eastern european eagle

Chapter 21 New Weapons and Typography

After a brief meeting, Peter returned to Constanta.He ordered Constantine to gather all the soldiers for training and exempt them from taxes for half a year as compensation for them.

As for the artillery guns, Shafcart reported to Peter that the fastest production would be one a month.

After their family arrived in Dobroga, Peter arranged for them to set up a cannon-making workshop by a small river in the south.Even, in order to make it easier for him to use water power, Peter specially enlisted some male labor to build a dam on the upper reaches of the small river to raise the water level so that his cannon-casting workshop can use water power.

Peter can also understand, after all, the output of cannons is no better than others, let alone cast iron cannons.Casting heavy artillery is a difficult problem.This problem was not solved by an officer named Rodman until the American Civil War. This is the so-called "Rodman Cannon Method".

As for iron smelting technology, European iron smelting technology was still relatively backward at this time. They all used shaft furnaces to smelt iron. The temperature of shaft furnace smelting was still below the liquefaction temperature of pig iron, so in principle it was still a piece of iron smelting.However, the shaft furnace has a settling process and has a slagging function, and the smelting quality has greatly improved compared with before.However, since the shaft furnace does not have an iron taphole (it is not in a liquid state, of course it cannot come out by itself), so the flame must be turned off after the smelting is completed, and then the furnace body is disassembled to take iron, which is not efficient.

Peter had a new type of blast furnace built.This blast furnace is actually called a stirring furnace.By using wrought iron rods or steel rods to burn off the carbon in pig iron, wrought iron is finally obtained.

At the same time, the cheat book from the mysterious east introduced a thing that can increase the temperature of ironmaking, the blower.

In ancient Egypt, local goldsmiths used blowpipes with pottery nozzles, while the Incas in South America sometimes used 8 to 12 copper pipes to blow at the same time.Later, the blown skin bag made of animal skin was invented.

Although there are also blowers in Europe, but the distribution is scarce, coupled with the backward iron smelting technology, the output has not been able to increase.Peter set up a blower for each blast furnace, and it was powered by water.Greatly improved work efficiency.In order to make slag and remove sulfur and phosphorus, Peter also sent a ship to Constantinople to buy a slagging agent-quicklime.

This is different from the pudlin stirring method popular in England in the 18th century, but more like a combination of Pudlin stirring method and Huntsman's crucible method.The reason why the low-cost Pudlin method is not used is because the temperature of the stirring method is low, only 1400 degrees, and the quality of the steel produced is only better than pig iron, not as good as open hearth steel.However, this also has some disadvantages.Mainly, it consumes a lot of fuel.In order to obtain high-quality steel, Peter extended the original 6 to 8 hours of refining to 10 hours.Although it was a fuel drain, he didn't care.Because this is the steel used to cast cannons, so it must not be sloppy.

As for muskets, musket craftsmen are easier to recruit than cannon craftsmen. In places such as Transylvania and Italy, the Chamber of Commerce has recruited more than 20 musket craftsmen.Peter also offered them a high price, and they also came to Constanta.

The current European musket is called Huomen Gun. It has a launch tube (that is, the barrel) made of cast copper or wrought iron. A stick or spear with a "rudder stock", which is convenient for the archer to hold, aim and control.The firing of a musket generally requires two people.When firing, black gunpowder is loaded from the muzzle of the gun, and then bullets such as stone bullets, iron bullets, copper bullets or lead bullets are inserted, and then red-hot wire or charcoal is used to ignite the fire door gunpowder, thereby firing the projectile.

When launching, two launchers are responsible for aiming and firing respectively.However, it is very inconvenient for two people to use a fire door gun.The shooters commented on the fire door gun like this: "Single-handed operation of the fire door gun requires two pairs of eyes and three hands!"

Peter asked people to improve the musket, and announced that if there is a big improvement, he will directly give 2000 gold coins.

Under the heavy reward, there must be a brave man.A musket craftsman remodels the ignition device of a musket gun.A groove is made on the outside or upper part of the butt, and a serpentine rod is installed in the groove. One end of the rod is fixed, and the other end constitutes a trigger, which can be rotated, and a clip holds a slow-burning matchstick soaked in potassium nitrate .The rear end of the gun barrel is equipped with a gunpowder disk. When firing, the trigger is pulled, the nose is pressed down, and the burning matchstick enters the powder disk to ignite the gunpowder, and the projectile or arrowhead is shot out.It also improved the butt and added a handguard so that the musket could be fired against the shoulder.

Unexpectedly, under Peter's heavy reward, the arquebus came out ahead of schedule.The rope can be ignited after being soaked in a salt solution. After the soldier presses the metal hook into the fire door, he can hold the gun with one or both hands, keeping his eyes on the target at all times.

Overjoyed, Peter not only rewarded the craftsman, but also asked him to produce a large number of them.In order to recruit enough laborers, their wages are about half higher than usual.

Of course, such a salary made the commoners of Dobroja flock to it.Most immigrants are willing to work with wages, and there are a small number of slaves.

Well, the matter of armaments and soldiers is settled.Then it should be a cultural thing.

Now that papermaking and typography are known, let those people hurry up and move.

No guidance?Do whatever the lord tells you to do, so much nonsense.

Use metal to create letter blocks one by one, and then brush the ink through combination, cover the paper, and it will be fine.

The raw material metal is composed of lead, antimony, and tin. Since lead accounts for the majority, it is also called lead movable type.In order to be able to print continuously, two iron plates are used, one for printing and the other for typesetting, and the two plates are used alternately.After printing, the potion is roasted with torch, and the movable type can fall off the iron plate with a light shake of the hand, and then put it back into the original wooden grid according to the rhyme, so that it can be used again next time.

With the printing press, the first thing to be printed was of course the Bible.This is a must-read for religion, and it will surely spread in large numbers if it is printed.

(End of this chapter)