In the small canyon ten miles north of the Valley Wooden Castle, loud rumbling noises could be heard from time to time.

In a light-transmitting cave on one side of the canyon, several young men wearing heavy cotton military uniforms carefully put some black powder into fist-sized pottery pots with wooden spoons under the guidance of a middle-aged alchemist.

in the jar.

These pottery pots are specially made. In addition to having thicker walls than ordinary pottery pots, there are also some protruding thorns on the pot body.

The young guys put the black powder into the pottery pot, then pressed it gently with a wooden stick, inserted a special cotton thread into it to leave a section, and then sealed the mouth of the pot with unsolidified pottery clay.

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The finished clay pots were placed neatly in a wooden frame and transported to another dry and cool place in the cave for storage.

The alchemist patrolled back and forth in the cave with a thin wooden stick in his hand, instructing the young men to prepare the medicine and fill it.

"Little bastard! Touch the iron rod first! Touch the iron rod first!!" The alchemist raised the thin wooden stick in his hand and severely spanked a young guy on the buttocks because the guy did not touch the stick stuck on the ground next to him as required.

of iron rod.

"If I catch you touching the iron rod from time to time again, I will break your legs." The alchemist was the one who survived the explosion of the wooden castle. Since the last explosion, he has become a stubborn maniac.

After being beaten, the young man quickly put his hand on the iron rod and touched it a few times before he dared to knead his buttocks that had been damaged by the wooden rod.

"I'm telling you, don't think that you are great just because you are an apprentice from the Government Affairs Academy. You are nothing in front of this kind of thing. This thing is not the charcoal fire in your fireplace." The alchemist once again said to the young man in the cave.

They roared.

At the innermost side of the cave, in a cave that is also transparent, Jack Medici, a member of the Weapons Research Laboratory, the son of Salter, the former Minister of Commerce and the Director of the European Commercial Bank, and a member of the Wells Legion Weapons Research Laboratory, is holding a weapon in his hands.

A wooden pallet shows the latest development results to Art, who personally developed gunpowder.

"...Lord Legion Commander, after many experiments, we made this granular gunpowder. I just installed an iron bomb myself. The power of the same amount of medicine has more than doubled. It is made of pig iron.

The bomb casing was easily blown into countless pieces."

Art touched the iron rod stuck in the ground beside him with his hand, then picked out a black particle the size of a wheat grain from the tray, raised it to his eyes and looked at it.

Art knew the concept of "granular gunpowder", but he only knew it.

For more than half a year after the black powder was successfully developed, the New City Weapons Research Laboratory conducted tests on it around the clock.

In the eyes of ordinary people, the power of this black powder that transcends cognition is frightening enough, but after getting over the initial excitement, Art increasingly felt that the "big killer weapon" he had worked hard to develop for several years was really not worth it.

"Amazingly powerful" reputation.

The first is the problem of insufficient deflagration of gunpowder. In order to load enough gunpowder to ensure the power of the explosion, it must be pressed tightly with wooden sticks. However, this results in the gunpowder gap inside the bomb being too small and the powder burning insufficiently, so that much of the powder remains.

It exploded without being ignited.

At the same time, powdered gunpowder is extremely susceptible to moisture, especially if it is stored in a dark cave over time, it will begin to become moist and may even become impossible to ignite.

In addition, the transportation of powdered gunpowder is inconvenient because during the bumpy transportation of powdered gunpowder, sulfur powder, charcoal powder and saltpeter powder with different weights will be separated from each other. Among them, saltpeter powder with the highest density will be located at the bottom of the gunpowder barrel.

, the lightest charcoal powder will be on the surface of the gunpowder barrel, which will inevitably reduce the power of the gunpowder, or even make it impossible to light it at all!

Last month, the Weapons Research Laboratory transported a batch of black powder to the newly discovered iron ore in the south of the valley for secret experiments. Due to the excessive bumps in the transportation process, almost all of the raw materials of the gunpowder were separated, so that it had to be removed after arriving at the destination.

Pour out all the gunpowder and mix it again to exert its power.

In normal times, it would be just one more process, but on the battlefield, this is a fatal flaw.

The technology of granulated gunpowder solves these problems. First of all, granulated gunpowder will delaminate after bumpy transportation. The largest particles will run to the bottom of the gunpowder barrel, and the smallest particles will run to the surface of the gunpowder barrel.

, but this will not affect the quality and use of gunpowder.

Secondly, the moisture absorption of granulated gunpowder is also much less than that of powdered gunpowder, because the ratio of surface area to volume of granular gunpowder is smaller, and it absorbs less moisture from the air. In the Age of Discovery, the best granular gunpowder

A graphite polisher is also used to polish away the pores on the gunpowder grains to reduce the hygroscopicity of the gunpowder and extend the storage period.

Finally, because granular gunpowder is in the form of granules, even when pressed, they do not fit tightly together and do not form a "whole" like powdered black powder. The gaps left between the granular gunpowder

, so that oxygen can assist the combustion of gunpowder, make the burning rate more uniform, and improve the efficiency of gunpowder combustion.

These things that were regarded as primary theoretical knowledge by later generations were simply the most mysterious secrets in this era. Art knew a little about it, but it was enough.

The binder boiled with the best quality refined wheat flour was sprayed on the powdered black gunpowder and shaken and sieved into particles of different sizes. After many tests, it was determined that particles the size of wheat grains were the most suitable.

After the particle size is determined, qualified gunpowder is selected using a sieve as fine as a wheat grain.

Putting the pellets of gunpowder back on the tray, Art breathed a sigh of relief, "With it, we really have the confidence to go south to Lombardy."

"Your Weapons Research Laboratory has achieved military merit again, and I will ask the Military Affairs Office to record it for you. But you must remember that everything here is the top secret of the Wells Corps. Everyone must keep it secret. Once the secret is discovered,

, everyone will be severely punished by military law!"

Jack held the tray and stood up to accept the order.

"Now we're just waiting for Groland to forge a qualified weapon~" Art raised his head and looked at the blue sky after the heavy snow through the natural window, with thousands of thoughts flying in his heart...

............

"...Master Groland, the heat of the blast furnace is already at its highest. The strength of the steel we can smelt is this. If the furnace temperature can be raised further, perhaps the toughness and hardness of the steel can be improved."

a little."

In the workshop area under Wellsburg, the weapons workshop was not relocated as planned because the new weapons ordered by Art required the use of hydraulic forging hammers, and the hydraulic forging hammer system here was already quite complete.

Since the production of gun barrels basically failed, the weapons workshop has developed another weapon called the "Fire Gate Cannon" under the personal guidance of Art. This weapon is still made of iron, but its diameter is smaller than the original

The "barrel" is dozens of times larger.

The manufacturing process of this kind of weapon is also immature. Yate simply mentioned that it should be cast with wrought iron, fine steel as the core, and clay as the outer mold. As for how to cast it, Yate only left one sentence:

"Research on your own."

This was a big problem for the weapon craftsmen. Although the technology of melting iron in a blast furnace and making steel had been explored under Art's guidance a few years ago, the idea of ​​casting iron into a cannon still seemed to be far-fetched.

The weapons workshop has already cast a six-foot-long portal cannon that weighs more than 300 pounds, but the barrel is full of pores and impurities and cannot be destroyed with gunpowder.
Chapter completed!