Chapter 143 Strange Visitors
"Uncle Wang, turn up the fire!" Su Ying stood in front of the kiln, observing the color of the fire through the observation hole to judge the fire intensity and temperature.
"Okay!" Wang Sanlang and another carpenter pulled the bellows handle hard, and the fire in the lime kiln suddenly shot up high, and the flames turned from deep red to orange.
There is a certain correspondence between the color of the flame and the temperature, and people can judge the approximate temperature by the color of the flame.
Dark red is 600 degrees, deep red is 700 degrees, orange is 1000 degrees, pure orange is 1100 degrees, and golden orange is 1200 degrees.
Golden yellow is 1300 degrees, golden white is 1400 degrees, pure white is 1500 degrees, and white blue is above 1500 degrees.
The relative temperature inside the kiln can be inferred based on the different colors of the flames. The darker the flame color, the lower the temperature, and the lighter the color, the higher the temperature.
"This blower is really good! The temperature rises so quickly!" Su Laoer exclaimed as he watched the flames change.
Generally, lime kilns do not use blowers and calcine in a smoldering manner. This large blower is extremely powerful, and the temperature can be judged to have risen sharply by the flame color suddenly becoming brighter and lighter.
Su Laoer had spent quite a bit of time in the Ministry of Works and had seen many iron smelting furnaces in the Works Supervisory Office, but none of them had a temperature rise as dramatic as that of this lime kiln.
"Aying, can we feed the ingredients now?" asked several men at the feeding port above.
"Don't be impatient, wait a little longer!" Su Ying looked at the color of the fire, "Uncle Wang, try harder!"
"Okay!" Wang Sanlang and the other man pulled the bellows handle hard and leaned back, then pushed it forward hard.
"Whoosh!" The flames in the lime kiln were between golden yellow and golden white.
"Okay! Let go!" Su Ying raised her hand and waved it hard.
"One, two, three!" The men turned the feeding handle and pushed the raw stone into the feeding port.
The raw stones fell from the top raw material port in the flames. Wang Sanlang and his companions did not dare to relax and kept increasing the wind speed.
After feeding is completed, the feeding port closes automatically.
Everyone worked closely together and worked very hard.
"How is it? Did it work?" Ah Hei and other Li people went to the observation hole to look.
It was so novel to see the huge changes in the flames when the wind was poured in. It was the first time I saw such strong firepower.
I knew from Su Ying’s professional course that the fire was related to the wind power of the blower, but the intuitive feeling of seeing it with my own eyes was still shocking.
"I'll do it!" Ah Hei took over the blower handle from Wang Sanlang and blew it with great effort.
The officials who participated in the construction felt a great sense of accomplishment when they saw the results.
Even those who had scoffed at this at first, who had argued about it every day during the construction process, were now convinced after seeing the facts.
In Su Ying's class, she explained in detail the principles of intake and exhaust, the size ratio, and the rough judgment of the color of the smelting flame.
Now everyone gathered at the observation hole to look, and sure enough, everything came true.
This vertical lime kiln was dug vertically halfway up the mountain, which took a lot of effort. The kiln body is made of refractory bricks made of kaolin, clay, wollastonite, quartz, etc.
Ah Hei and his team put in a lot of effort and found several materials on the mountain near Jinfeng Village.
Now Ah Hei and the others can communicate smoothly with Su Ying and the others, and Su Ying and the others can also understand a lot of slang, and they have become much closer to each other.
The ancients were really wise. Su Ying only drew a rough schematic diagram of the lime kiln and bellows, and explained the requirements and principles.
Among these people there are professionals and non-professionals, and they got together to figure it out.
"Mr. Su, I didn't realize that this girl is really capable. Looking at the entire Tang Dynasty, I'm afraid this lime kiln is better than the smelting furnace of the Ministry of Works!" Wang Yannian said to Su Bucheng with a smile.
"Your Excellency is too kind. I am just messing around and like to daydream. If it weren't for your Excellency taking charge and these skilled craftsmen giving advice, I, a girl, would be helpless no matter how much I think." Su Bucheng said modestly.
The construction of the lime kiln took longer than the time it took to dig the pond in the village. Today, the furnace was tested and the people who dug the pond also came to witness it.
There were nearly a hundred people at the scene, some nearer and some farther away, surrounding the lime kiln to watch. No one noticed that several people in luxurious clothes were approaching.
"What are they doing?" Wei Shutong asked Lu Zhaoshi.
"It should be burning lime!" Lu Zhaoshi remembered that Su Ying had mentioned rebuilding the lime kiln.
"Burning lime? It takes so many people." Wei Shutong took a look and saw a stove buried halfway up the mountain, and people all over the mountain. Isn't it too exaggerated?
"Uh, I'm not sure. Let's go and ask and we'll find out." Lu Zhaoshi also felt it was too exaggerated.
Except for Lu Zhaoshi and Hu Xiancheng who were wearing official robes, Wei Shutong and Li Boyan wore casual clothes and dressed as ordinary people.
But their luxurious robes revealed that they were not ordinary people.
Also traveling with them were Hu Erlang, a middle-aged man in his early forties with a fair complexion and no beard, and a teenager of the same age as Hu Erlang.
The two of them didn't say much, just watched quietly, their eyes full of curiosity.
"Heling, how are you?" Lu Zhaoshi shouted to Wang Yannian.
"Sir! Why are you here?" Wang Yannian was very surprised.
"After reading your notice, I couldn't sit still, so I came to take a look." Lu Zhaoshi laughed.
Wang Yannian looked at the people behind the governor and felt strange.
Apart from County Magistrate Hu and his son, the Governor was very respectful to those people, a group of strange visitors.
Wei Shutong came to the kiln and looked inside through the observation hole, but he was lonely.
There was nothing but a roaring flame, and the blower kept pulling.
"The temperature is now about 1300-1400 degrees!" Su Ying explained.
"Why? How did you determine that?" Wei Shutong asked without hesitation.
"Look at this flame, it changes between golden yellow and golden white..." Su Ying explained, and by the way explained to the distinguished guest the relationship between flame color and temperature.
These distinguished guests who came with the governor were either rich or noble. Su Ying had some insight and guessed that they might have come from Lingnan.
"Is it really so?" Wei Shutong didn't expect that a flame could contain so much knowledge.
"Of course, smelters judge the temperature of the furnace by the color of the flame." Su Ying nodded.
Su Ying listened to the pure Mandarin and the familiar local accent, and looked at Wei Shutong in surprise.
The people in Huanggou Village came from Chang'an and were all exiles, so naturally they spoke with a Chang'an accent.
This man was dressed in luxurious but casual clothes, so it was obvious that he was not a fugitive.
On second thought, maybe he was sent to Lingnan from the capital, so there was no need to ask too many questions.
"Why are there so many people in your lime kiln?" Wei Shutong asked again.
"This is a vertical lime kiln, which has a different structure from ordinary lime kilns. We are testing the kiln today, and everyone wants to see how it works." Su Ying said with a smile.
"Oh, you said your lime kiln is vertical, unlike ordinary lime kilns? What's the reason for this design? Could you tell me?"
Wei Shutong never expected that the fugitive from Huanggou Village had such talent.
Su Ying did not get impatient and repeated the construction principles that she had explained many times.
"Wonderful, wonderful! What a wonderful idea!" Wei Shutong exclaimed.
Each design corresponds to a technical difficulty, which is really incredible. Wei Shutong feels that his imagination has been opened up. Many things seem unreasonable, but are actually very reasonable.
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