Chapter 18

Hugo van Groeningen sat on a small stool in the foundry's cannon casting workshop, silently organizing his tools. François, a cannon maker from Lausanne who had previously made cannons for Bavaria, was experienced and was the undisputed leader of their group, a position also acknowledged by the "Tartan people."

François was rated as a third-level worker by the "Tartan people" factory manager, earning a monthly salary of 30 reals; while Hugo, the young man from Groningen, was only a first-level worker, earning a mere 5 reals per month, of which only 4 reals remained after deducting the monthly food expenses.

Apart from the two of them, there were over 20 others in the cannon casting workshop. However, they were all inexperienced novices. Apart from a few "Tartan people" who were relatively smart, the other laborers were clumsy and always caused trouble.

To be honest, Hugo had a good impression of those few "Tartan people." At least they were polite and seemed to have some knowledge, often proposing some unconventional questions and ideas.

The workshop had successfully cast four long-barreled cannons, which performed well and were much lighter than cast-iron cannons. However, it was regrettable that they had not just cast these four cannons but had cast a total of eight. Clearly, the other four did not meet the standards.

Actually, this success rate was acceptable for a group of mostly novice cannon makers, but the "Tartan people" did not see it that way. They were extremely disappointed with the result, and one of their leaders, surnamed Ma, decisively stopped the supply of steel to the workshop and threatened to keep it closed until the low success rate was resolved.

Thus, Hugo was idle for a while, but such days did not last long. Soon, the "Tartan people" returned. During this time, they had studied the four不合格的火炮. Three of these four cannons had exploded or developed cracks during the loading test, and one had a bent barrel due to a cooling issue.

The bent barrel gave the "Tartan people" an idea. After discussion, they concluded that this was due to uneven cooling between the inner and outer walls of the barrel, causing invisible cracks in the inner wall.

Frankly, Hugo thought this conclusion was reasonable. When a steel mold is used to cast a cannon barrel, the outer wall cools faster than the inner wall because the outer wall has a larger surface area and is exposed to air, which cools more quickly. This naturally leads to the inner wall cooling more slowly, causing cracks. When the inner wall has cracks, the cannon will explode.

The larger the caliber, the more likely this problem occurs, as the larger the caliber, the greater the difference in surface area between the inner and outer walls, and the greater the difference in cooling rates, making it easier for cracks to form. Thinking about this, Hugo felt a sudden clarity. No wonder the larger the caliber, the lower the success rate, and some large-caliber cannons cannot be successfully cast at all. This is the reason.

Today, four new people arrived at the cannon casting workshop, new cannon makers recruited by the "Tartan people." Hugo, based on his rudimentary Chinese learned at night school, knew they were Swedes.

Damn Swedes! Hugo muttered to himself.

The eight "Tartan people" who usually participated in the casting were all present, along with a "Tartan leader" who had visited a few times before. After a brief discussion, they decided to offer a 500-real reward to anyone who could propose a method to accelerate the cooling of the inner wall of the cannon barrel. They promised that once the method was proven effective and reliable, the reward would be immediately paid, and the person's job title would be promoted by one level.

This condition made Hugo somewhat tempted, and he began to think seriously about a solution.

Wang Qianian was somewhat frustrated. How come there were so few people among the 568 who understood various industrial manufacturing processes? In the novels he used to read online, the protagonists, after time-traveling, seemed to turn into encyclopedias, knowing and excelling in everything. Making guns and cannons was nothing; they could even build aircraft carriers and missiles. It was truly a case of comparing goods and finding them wanting, and comparing people and finding them dead! The eight time-travelers in the cannon casting workshop had also cast a few cannons with these Europeans, but after a night of discussion, they had not come up with any good ideas.

Just as Wang Qianian was feeling frustrated, he suddenly saw a tall, red-haired foreigner stand up in the workshop.

It's him! Hugo van Groeningen, the cannon maker from the Netherlands. Wang Qianian immediately remembered him; it was impossible to forget, as he was one of the only two certified cannon makers among the time-travelers.

Could he have a solution? This thought crossed Wang Qianian's mind.

"Sir, I... I think I have... a method," Hugo stammered in Chinese. When he realized he couldn't express himself accurately in Chinese, he switched to English. His mother was English, so he spoke fluent English, and he knew that many of the "Tartan people" spoke English.

