In fact, the earliest material in human history was pure copper, also known as natural red copper. However, the hardness of this early natural pure copper was too low to be suitable for making tools.
Later, bronze appeared. What is bronze? It is made by smelting copper ore and adding tin to the copper. Therefore, bronze is also called bronze alloy.
Red copper is relatively soft in texture and requires a relatively high temperature for casting. However, after adding tin or lead to form an alloy, its melting point is lowered, making smelting easier while increasing its hardness.
If the hardness of red copper is only 35 degrees, adding 5% tin will increase its hardness to 68 degrees; adding 10% tin will increase it to 88 degrees. Moreover, after hammering, the hardness can be further increased... This shows the importance of a proper copper-tin ratio.
Of course, bronze is more than just an alloy with tin. Bronze mainly includes tin bronze, lead bronze, and ternary tin-lead-copper bronze.
How was early bronze discovered?
The red copper initially smelted from ore was not very pure. It certainly contained some impurities, such as small amounts of lead, tin, iron, etc., but because the lead and tin content was very low, it could not be called bronze.
However, people accidentally discovered that the hardness and toughness of this alloy were stronger than red copper, and thus began to consciously add tin to red copper to prepare bronze.
Ma Yue only vaguely remembered the concept of copper alloy, and of course he didn't know the specific proportions, as Ma Yue was not a metallurgical expert.
As I said, Ma Yue has roughly put forward his ideas, and the rest still requires continuous experiments by a specialized research team.
After all, among the copper artifacts crafted by Qiu Haicheng, a small portion still possessed a good hardness. As long as the approximate proportion of the alloy that achieved the desired hardness was accurately determined, it would be relatively easy to consistently produce copper plowshares of acceptable hardness.
The truth is, with successful examples like this, it would be foolish not to figure out the right copper-tin ratio. So, within two weeks of Ma Yue inspecting the work of the Bronze Research Group, a roughly mature bronze alloy had been finalized.
Isn't this good? At least, the copper plowshares produced in the future will be of a reasonable hardness. This means there won't be a huge waste of ore. Copper ore requires a lot of manpower and material resources to mine, and even the coal used for smelting and burning has to be purchased or shipped from Haifan City.
Every time a copper plowshare with poor hardness is forged, it is a huge waste.
In Qiuhai City today, forging copper plowshares is the primary focus of copperware production. Each branch of the Hai Tribe needs hard, wear-resistant copper plowshares to develop agriculture. In trade, copper plowshares are also what foreign merchants are most eager to acquire from the Hai Tribe, as they are practical and valuable.
Copperware, like salt, can never meet the needs of society.
Of course, both salt and copper were high-value products in this era, and there were not many tribes that could purchase them in large quantities. It didn't matter whether the trade volume was large or not, as their own tribe had not yet fully popularized it.
Especially the copper plow shovel, it is better not to trade it, otherwise, our own copper plow shovel will never become popular.
Why does Ma Yue attach so much importance to various "scientific research groups"? Ma Yue knows best that science and technology are the primary productive forces. Only if you master more advanced technologies can you stay ahead in the future.
It's unrealistic to keep the salt-boiling technique secret for long. Once the many large coastal tribes near Ghost Mountain master the salt-boiling technique, the Sea Tribe's greatest advantage will be gone. Of course, the current salt-boiling technique isn't even a technology.
When the Sea Tribe successfully researches seawater salt fields, that will be called technology.
It doesn't matter. Today, the Sea Tribe has at least guaranteed the basic hardness of copperware. Is this technological leadership? Can other large tribes with copper mines do the same? At least, not now.
The three major tribes in the ghost town have larger copper mines, and the proportion of copper products with reliable hardness is pitifully low because you have not studied the proportion of bronze alloys at all.
Ma Yue felt much more at ease with the stability of bronze hardness. At least, his tribe had taken the lead in another key technology.
Ma Yue issued a death order to Qiu Haicheng's Gray Wolf and Ma Han: if Qiu Haicheng were to fall, the key copper smelting technicians must be taken away. The copper-tin alloy ratio technology must not be leaked again.
Lu Yin's fleet was almost always stationed on the coast of Qiu Haicheng. Besides searching for seals and fishing in the reefs and islands, their most important duty was to support Qiu Haicheng at sea. If the situation changed drastically, they would rescue as many of Qiu Haicheng's men as possible and escape.
Dhaka was finally promoted in name only, and Ma Yue personally appointed him as the director of the Mining Bureau.
After his promotion, Dhaka's power of faith increased rapidly to super, and he was full of motivation to continue researching copper tools with higher hardness.
Ma Yue was not sure about the hardness of the copper plowshare now. Of course, the higher the hardness and toughness, the better. As for the research team, the more it improves with each passing day, the better. Science and technology are endless.
Lei Qing hasn't come back yet, and the Hai tribe has taken back Qiu Hai City for so long, Ma Yue is really worried.
"God of war, our exploration of the Qiuhai City area has reached a month's distance to the west. There are still many tribes, big and small, but there has been no news of Lei Qing." Gray Wolf knew what Ma Yue was worried about. "Further west, there is a vast jungle. It will be too troublesome to explore."
"Well, it's not just about finding out about Lei Qing, it's mainly about monitoring the river. The responsibilities of scouts are important. If the enemy comes in large numbers, we should at least know about it in advance. Whether it's by water or by land..." Ma Yue didn't want to see a bad situation where tens of thousands of troops were coming and Qiu Haicheng had no advance information.
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