Pullwheels look simple, but for blacksmiths of this era, it is a great test. Pullwheel grooves are a complex configuration for blacksmiths and are not something that ordinary blacksmiths can deal with.

In theory, casting with cast iron is the easiest way, but after trying to cast, Mao Geng felt a little sad about the cast iron parts that were cast. The cast iron of this era was all white-mouthed cast iron, and the quality of the cast iron produced by Fujia was slightly better, and it still belonged to white-mouthed cast iron. The castings cast by white-mouthed cast iron were too brittle. The stress-bearing moving parts like pulleys are also related to personal safety. According to Mao Geng's standards, there must be sufficient safety margin. It is better to kill chickens and use a ox knife, and never use cast iron to make up for the numbers.

These four blacksmiths could not understand the drawings, so Mao Geng had to patiently gesture the pulley he was going to build. After thinking for a long time, Huang Wangcai finally started to do it first, but Huang Wangcai had limited skills and finally dug out the hole in the middle and then made the pulley groove.

Li Song believed that he was the most skilled blacksmith in the local area. He tried to make a groove on the iron billet that Huang Wangcai had just forged, and soon he could only shake his head. Even Li Song himself could do nothing, so Li Song believed that it was obvious that people here would never be able to create such complex iron parts. So Li Song claimed that to build such a round wheel with grooves, he was afraid that he would have to hire a brilliant blacksmith from Lin'an to complete it.

Qu Deer's ability is even more than Huang Wangcai, so he naturally agreed with Li Song's statement. For him, it was too difficult to make this pulley. Not only was the complex shape, it also required a very high requirement. The inner hole and pulley groove also required a very round one. Qu Deer was quite self-aware that this job was not something he could do.

Mao Geng felt helpless. There was no industrial foundation in this era. It seemed that we had to put on the lathe as soon as possible. Crucible steelmaking must be steadily done. At least we could make high-carbon steel that could be used as a turning tool. In addition, the material of pig iron must be improved to meet the casting requirements. Alas! The industrialization of the Song Dynasty has a long way to go.

Mao Geng kept paying attention to Fan Biaoyong, who was still bruised on his face, but this guy had no movement, neither spoke nor acted, as if he was thinking about something, but he seemed to retreat. Mao Geng thought that this little blacksmith, who was known as Bianliang, was at this level, and it seemed that the blacksmith in the capital of the Great Song Dynasty, seemed to be just like this. It can be seen that the limitations of the times cannot be underestimated.

Mao Geng was very disappointed, but he was thinking of a solution, maybe he had to use pig iron castings. It is said that white-mouth cast iron can greatly improve the material after high-temperature annealing. At most, the pulley can be made thicker and then improved the material after annealing. But high-temperature annealing also requires repeated experiments to find out. Alas! Nowadays, everything has to be explored from the beginning. I really don’t know how much effort it takes to promote the industrialization of the Song Dynasty!

At this time, Fan Biaoyong mustered up the courage to speak:

"Mr. Mao, I have an idea, I don't know if it's OK?"

In despair, Mao Geng suddenly heard Fan Biaoyong say that he had an idea, and was given a heart-boosting injection, and immediately asked:

"Oh, what do you think, just talk about it."

Fan Biaoyong touched his head and said with some difficulty:

"When my master makes difficult iron parts, he sometimes makes them separately, and then puts the two pieces together in the furnace and burns them red, then takes them out at the same time, and makes them together while they are hot. The master once said that this is the most difficult welding technique, but unfortunately the boy has not learned this technique. The boy is very ashamed! Mr. Mao, maybe the welding technique my master uses can be created."

Fan Biaoyong was actually talking about his father, but in order to get involved in the camp of the Reincarnated Guest, he formed a single person to go south. At this time, he could only call his father a master.

When Mao Geng heard this, he was overjoyed and patted Fan Biaoyong on the shoulder, thinking to himself why I didn’t remember this section! He actually forgot such a simple thing. After Fan Biaoyong reminded him, Mao Geng realized that the wise blacksmiths of this era also knew how to decompose forging and re-welding. Well, Fan Biaoyong’s master had such skills. He was worthy of being a blacksmith who lived in Bianliang. He was indeed a bit good! As for whether Fan Biaoyong had learned advanced forging skills in welding, it was not important. Mao Geng understood the principles and could teach these so-called advanced welding forging skills of the Song Dynasty.

Mao Geng sought the opinions of the four blacksmiths and saw whether it was decomposed into three or two pieces. If it was three pieces, it could be decomposed into two rings and a central cylinder. If it was decomposed into two pieces, it would be a ring and a complex circle with holes. Finally, the four Song Dynasty blacksmiths felt that they were not sure about making the complex configuration. For the sake of forging, it would be decomposed into three pieces, so they agreed to decomposed into one central cylinder and two identical rings. Mao Geng patiently drew the decomposition pattern and explained in detail the configuration of the decomposition until Li Song and Fan Biaoyong understood. Mao Geng didn't care about the other two guys Huang Wangcai and Qu Deer. Anyway, these two fools didn't understand what he said, so he directly sent them as assistants to Li Song and Fan Biaoyong. Huang Wangcai assisted Li Song in making the central cylinder, while Qu Deer assisted Fan Biaoyong to be responsible for making the ring.