"Sir, I think we can use water or oil to cool the inner wall of the cannon barrel," Hugo said. "As is well known, water cooling is much more efficient than air cooling. Since the inner wall cools more slowly than the outer wall, can we use a high-efficiency cooling medium to accelerate this process? For example, water or oil."

"Hmm?" Wang Qianian's eyes suddenly lit up. "That's a method."

"Pour water into the cannon barrel?" Wu Jun, a time-traveler and a trained cannon maker, asked. He was a key member of the executive committee.

"No, not like that. That would cause the barrel to crack," Hugo explained, his thoughts becoming clearer. "We can make the inner mold hollow, leaving a cooling chamber inside. When the red-hot inner wall of the barrel comes into full contact with the inner mold, the heat is transferred to the inner mold. At this point, we can inject water into the chamber, which will flow out through another opening, taking the heat with it. This way, continuous water injection and outflow can achieve cyclic cooling. Even better, this process is controllable. We can control the cooling rate by adjusting the flow of cooling water, as too rapid cooling of the inner wall can still cause problems."

"This method is good!" Wang Qianian slapped his thigh and stood up, excited. "Wu, I think this method is reliable! Why don't we give it a try?"

"I think it's a good idea," Wu Jun nodded. "We shouldn't delay. Let's cast a cannon as soon as possible to test the effect. And we need to figure out the appropriate flow rate of the cooling water."

"Alright, I'll go find Ma Jia," Wang Qianian said. "We need to see when his crucible is ready and get some steel water as soon as possible. Damn, this guy is really stingy, cutting off our supply for a whole month."

***

Three days later, the test firing ground was crowded with people.

Many had come to see the results of the new casting process. Not only did Wang Qianian and Ma Jia come, but Peng Zhicheng from the army also arrived, as he was also very interested in cannons.

The workshop was testing a 24-pounder this time.

This was a 24-pound long-barreled cannon with a caliber of 18. Due to the use of high-quality high-carbon steel, the entire cannon, including the carriage, weighed only about 1.5 tons. After the barrel was cast, the inner wall was cooled using water, significantly increasing the efficiency.

Actually, the time-travelers had cast more than one cannon. Another 18-pounder had to be scrapped because the inner wall cooling rate was not controlled properly, causing cracks.

The eight members of the cannon crew were all time-travelers selected from the security team. They had undergone multiple live-fire training sessions and were relatively skilled.

The gunners first loaded a 4-pound reduced charge into the barrel, as this was a test firing, and no projectile was loaded.

After all preparations were complete, Wang Qianian calmed down and signaled that the firing could begin. The crew members pulled the long fuse outside the cannon and retreated to a safe distance, then lit the fuse.

A loud "boom" echoed, and smoke filled the air. Wang Qianian looked around and felt relieved; at least the barrel did not explode on the spot!

The gunners quickly gathered around, cleared the barrel, and checked for any cracks.

Everything was fine! The gun captain gave a thumbs-up to Wang Qianian.

The standard charge for a 24-pounder is 6 pounds. This was just the first test. Next, the gunners would load a 6-pound standard charge to test the performance.

The crew members skillfully cleared the barrel, loaded the standard charge, retreated to a distance, and lit the fuse, firing the cannon.

The 24-pounder roared again. Without waiting for Wang Qianian's signal, the crew members rushed forward through the thick smoke to check the barrel.

No problems! The gun captain gave the same thumbs-up as before.

The audience began to cheer, and Wang Qianian and Peng Zhicheng beamed with smiles.

"Load 8 pounds of powder!" Wang Qianian waved his hand confidently. "Let's test the performance with a heavy charge."

The gunners followed his instructions, repeating the previous steps but this time using an 8-pound heavy charge.

"Boom!" The 24-pounder fired again, remaining steady.

The gun captain ran over and carefully inspected the barrel for ten minutes before shouting, "No cracks!"

"Yay!" Wang Qianian and Peng Zhicheng high-fived, and Ma Jia also smiled broadly.

The test firing results perfectly proved that the inner mold water cooling method during casting was successful and effective. The next step for the time-travelers was to cast more cannons and verify if the success rate had indeed improved to the desired level.

Hugo van Groeningen stood behind Wang Qianian with a smile, while François and the four new Swedish cannon makers looked at him enviously.

"Ha." Hugo chuckled to himself, knowing that his future was now bright.