Chapter 824 Inspection of the Mint
The guards around Luo Chong actually belonged to the Jinwu Guards. Because they were with Luo Chong, they had to be exposed to a lot of confidential information of the Han tribe, but they didn't need to go out to investigate intelligence.
Just like the guards around Luo Chong, most of them had nothing to do with the intelligence department, but they also abided by the principle of confidentiality. You Zhi had been responsible for the intelligence of the southern system such as Zhudao, the grassland and the Tang tribe, while the intelligence of the counties in front of the Han tribe was actually under the charge of Luo Chong's guards.
So when Luo Chong asked him for a list, this guy made a list of Yun Zhi's relatives that night. All those who worked in the industrial department of Weishan County and had a marriage relationship with Yun Zhi's family were listed on the list.
The next morning, taking advantage of the free time before departure, Luo Chong directly signed a transfer order, ordering all the people on the list and their families to move to Takuhai County to settle down within a time limit and be responsible for supporting the construction of various industries in the south.
When Lu Guangzhu happily received the transfer order, Luo Chong had already boarded the ship to the mint on the lake island with his guards.
The two-masted flat-bottomed inland sailboat broke through the floating ice and snow on the lake and headed towards the mint.
After several years of development by the Han tribe, this wetland where swamps and lakes coexist has changed greatly. Many fences were built in the lake with bamboo poles, and tall spire-shaped road signs were built with bricks and stones on some land.
The entire wetland was divided into multiple areas, where fishing and hunting were allowed, where waterfowl were raised, where was the waterway, and where was the protected area that was not allowed to enter, all of which were divided by fences and spires.
So even though this place was covered with snow and ice, Luo Chong and his sailboat could still accurately find the location of the mint along the road signs.
It took the group three hours to reach the dock of the mint, and they happened to see several other cargo ships coming from Weishan County on the dock. These ships were all here to transport copper materials, silver mines and lead mines to the mint.
The mint usually has its own metallurgical department. Copper materials, silver, and lead ingots can all be smelted here. However, because a large number of copperware were exchanged from Takeshima a while ago, they were sent to Xingang County for melting and reprocessing. When they were sent to the mint, they had become pure copper materials.
The mint will melt and proportion the copper materials again, adding 5% lead to optimize the fluidity of the copper liquid. Only with this proportion of lead bronze can the machine press out clearer and more delicate patterns and patterns on the coins.
However, there are obviously two ships here that are not used to transport ore, but a flat-deck cargo ship. I think it should be the cargo ship used to transport new machines as Lu Guangzhu said.
The sailboat approached the dock, and Luo Chong landed with a group of personal guards, and then comforted the Jinwu Guards stationed here, and then led people to the mint with black smoke.
Of course, it was not a fire, but the steam engine inside was working .
The person in charge of the mint, who knew in advance that the leader was coming to inspect, came to greet him early and was responsible for introducing the situation of the mint to Luo Chong.
This man's name is Che Quan. He has no clan and no foundation, but he is one of the earliest "savages" to join the Han tribe. At that time, he learned to be a carpenter in the Han tribe. His name was also taken after he came to the Han tribe. Later, he joined the Jinwu Guard. Because he had been a carpenter and understood the principles of mechanics, he was appointed as the person in charge here.
Hearing that Luo Chong was coming, this guy hurried out of the factory, his hands were covered with black ash, and he saluted Luo Chong with his hands crossed.
"Che Quan greets the leader."
"Well, no need to be polite. Seeing your hands are greasy and black, are you working?" Luo Chong smiled and gave him a
fake hand, and then led everyone to the mint workshop. Che Quan followed Luo Chong and said, "To the leader, three more machines were just shipped from the research institute yesterday. Everyone was busy installing and debugging, so my hands are like this."
"Well, what is the new machine? Have you installed it?" Luo Chong asked again.
"Head, these are two disc-type rolling machines, which are specially used to roll grooves on the sides of coins. Two of them are for copper coins and have been debugged and are running. The remaining one for silver coins is still being adjusted." Che Quan continued to introduce.
"Well, not bad, let's focus on the copper coins first. After all, the copper coins are used in greater quantities. There is no need to rush for silver coins." As Luo Chong spoke, he took the lead and entered the coin casting workshop.
