Chapter Thirty-Three: Furnace Drying

The instructive conversation between the two went unheard by others. Ji Wusheng paid no attention to their actions, instead bustling about to check if all preparations were in place.

The ignition ceremony officially began at 8 a.m. Ji Wusheng had already prepared seven or eight furnace pokers, dipped in tar and heated red-hot. After a brief speech by Zhan Wuya, Wen Desi, Zhan Wuya, and four other Senators selected by lottery after signing up, all took part in inserting the pokers into the furnace through the various tuyeres. The dry wood shavings immediately caught fire. A wave of enthusiastic applause and cheers erupted from the Senators and naturalized citizens gathered around the blast furnace. The Senators, in particular, each deeply understood the great significance of the blast furnace ignition.

“Open all the tuyeres, slag notch, and taphole. Let the blast furnace ventilate,” Ji Wusheng shouted, too busy to celebrate, directing the workers. He wore the special goggles for steelworkers, observing the flames in the tuyeres. The wood had already been ignited by the burning shavings. The first step of ignition was successful. The burning wood would gradually ignite the coke.

Black smoke billowed from the top and openings of the blast furnace. A commotion arose among the onlookers. A few life-loving Senators were already backing away.

“It’s alright, this is just smoke from the burning wood,” Ji Wusheng shouted. He turned to Foreman Li and instructed, “From now on, you keep an eye on the furnace. Keep all the tuyeres, slag notch, and taphole open. Don’t send in any blast! Let the blast furnace burn on its own. Come find me when all the smoke turns white!”

At the beginning, the blast furnace was allowed to burn freely without any blast to prevent the firewood from burning out prematurely, which could result in the coke not being ignited or not being ignited sufficiently.

Ji Wusheng arranged all the work in front of the furnace and then checked the condition of the entire workshop. The Senators in the workshop gradually dispersed, leaving only a few from the industrial sector, Zhan Wuya, and Wu De from the Planning Institute.

“After the No. 1 blast furnace is put into production, when do you plan to ignite the open-hearth furnace?” Wu De asked.

“After the first batch of pig iron is produced. Let’s talk in my office,” Ji Wusheng had a small room built in the blast furnace workshop as an office. He often had to work on-site and provide technical guidance, so each workshop had to have such a small room.

“To be honest, I’ve never worked with an open-hearth furnace,” Ji Wusheng said, tidying up the newly delivered desk. “The ones I’ve seen in the steel company were all electric arc furnaces, or at least oxygen converters. I’m not very confident about making steel directly from concentrate powder—we’ll stick to the old method, the mature process I’ve mastered.”

Ji Wusheng’s idea was to use pig iron ingots for the first steelmaking in the open-hearth furnace, and then add some open-hearth ore. This was more reliable.

“Also, we need to set up a dedicated chemical laboratory for the steel plant. Coke, iron ore, limestone… all these need chemical composition analysis. Of course, the carbon content in the molten iron also needs to be analyzed. The laboratory is indispensable—even the small blast furnaces during the Great Leap Forward had laboratories.”

This request had to be submitted to the Planning Institute, as the laboratory needed to be approved as a project. Some of the equipment and instruments in the laboratory required special manufacturing, and some required the use of controlled items—such as a 1/1000 balance, a microscope, a fan for the fume hood, a platinum crucible…

These were either things that Lin’gao could not currently produce on its own, or they were very valuable. Finally, there were no suitable chemical analysts among the natives, so professional personnel had to be selected from among the Senators to serve as chemical analysts.

After D-Day, the Transmigration Group had established several laboratories, but they were mainly focused on biological research. The only laboratories for industrial production were the one directly under the Ministry of Chemical Industry and the analysis laboratory at the Maniao Saltworks. Both the cement plant and the steel plant needed chemical laboratories to analyze the composition of raw materials and finished products.

“If we want to produce special steel and alloy steel, it’s a pipe dream without a laboratory,” Ji Wusheng emphasized.

Zhan Wuya said, “Not just the steel plant, the cement plant also urgently needs a laboratory.”

Wu De thought for a moment. “Logically, these are all reasonable requests. But we have an insufficient reserve of some key equipment, and there are not many Senators willing to specialize in chemical analysis.” He remembered that Mo Xiao’an had also mentioned the configuration of a laboratory to him a few days ago.

In the end, Wu De suggested setting up a central laboratory for each of the heavy and light industry systems. They would be configured to a high standard and would be specifically responsible for the experimental analysis work within their respective systems.

“That works,” Ji Wusheng said after hearing Wu De’s idea, feeling that it was a compromise solution. “But Maniao is 12 kilometers from Bairen, and the travel time is too long. It’s too late to analyze the molten iron and slag materials.”

“The laboratory for the heavy industry sector will be located in the Maniao Industrial Zone—this will be our future heavy industrial zone, including a modern cement plant,” Wu De said generously. “In addition, I’ll help you set up a simple laboratory in the steel plant, as long as you don’t mind the simple equipment.”

“Good, as long as it works.”