After decomposition, the creation of the decomposition part is much simpler. With Mao Geng's on-site guidance, half an hour later, the decomposition part is completed. After the three decomposition parts are heated to the forging temperature in the furnace at the same time, two rings are put on the central cylinder and forged while it is hot. The three decomposition parts are welded together and a rough pulley is made.

With Mao Geng's breakdown picture and on-site guidance, he opened the window paper. Four Song blacksmiths then used Li Song's two sets of ironwork, cooperated with tacit understanding, and ding dangdang. After one day, he successfully made six pulleys.

Although Mao Geng has been watching the construction, the accuracy of these pulleys is really unreliable given that they are hand-made. For example, although the inner hole is made of a core rod, the core rod is also made by hand, so the roundness and cylindricality of the inner hole are very unreliable. However, this is the level of this era, and it is already commendable to be able to make it like this.

Fortunately, Mao Geng borrowed the design of later sliding bearings. According to Mao Geng's design, an antimony-doped bronze alloy bushing was cast into the inner hole of the iron pulley. This bushing is equivalent to the bearing shell of the sliding bearing.

After casting the bronze bushing, the inner hole is then equipped with a steel turning tool with a wooden lathe, and a oil groove is made, which has the oil storage function of sliding bearings. Well, this kind of pulley is already the most precise and powerful moving part of this era. Mao Geng believes that they are competent for dragging ships on Zijiang.

It took five days before that the water wheel installed on Zishui has been completed. The wooden shaft of the water wheel is also covered with semicircular bronze bearing shells, which can flexibly rotate in the two thick cast iron bearing seats in the front and rear. This is probably the most luxurious water wheel in history.

The blades of the water wheel are also different from traditional water wheels. The blades are slightly sloped, and their purpose is of course to ensure the consistency of power.

A thick wooden gear is installed behind the rear bearing seat of the water wheel. Through this pair of gear transmission, the water wheel can drive the hoist to rotate. The hydraulic mechanisms of the Song people actually use mechanisms that are suspected of gears to drive, but the gears that are suspected of are very simple. In other words, it is just an intermittent transmission - it is better to call intermittent throttling.

The tooth shape of the wooden gears designed by Mao Geng is much more particular. The teeth of the two gears are linked together. Although they have not yet reached the point of being tightly fitted, they are already enough to call it precise transmission.

The winch also uses a sliding bearing design, and a semi-circular copper sleeve is also placed on the wooden shaft. According to Mao Geng's meaning, it is best to use an iron shaft. However, the iron shaft is not so easy to build and is even more difficult to process, so I have to settle for the second best, and I still have to use a wooden shaft.

Nowadays, as long as the pulley set of towed ships is installed, a hydraulic tug system will be completed.

In order to pursue the perfect stress of the towing ship, a triangular beam extends from the shore to the sky above the river.

After another day of installation, not only the pulleys used to drag the ship on the front end of the beam, but also the guided pulley sets were installed together.

Based on the principle of sailing on the right side, this hydraulic towing system is installed on the right side of the countercurrent direction. It is not an exaggeration to describe the tall water wheel as "stand up". The side of the water wheel is a hoist with a clutch. A dozen more rounds upstream is a pulley that extends to the river surface, dragging a thick rope from the pulley. One end of the rope with a hook pulls a green float, which floats downstream under the impact of the water flow. The countercurrent boat can see the green float floating on the water surface at a glance.

Compared with this hydraulic drag system, the downstream deceleration system on the left is much simpler. There is also a beam that extends out of the river surface, but the entire system does not have a towering water wheel. Only a reduction hoist is installed next to the beam, which looks far less than the hydraulic mechanism on the right bank.

Mao Geng calculated that the production cost of these two systems built by the left and right sides of the Taiwan Strait exceeded 190 guan, which did not count the wages. If the wages were calculated, it would probably be able to calculate the production cost of three or four hundred guan.

Mao Geng looked at the project led by himself. Although it was not considered a super project, in terms of Zishui, it was already a unique move, and it can be said to be a pioneering move in the history of Zishui shipping.

However, this is not the dangerous shoal with the most rapid current. Mao Geng was thinking that the next dangerous shoal with the most rapid current and the largest drop would be to build a Ferris wheel similar to the later Ferris wheel. Haha, when he came to the Southern Song Dynasty, it seems that he would continue to challenge the super projects of this era.
Chapter completed!