As soon as I entered the workshop, I was greeted by a wave of hot air, as well as various mechanical noises such as clattering and rumbling. Looking around, there were all steel machines, arranged in the workshop according to the layout of the assembly line, and many workers were busy operating everything here.
Carts carrying raw materials and coal were running around in the workshop. In front of each steam engine sat a stoker, who was responsible for adding water and coal and looking after the running status of the steam engine. But on one side of the workshop, there were still some equipment driven by the huge and bulky windmill.
Seeing this, Luo Chong asked Che Quan beside him, "Can you tell me about the overall situation of the mint now, how much steam power coverage has been completed, and how much currency is produced daily."
"Yes, to reply to the leader, the thing that the mint lacks the least now is raw materials. We are close to the coking plant, so there is an adequate supply of coke. There is also the steam engine reform of the Power Research Institute. Now the smelting, mold casting, and plate rolling have all been replaced with steam engine power, so the raw materials are very sufficient.
But those two workshops are not here. If the leader wants to see them, we can go there first."
"Okay, let's go and see." Luo Chong agreed immediately and went to the smelting workshop under the leadership of Che Quan.
A group of people went to the smelting workshop first. As soon as they entered the workshop, they saw a row of neatly arranged smelting furnaces. Among them, there were two small blast furnaces, which were specially used to smelt silver and lead. The others were smelting furnaces, that is, the kind of furnaces that burn crucibles.
On the other side of the workshop were several huge scales used to weigh the raw materials. When Luo Chong and his party went over, they happened to see a worker adding lead pellets to the red-hot crucible. However, he did not add them manually. Instead, he used a crane to lift an iron box filled with lead pellets to the top of the smelting furnace, and then added them from a downward slanting slide.
Che Quan introduced them on the side.
"Chief, the lead ore here will be cast into cylindrical bars after being refined, and then a steam pulling device will be used to pull it into thin lead strips, which will then be cut into lead pellets and spit out. The finished lead pellets can be used as furnace charge to make the bronze alloy more uniform, the fusion speed will be faster, and the quality of the alloy will be the highest.
We usually put the copper ingot into the crucible first, then heat it to a liquid state in the smelting furnace, and then add the required lead particles from the charging port on the upper side of the furnace. The crucible will not be taken out during this process, so no lead vapor will be formed in the workshop. The smoke generated during smelting is all discharged through the chimney, and then after natural cooling outside, it is finally discharged into the swamp without releasing any heavy metal gas to the outside.
Moreover, the stirring work during smelting is also completed by a steam-powered agitator, which basically realizes the automation of smelting. "
"Well, you're doing well. Lead vapor is toxic, so even if there is no smoke emission in the workshop, don't forget to wear a mask when entering the workshop. This must be strictly required. "When Luo Chong listened to his introduction, he looked at the workers in the workshop. Everyone was wearing a mask. He was very satisfied, but he still reminded them again.
"Please rest assured, leader. Everyone knows that lead gas is poisonous. No one wants to become a fool after smelling it too much, so they are very conscious in wearing masks. Moreover, we have a workshop inspection department here, which is responsible for the safety inspection of each workshop. Those who enter the workshop without following the requirements will have their salary deducted." Che Quan introduced again.
"Well, this is very good. The workers need to be conscious, but the system is also very important and must be maintained. "
"Yes, please look this way, leader. This is our casting link." Che Quan responded and led Luo Chong to the other side.
"This is our sand mold processing area. We still use manual sand filling, but the demand for this work is not large, so manual work is enough, so we did not change to mechanization.
What they are making now is the plate mold for casting. This mold has 200 cavities inside, and can cast 200 thick copper plates at a time. The cast copper plate is this lead-bronze alloy plate with a thickness of 1.5 cm.
After the casting is completed, the mold is removed after cooling, and the copper plates are separated and then cleaned.