“The cement plant built in the Maniao Industrial Zone can make use of the by-products from the steel plant’s production nearby: waste heat, waste gas, and waste slag. A large amount of slag from steelmaking and ironmaking is a good raw material for making cement—not just for paving roads or as fertilizer. This new version of the cement plant is planned to be built with relatively advanced process equipment. The commissioning of the steel plant has opened up the possibility for the Lin’gao industrial system to manufacture large-scale equipment.”

Zhan Wuya was very excited. “Steel and cement will increase tenfold. Our capital is growing. Next, I’m going to solve the welding problem.”

“If you ask me, our industrial layout should get out of Lin’gao as soon as possible—this place lacks water, which is a big constraint,” Wu De had recently attended an internal seminar organized by the Executive Committee. The participants included about fifty professionals from all walks of life, not only technical personnel but also Senators familiar with the geography and cultural environment. They had a discussion on the future industrial layout.

The consensus was that places like Lin’gao and Danzhou were not suitable for large-scale industry. Northwest Qiong has always been short of water. Historically, it was only after the founding of the PRC, with the continuous construction of water collection facilities, the excavation of irrigation canals, and the construction of a series of reservoirs such as the Songtao Reservoir, that the water demand for modern Lin’gao’s industrial and agricultural production and population life was basically met. But in the old world, Lin’gao was not an industrial county, and its industrial output value was still very low even in the 21st century.

However, at present, the Hainan Island under the control of the Transmigration Group was not very stable, and the supply of machinery, construction materials, and workers could not keep up. It was not possible to open branch bases everywhere, so industry had to be kept in the core ruling area of Lin’gao, and the most optimal configuration could not be implemented.

“If you ask me, why not move the light industry system to Guangdong?” Zhan Wuya said. “The Pearl River Delta is rich in various agricultural products, and the supply of coal and raw materials is guaranteed. There is the Pearl River for water resources, and the labor force is abundant. The products we produce can be sold locally. We can even attract private capital to join. Aren’t the distillery and mirror assembly plant that the Guangzhou station set up in Guangzhou very successful?”

After seeing off the last batch of Senators, Ji Wusheng returned to his office for a short nap. At noon, his maid woke him up with lunch. He hastily ate his lunch and then went to the workshop for a walk. Foreman Li was still standing in front of the furnace, observing the fire from time to time.

“How is it?”

“The firewood is almost burnt out,” Foreman Li reported. “The smoke has started to become lighter.”

As they were talking, someone pushed a cart to deliver lunch to the workers in the blast furnace workshop—large portions of rice with toppings and fried rice noodles in lunch boxes, each portion weighing 500 grams. The furnace front workers of the blast furnace were engaged in extremely heavy physical labor, and their food allowance was the highest level. Today was the day of ignition and opening the furnace, so it was supposed to be more sumptuous. According to Ji Wusheng’s instructions, an extra piece of fried fish fillet was added for each worker.

The workers ate in front of the furnace. Dozens of people chatted while they ate. Ji Wusheng took this opportunity to explain some concepts about the chemical reactions in blast furnace ironmaking. The workers were very interested in ironmaking technology and would ask many questions whenever they had the chance. The Senators’ advocacy of learning technology and their emphasis on skilled workers had promoted the workers’ enthusiasm for learning technology.

And the fact that the Senators possessed advanced technology invisibly broke the old habit of secrecy among craftsmen in the handicraft era. In the face of the Senators’ technology, any traditional secret technique was like渣 (dregs).

Explaining the oxidation-reduction reaction to workers who did not even have a primary school education was quite difficult. Ji Wusheng tried his best to explain it in a simple and clear way. He was still counting on selecting enough technical backbones from this group of workers to be dispersed to various workshops. You know, he had just barely managed to assemble the teams for the No. 1 blast furnace and the No. 1 open-hearth furnace. The three-shift system for the No. 1 blast furnace alone had more than a hundred workers. He still didn’t know where the operators for the No. 2 blast furnace would come from.

“Chief! White smoke!” The morning’s lesson had just ended when the worker who went to check the fire shouted.

“Good, prepare to send in the blast!” Ji Wusheng quickly put on his sunglasses. The black smoke had completely disappeared, and now white smoke was coming out. This meant that the firewood had basically burned out, and the coke had been completely ignited. He observed that the combustion condition was very good.

“Start sending in half blast!” With his order, the workers quickly opened the gearbox lever, allowing the power from the overhead shaft to be transmitted to the blower drive shaft. The blower began to operate, emitting a huge roar.

The efficiency of a blower powered by a steam engine was not as good as that of an electric one, but its air output capacity was much stronger than that of human, animal, water, or wind power. A blast furnace of this scale could not be supplied with a blast by the power system of traditional handicraft.

Ji Wusheng concentrated on watching the flames inside the furnace. Although only half a blast was sent in, the firepower inside the blast furnace immediately took a qualitative leap. The flames in the furnace gradually turned white, which was a sign that the temperature was constantly rising.

“Close the slag notch!” Ji Wusheng shouted loudly. “Prepare to remove the ash!”