The next day.
Fang Er appeared at the workshop and handed two sets of blueprints to the craftsmen who were working.
He instructed them to put aside the work of replicating the machine tools and prioritize the creation of the items on the blueprints.
One was a ore crushing machine, and the other was an electrolytic cell.
After giving his instructions, he went to the iron ore mountain.
The ore he had purchased yesterday was diverse, including fluorite, iron, tin, lead, tungsten, graphite, mirabilite, and even natural alkali stone.
The materials needed for refining aluminum were numerous.
However, most of them were now nearly complete.
His purpose for visiting the iron ore mountain was to obtain graphite and natural alkali.
Graphite was needed to serve as the anode in the electrolysis of aluminum.
Natural alkali, also known as soda ash, was a material used in the synthesis of cryolite.
After he identified these two minerals, he had them sent to the aluminum workshop, along with coke.
Watching the carts of ore being transported away, Tan Zong asked respectfully from behind Fang Er.
"My lord, the thousand oil tanks you mentioned are all ready. How should we arrange the transport ships?"
"Send them to Qingzhou to bring back the aluminum ore from there and the items Yuan Zhen sent."
"Yes, my lord!"
Cryolite also required sulfuric acid and aluminum ore. The process could only begin once all materials were in place. However, some parts could be prepared in advance, such as sending people to Taihe River to wash sand.
After finishing these tasks, Fang Er prepared to return to his manor.
But as he turned, that strange feeling returned. Had he forgotten something?
He listened to the sounds of hammering around him, the splattering of molten steel from the craftsmen working on steel, and the roar of the rolling mill.
Fang Er fell into thought.
Suddenly, the sound of reinforcing bars being cut reminded him.
He slapped himself on the forehead.
Damn it, the steel rails! The railway!
With this thought, he returned directly to his manor.
But upon arriving home, he still felt he had forgotten something other than the steel rails; it seemed there was something else.
He patiently thought for a long time but couldn't recall what it was. So, he decided to put it aside for now and focus on getting the steel rails made first.
Arriving at the workshop at his manor, the craftsmen were already working on the ore crushing machine.
Fang Er found a vacant table, took out paper and pen, and began drawing blueprints for the rolling dies.
Previously, casting was done using clay molds. However, this had a problem: for each casting, a new mold had to be made.
Furthermore, clay molds were prone to slight deformation due to stress during the period from shaping to drying.
For applications where precision was not a high priority, such as the rollers for reinforcing bars, the impact was not too significant. However, this was unacceptable for steel rolling.
Therefore, steel molds were chosen for this task. Although steel molds had a limited number of uses and were easily damaged by high-temperature molten steel, they were sufficient for temporary use.
Drawing the blueprints required various calculations. By the time he finished, the craftsmen had also completed the main body of the crushing machine, and the machine tools were idle.
He called a few craftsmen to assist. Those whose names were called were thrilled to see their lord working personally.
Through turning, milling, grinding, and planing, time passed until it was dark.
Considering that this had already been delayed by two months, Fang Er decided to work through the night.
The desk lamp illuminated the workshop brightly. The craftsmen were used to it. Although they didn't know how this thing emitted light, no one asked.
Of course, Fang Er wouldn't have answered if they had.
After all, the workshop wasn't yet capable of producing batteries or electric lights.
But it would be soon. With manganese ore, the primary material for manufacturing batteries would be available, and with tungsten ore, the filaments would be ready. So, it was a matter of time.
He removed the rolling die mold from the machine tool and took a file in hand to begin refining it.
He would periodically touch it with his hand and then file it again.
The more precise the mold, the more precise the resulting rollers would be.
It could be said that every stroke of the file now saved countless strokes later.
After working until midnight, he finally completed this set of molds.
The next day, he asked Su Feng to drive a tractor to transport him and the molds to the iron ore mountain.
Out of the sixty-six tractors, thirty were allocated to the logistics transport team, while the rest were distributed to various workshops for transporting workpieces and raw materials. Six were kept at the manor for backup.
When they arrived at the iron ore mountain, the output process was underway.
The molten iron from the entire furnace was poured into the steel-making pool, and the steel-making craftsmen were sweating profusely.
After the steel-making was completed, a set, two sets of molds were brought over. The glowing molten steel was poured into them. After cooling and setting, the molds were opened, and the rollers were taken by the craftsmen to the quenching pool.
Once the completely cooled rollers were fished out, Fang Er stepped forward to inspect them.
"Bofeit," he murmured, "worthy of being a mold I meticulously crafted." He then asked Su Feng to retrieve his tools from the tractor.
With only minor adjustments, this set of rollers was mounted onto the rolling mill.
The previous set of rollers used for rolling reinforcing bars was removed and stored.
Now came the moment of truth, to verify the results.
The molten steel was processed into rough billets and then fed into the rotating rollers.
After the process of intermeshing convex and concave surfaces.
Simultaneously, three hot steel rails, guided by a chute placed at the exit of the rolling mill, slid towards the subsequent quenching trough.
Then, it was three more, and then another three, in a continuous stream.
The quenching trough was a steel pool with wheels underneath. Once a sufficient number of rolled steel pieces accumulated inside, the quenching trough was moved away, and the next one was brought in to take its place.
Fang Er had someone lift a steel rail and place it on bricks to prop it up.
He tapped it with a small hammer. The sound was crisp, and the echo lingered.
With his right hand, he traced the steel rail from one end to the other.
The steel rail still retained a faint warmth; it felt smooth and refined to the touch. Fang Er's lips curved into a satisfied smile.
Indeed, these were much more reliable than those cast with clay molds at the manor previously.
"Full-scale production of steel rails! In the future, we will ride trains back to Chang'an!"
Fang Er, with a smile on his face, shouted loudly to the craftsmen.
"Yes, my lord!"
Tan Zong was overjoyed. He had been in Shenyang for nearly two years and hadn't returned home during that time. The comfort of his wife, children, and a warm hearth was the most pleasant thing!
After casting six more sets of rollers, that set of molds finally became unusable, its bottom burned through. Before the eighth set of rollers could be formed, the bottom of the mold burned through, and molten steel flowed out.
Although there were only seven sets, they were enough.
Each set of rollers could produce three steel rails simultaneously, each 3 meters long. With seven rolling mills working at the same time, this resulted in sixty-three meters of steel rails at once.
At the current construction speed, this was sufficient to keep pace with the progress of building the roadbed.
After all, a railway was not just about rails; it also included the roadbed and sleepers.
Crossing rivers would require building bridges, and all of these would take time.
With the steel rolling process commencing, the next step was to plan the road construction.
Fang Er had Liu Dacheng invited to his manor and explained the matter of railway construction.
Back when the Fang Family Village tested the train, Liu Dacheng was still the county magistrate of Wannian County. Although he wasn't qualified to accompany Li Shimin to watch, he had heard about it afterward.
Upon hearing that a railway was to be built from Shenyang to Chang'an, Liu Dacheng patted his chest and guaranteed his full effort.
His work was not easy; it involved land acquisition and recruiting able-bodied young men for labor, which was enough to keep him busy.