1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 76 Water-Powered Forging Hammer
Starting with the simplest hydraulic forging hammer, Peng Gang drew a diagram of a hydraulic forging hammer that could be manufactured with current material and technological capabilities.

The water turbine system is a five-meter-diameter hardwood gear (hardwood is used temporarily for the time being, but it may be replaced with a cast iron gear in the future), which is driven to rotate by water flow.

The transmission mechanism consists of a crank and a camshaft, which converts the rotational motion of the water wheel into the vertical reciprocating motion of the hammer.

The hammer device is a wrought iron hammer weighing around 400 pounds, which adjusts the hammering frequency from ten to thirty times per minute through mechanical linkage.

The anvil and base of the hydraulic forging hammer are giant cast iron anvils fixed to the ground to withstand the reaction force of the hammer blows.

The biggest challenge in hydraulic forging hammers is the bronze bearings required for the transmission mechanism, but copper bushings can be used as a temporary substitute.

In Guangxi, some waterwheels, millstones, and other devices have copper bushings; these craftsmen can still manage to make these primitive sliding bearings.

The precision and durability of copper bushings are far lower than those of bronze bearings.

I don't know if the British have any machinery factories in Hong Kong. If they do, those factories could help them solve many of their current bottlenecks.

Qin the carpenter's full name was Qin Yisen. He was originally a carpenter serving as a garrison soldier in Bitan.

Because he had been employed by Peng Gang for a long time, Peng Gang knew Qin Yisen.

Although Qin Yisen had the shortcomings of being timid and cowardly like the Green Standard Army soldiers, he was honest, reliable, and kind-hearted. They had also been through life-and-death trials together, so he was a trustworthy person.

Moreover, Qin Yisen's carpentry skills are indeed excellent; it would be difficult to find a carpenter with more exquisite skills than Qin Yisen in the Pingzai Mountain area.

Peng Gang then spent a lot of money to poach Qin Yisen from Xie Bin and put him in charge of the eight blacksmiths and five carpenters under his command.

Peng Gang instructed Qin Yisen to gather all the blacksmiths and carpenters together and tell them that there was a new big job for them to do.

Peng Gang valued these craftsmen highly, and specially allocated a piece of land around the camp for them to build houses to settle these thirteen craftsmen. At the same time, he also put them under military management.

These craftsmen initially resented Peng Gang for disciplining them as if he were his own trainees.

However, Peng Gang provided each of them with one shi of rice and two liang and five qian of silver per month, which was better than the treatment of the craftsmen in the prefectural city, so they accepted Peng Gang's request.

"Chairman, everyone is here. What are your instructions?"

Qin Yisen has changed his address for Peng Gang from "boss" to "group leader," and his attitude towards Peng Gang is now more respectful than before.

"Gentlemen, can you make this water-powered forging hammer?" Peng Gang handed the completed blueprints of the water-powered forging hammer to the craftsmen for review.

Qin Yisen had been working as a carpenter for Peng Gang for almost a year, and he was used to Peng Gang's meticulously drawn blueprints.

The new craftsmen were seeing Peng Gang's drawings for the first time, and they were all amazed, finding it hard to believe that a young scholar who had studied the Four Books and Five Classics could create such exquisite drawings.

“Commander Peng, your drawing is even better than that of Westerners,” Tang Zheng said, staring intently at the drawing.

Tang Zheng was a fugitive craftsman from the Guangdong Ordnance Bureau whom Feng Yunshan had recruited for him.

The firearms and gunpowder used by the Eight Banners and Green Standard Army in the Guangdong and Guangxi regions were mainly supplied by the Guangdong Arsenal and Gunpowder Bureau in Guangzhou and the Guangxi Arsenal in Guilin.

Guangxi has a relatively scarce saltpeter resource and no dedicated gunpowder bureau. Gunpowder is mostly supplied by Guangdong and manufactured by scattered gunpowder workshops within the province.

The Guangxi Ordnance Bureau in Guilin was far inferior to the Guangdong Ordnance Bureau in Guangzhou in terms of technology and output. The firearms it produced could not meet the needs of the Green Standard Army in the three towns of Guangxi and often had to be transferred from Guangdong.

The mountain-splitting cannon that Peng Gang bought from Huang Zhenyue was produced by the Guangdong Ordnance Bureau in Guangzhou, not the Guangxi Ordnance Bureau in Guilin.

It is truly a pleasure to be friends with such an honest and kind person as Feng Yunshan. He was even willing to part with such a precious person as Feng Yunshan and give him to Peng Gang.