Chief, please look, this is the integrated washing machine, which is driven by a type 1 iron horse machine. It can drive two machines at the same time, using chain transmission, and is specifically responsible for cleaning the cast copper plates. This step has been mechanized, which has shortened a lot of time for our coin casting process. "
Luo Chong looked at this so-called washing machine for a while. In fact, it uses a horizontal roller brush with pig bristles installed on it to perform rolling washing operations on both sides of the copper plate. There is a water tank filled with soapy water below, and a small water truck on the side that is linked to the roller brush. It is responsible for raising the soapy water to a horizontal water tank above, and then pouring it onto the copper plate through the holes under the water tank. In this way, both sides of the copper plate can be washed at the same time, and finally rinsed with clean water, and the golden copper plate is washed.
Luo Chong nodded with satisfaction and asked casually, "At this step, it has been rolled, right?"
"Yes, chief, let's go to another plate rolling workshop." With Che Quan leading the way in front, everyone quickly transferred to another workshop.
This plate rolling workshop looks cleaner, and there are only three machines, but it looks unusually large.
"Chief, all the equipment here are 50-centimeter-wide plate rolling machines sent by the research institute. They use multi-stage rolling, one-time forming, and directly produce finished plates. "
Che Quan pointed to one of the machines and began to introduce its functions to Luo Chong.
The first impression of this plate rolling machine is that it is very valuable and expensive, because it is equipped with twelve silver-shining steel rollers of different diameters. Driven by chains and gears, the steel rollers rotate at a constant speed, constantly rolling the copper plates sent in.
The copper plates sent from the foundry are 1.5 cm thick. After being rolled by gravity for up to ten times by this machine, they come out as thin copper plates with a width of 50 cm and a thickness of only 1.5 mm. They are then rolled up with an iron pipe to become the basic material for stamping coins.
There are many threaded rods and thick springs between the different steel rollers of this machine. The pressure between the steel rollers can be adjusted by hand-cranked steel wheels, thereby controlling the thickness of the finished copper plates. The worker in charge of the plate rolling machine kept holding a specially shaped vernier caliper to measure the thickness of different parts of the finished product.
Unfortunately, the Han tribe does not have the ability to manufacture precision micrometers, and the accuracy of the lathe is not that high. However, for coins, an error of one tenth of a millimeter is already within the allowable range, which is also the highest accuracy that the Han tribe can currently achieve.
Then the group looked at the other two plate rolling machines responsible for silver and copper plates, and measured the use of the machines. When they learned that the current steam engine is more efficient than the previous plate rolling equipment and the quality of the finished product is better, Luo Chong nodded with satisfaction.
After watching this series of preparatory work, they went to the stamping workshop, which is the largest coin foundry.
The head of the coin foundry is... There are more than a dozen stamping machines of different models, on which the rolled sheets are placed, and then they are punched into coin embryos of various diameters, that is, money embryos.
The Han tribe uses a three-level currency system. The smallest unit of Wen is a round piece of pure copper, while the coins at the Jiao level are silver and copper coins. The outer circle is a circle of silver, and inside is a copper core the size of a fingernail. The two pieces are then pressed together by a machine. The largest Yuan-level coin is a silver coin made of pure silver.
After these money embryos are stamped, they must first undergo a grinding and washing process to grind and wash away the burrs of the stamping and the dirt on the surface of the money embryos. This step has now been changed from manual to fully mechanized.
The washed and dried money embryos will be sent to the three roller edge machines that Che Quan mentioned that have just been delivered to roll patterns on the sides of the coins, and a circular track will be used to roll the patterns on the sides of the coins . The steel wheels with patterns on them press the sides of the coins into uneven diagonal lines.
One by one, the coins line up to enter the track of the disc rolling machine, and when they come out from the other side, they have become coins with bulging sides.
Finally, these coin blanks with completed rolling edges are sent to the automatic punching machine, and patterns are punched out on both sides of the coin at the same time. This coin is then considered to be truly finished.
There is a constant ding-ding-ding sound coming from the hopper behind the punching machine. That is the sound of the punched coins falling into the wooden box one by one.
When such a box of coins is full, someone will tow the box away with a cart, then count the coins, seal them with paper, roll them into sticks, and finally pack them into boxes. They look like the rolls of dollars on TV.
In fact, there is not much difference, after all, they are also filled with silver and copper coins.
(End of this chapter)
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