Chapter 61 (1/2)

In the history of ironmaking, coke, iron ore and limestone are the three main raw materials for ironmaking. The west, which started the history of modern ironmaking, believed that coke, like steam engine, iron and steel, was one of the four main factors contributing to the accelerated development of technology in the first industrial revolution.

The position of coke in the history of iron smelting is unshakable.

In later generations, modern iron smelting was marked by the construction of large blast furnace. However, the realization of mechanized coking and steam blowing technology is the prerequisite for iron smelting with large blast furnace.

Although Shi Xiong knows how to make coke and what a blower is, he can't make mechanized coking and steam blower under his current conditions.

Therefore, the stone bear can only use the most primitive indigenous coking and wooden bellows as blowing equipment.

All these things were learned by the ancestors of China thousands of years ago when they worked in the museum.

Although the history of iron smelting in China is earlier than that in the west, the modern iron smelting originated in the west, and the mechanized coking also originated in the UK.

In Britain in the 17th century, the rapid development of capitalist economy greatly stimulated the demand for iron and steel, but a huge obstacle plagued the development of iron and steel in Britain, that is, the shortage of iron smelting fuel.

At that time, whether in China or in other countries, it was a common understanding in the East and the west to use charcoal as fuel to smelt iron.

However, the long-term iron smelting with charcoal led to the felling of a large number of trees and the destruction of vegetation. To develop the iron smelting industry, the heat and temperature generated by charcoal combustion were not enough. Therefore, in the 17th century, an urgent problem was the development of new fuels.

At that time, some people used coal instead of charcoal, but the sulfur contained in the coal would cause the hot brittleness of pig iron, making it impossible to forge. Later, someone replaced charcoal with coke, and finally achieved success, but the success took more than 80 years.

The man who solved the coke problem for England was Abraham Darby.

Mr. Darby was born in 1678. In his early years, he was an apprentice in a maltose factory in Birmingham. In 1699, after his apprenticeship, he moved to Bristol, where he started a company with others to make household copper pots. Later, because of the high cost of copper, Darby decided to try to cast the pot with iron, which was successful and applied for a patent.

The cast iron pots used in the gaoshu tribe are probably produced by Mr. Darby's company

Cast iron pots have brought Mr. Darby huge profits, but similarly, to produce a large number of cast iron pots, we need a lot of pig iron.

So Darby set up his own iron works and carried out the experiment of making iron with coke.

In the experiment, Darby found that coke is not as easy to burn as charcoal, so it is necessary to improve the blast facilities and adjust the structure of the furnace to obtain more sufficient wind power, so that coke can be fully burned. Therefore, he improved the inner diameter of the blast furnace to adapt to coke ironmaking, and installed a new set of blast facilities for the blast furnace. The improved blast furnace successfully produced pig iron with coke in 1709.

The coke ironmaking is successful, but the hydraulic blast of water turbine is used. This kind of wind is only suitable for small blast furnace. For large blast furnace, the wind generated by hydraulic blast is too small.

This problem was not solved until 1776, when steam engine replaced hydraulic blast in blast furnace ironmaking. So far, the ironmaking industry not only got rid of the dependence on wood, but also got rid of the dependence on water, so as to obtain sufficient development space. However, ironmaking at this time is not enough to be called the realization of modern ironmaking. It will take 1904 for this process to come.