"Did the Guangdong Ordnance Bureau ever employ Western craftsmen?" Upon hearing this, Peng Gang couldn't help but glance at Tang Zheng again.

"No, when Imperial Commissioner Lin was in charge of military affairs in Guangdong, he purchased more than two hundred Western cannons from foreign merchants in Macau and obtained the blueprints. I was working at the Ordnance Bureau in Guangzhou at that time and was fortunate enough to see them," Tang Zheng recalled.

"Imperial Envoy Lin also ordered the Ordnance Bureau to imitate the Westerners' exploding shells and self-propelled muskets. Although the exploding shells could not be imitated at the time, two prototype self-propelled muskets were made. Unfortunately, Imperial Envoy Lin was transferred away not long after, and the matter of imitating the Westerners' exploding shells and self-propelled muskets had to be hastily ended and left unresolved."

"Can you make a self-propelled musket?" Peng Gang's eyes lit up.

The Imperial Envoy Lin mentioned by Tang Zheng is Lin Zexu.

During his time overseeing the ban on opium in Guangzhou, Lin Zexu also rectified military affairs in Guangdong.

They purchased over two hundred cannons, both British and Portuguese, from Portuguese merchants in Macau and deployed them at the Humen Fortress. They also bought two Western merchant ships and converted them into warships to enhance the fighting power of the Guangdong navy.

Unfortunately, Lin Zexu only actually presided over the defense of Guangdong for a little over a year before Emperor Daoguang exiled him to Yili, Xinjiang, to serve as atonement for his sins.

"The task of replicating Western self-propelled flintlock guns was done by experienced craftsmen. I was too young to participate at the time," Tang Zheng said, shaking his head with great regret.

Peng Gang couldn't help but sigh softly. In the end, the person left and the policy ended, leaving no fruit behind.

Putting aside his regret, Peng Gang asked the craftsmen if they could work together to build the water-powered forging hammer and how long it would take.

Thirteen craftsmen discussed the blueprints for nearly an hour before finally reaching a consensus that they could build it as long as the materials were ready.

If the gears were made of hardwood, it would take the five carpenters a month to make them.

To make a usable cast iron gear, a sand mold must first be made and cast, and each tooth must be manually trimmed. It would take the eight blacksmiths at least five months to make one cast iron gear, and even then, they could not guarantee whether it would be up to standard and usable.

Without a second thought, Peng Gang chose to make hardwood gears first.

He also pointed to the blacksmiths forging gun barrels for him, a process that would take at least five months, just to make a cast iron gear. Although cast iron gears are more durable, Peng Gang thought it wasn't worth it.

Anyway, he only planned to use this hydraulic forging hammer for a little over two years, so the first thing to consider was whether he had it or not, not how durable it was.

As for the hammer and anvil, the eight blacksmiths said they could forge them in a month and a half by taking turns.

Peng Gang could accept a construction period of one and a half months.

After the hardwood gears are made, they need to be manually filed to correct gear meshing errors. This process will definitely require repeated disassembly and adjustment, and it is initially estimated that this process will take two months.

In other words, after preparing enough materials, it would take three and a half months to make a hydraulic forging hammer.

Three and a half months is not short, but it is within Peng Gang's acceptable range.

Peng Gang asked the craftsmen to name the materials they needed, and he sent people to Guiping City and Jiangkou Market to purchase them.

There is no shortage of hardwood in the vicinity; the main material to be purchased is wrought iron.

Foshan was the cheapest place for wrought iron in the Guangdong and Guangxi regions. At the end of the Daoguang era, due to the outflow of silver, silver was expensive and money was cheap. One tael of silver could buy 130 catties of wrought iron.

The price of wrought iron in Jiangkouwei and Guipingcheng was higher than in Foshan; one tael of silver could only buy eighty catties of wrought iron.

Although it's a bit pricey, Peng Gang can still afford it.

Peng Gang summoned Xiao Guoda, who was supervising the marching drills, and asked Xiao Guoda to go to Jiangkouwei and Guiping City to purchase wrought iron.

After the five carpenters took Peng Gang's drawings and confirmed the dimensions of the hardwood gears with him, they went into the mountains to find suitable wood, led by Qin Yisen.

Forging hammerheads and anvils requires over a thousand kilograms of wrought iron. Before Xiao Guoda returned, these blacksmiths certainly wouldn't have been able to forge hammerheads and anvils.

Peng Gang certainly wouldn't let the eight blacksmiths just sit idle.

He didn't have over a thousand kilograms of wrought iron, but he did have two or three hundred kilograms on hand.
(End of this chapter)