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Matbat

Member

Registered: 2018-04-23

Posts: 100

Glaring problem of cars

Right now even trucks are sparse, every extra engine a town has goes into them and they get taken seldom to be seen again.

The biggest time sink in the engine making process is surprisingly not the engine making itself, but the time it takes to refine all the raw iron into steel.

To refine the three stacks of iron it takes to make an engine from one person near maximum efficiency can take ten to fifteen minutes (depending if you need to wait for charcoal or not) or more purely due to the amount of movement it takes to  move everything (raw iron to furnace, dropping tongs, hitting iron bloom, grabbing tongs, wrought iron to stack, wrought iron to bowl, charcoal from stack to ground to bowl, plate to bowl, bowl to furnace to ground, stacking plate, stacking steel, the moving steel nearer to newcomen).

If we are getting industrial technology (sprinklers, plows, diesel oil pumps) why are we still refining steel so primitively (clay bowl in a adobe furnace)?

Cogito

Member

Registered: 2020-03-09

Posts: 192

Re: Glaring problem of cars

I agree, as one person alone it is hard to smelt much iron.

With a bit of prep even two people working together can easily smelt 10-12 iron (~ 2 stacks) in one firing. With three people I've managed 3+ stacks.

My method uses one flat rock, one person with tongs producing the blooms onto the rock, one person hitting the bloom with a stone, and another person moving the wrought iron onto new stacks.

Hitting the bloom and moving the wrought iron can be done by one person, but it's slower.

The most important thing is the set up. Get 3 stacks of iron within easy reach by the tongs weilder.

Clear lots of space for the wrought iron stacks.

Make sure people don't stand on top of the workspace, and don't try and put down all the flat rocks!

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An engine is what, 15-16 iron. That's two firings for the wrought iron, two for the steel, and then another 20 messing around with the newcommen tools.

Work with people, prepare your workspace, and you'll find it much faster.