Under the command of Zhao Peng, the workers built a power-causing machinery. They built a grinder like something, and the cattle pulled the rotary wheel, and the shaft below connected to the gearbox.

The power-accumulator was manufactured and the steel rolling machine was also manufactured. Zhao Peng ordered the test machine to begin.

"Start the test drive." Zhao Peng gave the order.

The four large buffaloes were beaten by the workers' whip and dragged the machinery to slowly move around the large disc, causing the small disc above the disc to rotate. The shaft under the small disc slowly rotates, and through the gearbox, a shaft connecting the steel rolling mill is driven to rotate.

On the other side, several workers opened the furnace door of the blast furnace, released the iron in the furnace, and flowed into a three-meter-long groove. After a while, the temperature of the iron decreased and condensed into a thick red iron bar with a length of three meters and a width of half a foot.

Dozens of workers carried various tools and lifted the iron bars out of the groove and sent them to the steel rolling mill.

As the rolling mill rotated, the workers slowly pushed the iron bars behind and sent them into the rolling mill. Two heavy rollers crushed the iron bars, causing the red iron bars to gradually grow and thin. In the end, the iron bars became two inches wider and one inch thicker, but just when they were six feet long, the big buffalo that was pulling continued could not walk. No matter how the workers whipped and drove away, the cattle walked slowly.

After all, livestock are not machines and they will be tired. Under high-intensity labor, livestock consumes a lot of physical strength, and it is impossible to continuously roll out keels more than 100 meters long.

In addition to the reason why labor intensity is too high, there is another reason why it cannot be pulled later. Because the cattle speed is too slow, the iron bars start to cool down. The more they reach the back, the harder the iron bars become, and the cow cannot pull them at all.

If you take the method of replacing livestock, it will take time. Once the rolling mill rotates too slowly and you have to stop in the middle, the iron bars will become cold. Once it cools down, it will be impossible to complete the rolling of steel.

It seems that the method of traction of rolling mills with livestock has also failed, and this method simply does not work.

After some hard thinking, Zhao Peng thought of a mixed method of casting keels, which is rolling steel and welding. With the welding technology of this era, it is okay to weld the bird gun barrel, but when welded the keel, the welded keel really cannot guarantee the quality. After all, it is the key part of the weight of the entire ship. With the current welding technology, it will definitely break.

Therefore, Zhao Peng's method was to weld by filling iron, put the rolled two iron bars into a mud mold, and then pour the scorching iron into the mud. After the iron has cooled down, the two iron bars are connected together.

At this time, the craftsman Wang Xin raised an objection: "But both iron bars have been rolled, and the middle connection part has not been rolled. In this way, the strength of the connection part is different from the strength of the iron bars on both sides."

After the iron is rolled, it is a bit like a hammer being beaten. After being thrown into water and quenched, the strength is very high. However, the connection between the middle is only cooled by iron and water, and it has not been forged or pressed, and the strength is obviously much worse.

Zhao Peng thought of another solution: "We can extend the connection a little, leaving a foot-wide gap between the two iron bars for casting iron water. In this way, during the cooling process, we can use an iron hammer to forge the connection. Isn't that enough?"

"Then give it a try." Wang Xin said.

Then, the workers built a quenching pool six feet long and three feet wide under the steel rolling mill, and poured cold water into it.

The blast furnace starts to smelify iron. When it is almost done, the workers open the furnace door and pour the scorching iron into a two-meter-long trough. When the iron cools down a little, a bar of two-meter-long, three-inch-long and three-inch-long trough is formed.

The workers used tools to carry the fiery red iron bars to the steel rolling mill and placed the iron bars on the workbench of the steel rolling mill.

Then the worker responsible for driving the big buffalo waved his whip and beat the big buffalo. The buffalo walked slowly to drive the steel rolling mill. While the steel rolling mill ate the iron bars inside, the workers behind also pushed the iron bars and sent the iron bars into the steel rolling mill.

After a while, an iron bar that was six meters long and two inches wide and one inch thick was rolled out. The rolled iron bar fell directly into the quenching pool. A sensation of white mist rose up, and the water that touched the iron bar boiled, and the iron bar gradually turned from red to black.

Next, the second six-meter-long iron bar was also rolled out. After quenching, the workers lifted two iron bars and placed them on a mud mold. The two iron bars were spaced about one foot apart. Then workers poured the iron into the mud mold.

When the white and bright iron gradually cooled down and turned red, the middle connection was slightly wider than the iron bars on both sides. At this time, the worker smashed the mud mold and began to wave the hammer to hit the connection.

As the hammer hit, the connection area thicker than the iron bar gradually became flat and finally became as thick as the iron bar. Then the workers poured a bucket of cold water on the fiery red connection. As a gust of water vapor rose, the connection area gradually changed from red to black.

After the two iron bars are connected, the third iron bar is connected. The same method is adopted. The rolled iron bar and the connected iron bar are placed above the mold, leaving a foot-long spacing in the middle, and then the iron is poured into it.

After cooling down a little, the mud mold was broken, the workers began to forge the joint, hammering one by one, and gradually knocking the joint to the same level as the iron bar.

After six days of intense work, a 107-meter-long iron keel was finally completed. But after the completion, Zhao Peng realized that the iron keel was too soft. If it was shorter and hard, the iron bars were so long, they would definitely be soft.

"The keel is too soft. If you build a ship on such a keel, once you go to sea, the soft keel will sway left and right under the wind and waves. All the wooden boards connected to the keel will break, and the entire ship will fall apart." said the shipmaker.

This keel must have failed. It took seven days and seven nights in total, and more than 100 workers and four big buffaloes were used. The iron keel that was finally made could only be re-crystaled and re-smelted.

How to make the keel harder? Zhao Peng thought of a solution: "We can turn the keel into a cross-section of a few-shaped keel. The keel can be made thinner and turn into an iron plate. We bent the iron plate and completed the keel, so that it will become much harder. In addition, the fixation of the ribs and secondary keels will not shake."

The keel is made into a shape of a few characters, just like the I-shaped rail principle in later generations. If the iron bar is bent horizontally, it will become hard in the longitudinal direction.

However, the use of this method to cast keels has become more time-consuming and labor-intensive. First, six iron bars must be cast, and these iron bars must be tied into long iron plates with a steel rolling mill, and then the six iron plates are connected by pouring iron. Then the workers began to beat the iron one by one, bent the long iron plate more than 100 meters long, and gradually turned into a shape of a few.

After the first failed keel was reworked, it took about half a month to cast the second keel to create an iron keel with a shape of several shapes.

Next, we will create two secondary keels, which are also in shape, but are much thinner than the main keel.

After about a month, one main, two pairs of three keels were finally completed. Next, the workers in the shipyard would lay keels in the dock.

Hundreds of workers carried heavy iron keels to the dock and placed the main keel at the bottom of the dock. Then the workers used wood to create ribs. The place where the ribs were connected to the keel was to create a wooden cover to cover the keel.

In some places, the connection needs to be strengthened, so the blacksmith welded iron sheets with holes on the keel and nailed the wooden ribs to the iron sheets, thus connecting the ribs to the iron main keel.
Chapter completed!