance to live ammunition training.

Although Song Baolai, a young steel expert, understands these complicated problems and knows more assistive technologies, he still needs to conduct a lot of repeated experiments, and it seems impossible to succeed quickly.

And this also seriously hit his confidence.

As for the technology of American military officer Rodman, it took ten years to finally establish a relatively scientific and complete data system based on the relationship between cooling water flow velocity and temperature changes.

Song Baolai is not a god, nor is he a book of memories. He has to get these data step by step through experiments, instead of being able to call them directly from his brain, so the time may be very long.

So Song Baolai's anxiety was not unreasonable.

Looking at Song Baolai's current appearance, Li Ping also knew that he had indeed suffered a lot and suffered a lot.

But Li Ping still had no choice but to force Song Baolai.

Nothing else, but he really couldn't afford to wait for a clay model that was too time-consuming.And no matter what, they always have to pass this level.

That night is worse than early, even if it is difficult to succeed for a while or even greatly exceeds the time of using clay molds, it is worthwhile.

Moreover, solving the many defects of the iron mold cast cannon is equivalent to greatly improving the quality of the cannon produced by any method.

However, out of safety, Li Ping finally agreed to let those craftsmen from Daye County who can make cannons use clay models to start making cannons first, but they must use iron core copper body technology, as Song Baolai can't succeed in a short time substitute.

Now that the old method of clay molding has been decided to be launched, the sand molding method has also been proposed.

Sand molding technology was invented by Europeans based on mud molding technology at the end of the 18th century. It solved many inherent defects of mud molding technology and is still widely used in various industries today. It is also a technology that Song Baolai is very familiar with.

Sand molding and solid bores represent the future of artillery production technology.

However, the solid bore of artillery is different from that of bird guns. Manpower is not enough. At least it must be water conservancy or steam power, and at worst it must rely on a large amount of animal power, which is difficult to use in a short time.

This is the advantage of having a large number of people. It can advance in multiple ways, instead of concentrating limited resources and manpower in one place to go one way to the dark.

(End of this chapter)