Most of China's iron ore are pyrodites with high sulfur content and low iron content. If it were later generations, pyrodite was a good thing. After the sulfuric acid was produced, the remaining residues were used to make steel. However, with the steel technology of this era, pyrodite was not a good thing. First of all, pyrodite had a low iron content, and secondly, the steel refined had a high sulfur content, which greatly affected the quality of steel.

Later generations had developed steel technology. Through chemical technology, the sulfur in the pyrodite was first separated out to produce sulfuric acid, and the remaining ore was then used to steelmaking.

However, the steel technology in this era was backward. Not to mention the need to deal with pyrodite, steel with high sulfur content was very brittle and had extremely poor plasticity, and the quality of the steel refined was very poor.

Ancient Chinese people came up with a way to remove sulfur from steel, using lime and pyrote to remove sulfur, and then charcoal to smeltet iron. This method not only wastes sulfur, but also produces high sulfur content and poor quality.

The iron ore produced in Qiongzhou Shilu Iron Ore is a rare iron-rich ore in China. It has extremely low sulfur content and is as high as half of the iron content. It is the best iron ore in China.

The ore of Shilu Iron Ore is the easiest iron ore to refine high-quality steel for the steel industry in this era. Moreover, this iron ore has a rich iron ore content of up to hundreds of millions of tons. Cobalt, copper, nickel, aluminum, gold and other metals are also accompanied by iron ore. It can be said that this is the most precious wealth on Qiongzhou Island.

After mining Shilu iron ore, the annual output is enough for the steel needed for Ming Dynasty to enter industrialization. However, to make so much steel, it is definitely not possible to use traditional charcoal to make iron. It is expensive and has serious damage to the forest.

Therefore, Zhao Peng needed to build a coking plant on Qiongzhou Island.

Coking plants are of great significance. They can not only obtain coke that is much cheaper than charcoal to replace charcoal steelmaking, but also obtain high-quality gas fuel gas, as well as additional products such as coal tar and sulfur dioxide.

With the success of chemical experiments, the sulfur dioxide obtained from coking is no longer useless waste gas, but a valuable raw material for producing sulfuric acid. According to Zhao Peng's design, a sulfuric acid plant near the coking plant can produce a large amount of sulfuric acid to meet military needs.

Steel plants and gunpowder factories are also built near coking plants, which can save transportation costs.

Regarding the address of the Qiongzhou coking plant, Zhao Peng built the coking plant, steel plant and sulfuric acid plant on the beach near Qiongzhou Fucheng. Where will a long and large wharf be built, the iron ore sent from Shilu Iron Mine and the coal transported from Annan will be processed here and directly turned into finished products such as steel, smokeless gunpowder and explosives.

The construction of the world's first industrial and mining railway is very rapid, and the roadbed is paved in advance. There is a small iron plant next to the iron ore, and production has started.

This small iron factory is currently working overtime to produce railway tracks. The craftsmen turned on the blast furnace, poured out the scorching iron, and poured it into the mold. After the mold cooled, they obtained the rails cast by iron. The cross-section of the rails was I-shaped. I-shaped iron ore in this shape could withstand the heavy weight of the mine truck.

Sleepers with a length of about one meter and four were laid on the roadbed, and then the coolies panted and carried the rails with a length of about twelve meters and placed them on the sleepers. The rule between the two rails was one meter. In the future, this is a meter-gauge railway.

After the rails were placed on the sleepers, workers came up and nailed the nails into the sleepers with a hammer. The nails just stuck the rails. On each sleeper, a nail was nailed into each rail on both sides of each rail, so that the rails and the sleepers were firmly fixed, and the cargo line that could withstand the traction of steam locomotives in the future drove by at high speed.

However, the turning radius of this railway is only 250 meters, so the speed will not be too fast when the train is opened in the future.

This meter-rail mining railway does not have wooden handles for easy walking on the sleepers between the two tracks like the horse-drawn cart tracks in Nanjing. Because they do not need to be pulled by horses, they are human-powered carts, and coolies push the carts, so there is no need to lay wooden handles between the sleepers. In the future, coolies will know how to walk on the sleepers.

After the small iron plant in Shilu Iron Mine produced the rails, while the workers began to lay the tracks, the iron plant began to produce the wheels of the mine car. The craftsmen poured the iron into the mold, and after cooling, they opened the mold and cast iron wheels. The wheels were cast, but the wheel hoops had to be built separately.

The wheel clamp is a component that frictions the wheels and rails and needs to be relatively firm. Therefore, the wheel clamp is created separately. After the construction is completed, the wheel clamp is heated according to the principle of thermal expansion and contraction, and the expanded wheel clamp is put on the wheel. After cooling down, the wheel clamp is cooled down and tightened, and it is firmly placed on the wheel.

The wheels, axles, chassis and bogies of the minecart are all made of iron. The craftsmen install the bearings on the axles, then install the axles on the bogies through the bearings, and then fix the wheels on the axles.

After the two bogies with only one pair of wheels were completed, the craftsmen installed cast iron chassis on the two bogies, and then nailed them into carriages with wooden boards on them.

The mine car was built directly on the railway tracks. After a mine car was built, the workers pushed the mine car out of the workshop.

The empty minerals are very easy to push, and a person can easily push the mine cart to run. Then, the workers pushed the mine cart to the pile of stones filled with iron ore and loaded the iron ore into the car.

The mine cart filled with iron ore was very heavy. When the workers started pushing the car, they felt very hard and took a long time to push the car. However, after the car started moving, they easily slid forward on the rails, almost no effort was needed.

"You come with us and I will teach you how to use this kind of car." A craftsman said to the coolies.

Most of the roads from the Shilu Iron Mine Area to the docks downstream of the Shilu River are downhill. After the craftsmen have been advancing for a while, they jumped into the car and stood behind them, allowing the mine car to slide on their own.

The coolies saw the craftsmen jump into the car, and they also jumped into the car.

The mine car was sliding down the slope, and the speed was getting faster and faster. At this time, the coolie, who was standing behind the car, was so scared that his face turned pale: "The car is too fast, what should I do if I can't stop for a while? Didn't I just hit it?"

The craftsman smiled and turned something like a disc on the car. The craftsman turned it around gently. It was strange that the mine car that was speeding down the slope slowly slowed down.

"This is the brake. If the speed is too fast, the speed will be slower after one turn. When the car is about to reach the destination, if you turn two turns, the car will stop." The craftsman said. After that, he loosened the brake a little.

The mine truck slid to the dock and was about to reach the end of the railway. The craftsman turned the brakes twice, and the mine truck wheels made a sharp metal friction sound. After a while, the mine truck stopped.

Under the command of craftsmen, the coolies moved the ore to the dock.

After writing down the ore, the craftsmen and coolies pushed the mine cart back together. Most of the roads back to the mine were uphill, but since the mine cart was empty, the coolies did not take too much effort to push the cart uphill, so they could easily push the cart back alone.
Chapter completed!