Struggle in the Steam Age

There is a huge difference between planning and actually doing many things in the world, especially when the planner and the manipulator are not the same person.

According to the engineer who led Lawrence, there has been a lot of chaos in the entire area since the mine was opened.

For example, the first batch of steam-powered machinery was sent over last year, but the problem is that those machines that were transported from a local mine did not have any targeted cold-proof design at all.

As a result, shortly after the start-up, a series of problems such as burst water pipes, insufficient heating of the boiler, and even cracks in the steel appeared. In the end, they had to trouble them to pull those broken machines back.

After all, the entire Briton has no experience in mining in such alpine areas, although many colonies in this country also have coal mines. But those coal mines are more located in tropical or temperate zones, so they naturally lack experience and equipment in this area.

However, due to profit reasons, it was impossible for Briton's shareholders to buy equipment from Rurik Kingdom, which is good at building various projects in alpine regions. As a result, the situation naturally became what it is now.

"What are those things?" Just as everyone was complaining about those idle guys sitting in Britton's luxurious office, Lawrence discovered a very interesting thing.

And in the direction of Lawrence's finger, some people were pouring piles of black things into a big pit one by one, looking like they were throwing away garbage.

"Those should be the broken coal that appeared when the coal mine was mined." The engineer glanced at it and said.

"Our coal mine mainly uses blasting and manual mining, so that when a large amount of coal is produced, it will also produce a large amount of pulverized coal. But because pulverized coal not only cannot be sold at a high price, it is also dangerous—"

The Federation or the mainland of the Old Continent, because the coal mines are produced and consumed very close to each other. So these powdered coals will also be utilized.

For example, the raw materials used to produce gas in those gas plants are often these cheap powdered coals, and the steam engines in some small factories will also use some less-than-usable but cheap enough fuels.

But on this desolate island, neither of the above methods of using powdered coal makes sense. Because there are too few people, there is no gas generating station on this island that can only be found in modern cities.

And because of the same reason, the demand for steam coal in this area is almost zero, and so many powdered coal mines cannot be consumed at all.

As for shipping this stuff out it's not a good idea. The transportation volume of the northern route itself is limited, so for this route, the transportation of high-quality anthracite is already the lower limit of profit.

For those cargo ships, they will try their best to transport more valuable cargo in the transport tonnage, instead of these pulverized coal that are at most used as a head in the country.

"What's worse is that once these powdered coals accumulate too much, they will burn themselves. So we often screen out the powdered coals and small coals that cannot be sold at the coal mine side, and then put them Throw them all over here."

After the engineer found out that Lawrence was curious about these things, he took him to the big pit over there, and introduced it at the same time. "There are some locals who will drag some sledges back to burn when there is snow on one side. Otherwise, these things are thrown here."

"To be honest, these things are some kind of fuel. It's a waste to throw them away in this cold place." Looking at the three or four people below who were loading loose coal into the sled partition with shovels, Lawrence sighed softly.

Because there are only very few coal mines on New Sauer Island, most of the fuel on the island needs to be imported, so after seeing this kind of waste of fuel, I will naturally feel a pity in my heart.

"It's a bit wasteful, but there is no alternative plan." The coal mine engineer also said helplessly.

"In fact, the demand for these fuels in this area is not large because of the relatively low temperature, but it is not very small. But the problem is that it is not easy to transport these loose coals. If the freight is added, it is difficult for local people to accept. .”

"I read the report before, and it seems that you have done something in this regard to minimize the waste of raw materials." Viscount Surrey looked at the engineer and said

. "The report says you seem to have made some breakthroughs in this—"

"We can make this kind of thing into a kind of artificial coal now." The engineer nodded and said, and then led them to a building not far from the mine pit, which was emitting gray smoke from the chimney. In a small building on the second floor.

"This is our collective kitchen. It is obviously neither suitable nor safe for workers to cook for themselves."

The engineer pointed to the burning boiler furnace inside and said. "And the new products we developed before are put in here as fuel for these boilers."

"Aren't you burning coal in your furnace? You can't see any difference from the past except that the volume of ordinary coal is more uniform." After looking through the furnace door that was opened because it was being reloaded, Viscount Surrey looked a little asked puzzled.

Because in his eyes, those hearths were full of walnut-sized lumps that turned red due to burning. It doesn't look much different from the raw coal that was burned directly in the past.

"No, my viscount, these things are not crushed raw coal." The engineer shook his head and said.

Then he took out a piece of fuel from the pile of fuel next to him and walked out of the room, and then showed Lawrence and the others what the new type of fuel he was talking about was in the sunlight.

"This is indeed not raw coal." Taking advantage of the sunlight outside, they discovered that the shape of the walnut-sized piece of fuel in the engineer's hand was actually a spherical shape that was obviously not naturally formed.

After careful observation, they found that the black sphere had a black and bright appearance, but the surface was not very smooth.

At the same time, after holding it in his hand and weighing it, Lawrence realized that the density of this thing is lower than that of coal mines, so it should not be carved into the current shape of raw coal.

"This is a coal mine that we artificially made using pulverized coal." After Lawrence and the others had a close-up experience of these briquettes, the engineer said quite proudly.

"This artificial coal can be formed by sticking a part of coal powder and cinder together with soil and drying it. Although it is not qualified for steam coal, it is still competent for daily fuel."

"But I think this thing should have a rather unpleasant smell after it's burnt." Looking at the briquettes, Lawrence immediately searched for something related to this thing from his memory, and then asked.

"And if I'm not wrong, your boiler may need to be shut down for cleaning in a day or two."

"Have you ever used this kind of thing?" The engineer asked with wide eyes after hearing what Lawrence said.

"Why do you ask that?" Lawrence asked, looking at the engineer.

"Because the two places you just mentioned are the biggest flaws of this kind of artificial coal." The engineer said while holding up the coal ball in his hand.

"On the one hand, the smell on this thing will contaminate all the things heated by it. For example, if you eat it carefully in the meals and soups, you can taste a rather bad smell of coal."

"On the other hand, this kind of artificial coal mine will produce a lot of ash after burning, instead of most of them being large pieces of residue after burning raw coal."

"In this way, not only all kinds of broken coal particles will fly everywhere, making all places dirty, but also easy to form a thick carbon ash layer in the boiler. Therefore, it is always necessary to use it every few days A lot of time and effort was spent cleaning it up."