northernbook Chapter 500: 497 Forging Iron
Chapter 500: 497 Forging Iron
Chapter 500: Chapter 497 Forging Iron
“Is this iron?”
“It’s iron!”
“It’s really iron!”
“Holy shit, it worked, it really worked! Bi Fang has smelted iron!”
Cheers erupted from the crowd in the first venue.
Some even set off fireworks on the spot, with ribbons falling from the sky and landing on everyone’s heads.
“It worked!”
“Holy shit, where did these fireworks come from?”
“Thirty-six yuan each, the little shop next door sells them, they call it a physical reward…”
[This is a miracle!]
[Iron!!!!]
[So much charcoal, that’s a lot of lamb skewers, right?]
[The temperature must be ridiculously high!]
Bi Fang used a long wooden stick to clamp the ingot of iron, but it seemed to be firmly stuck at the bottom. Left with no choice, he had to take it out along with the furnace bridge.
The moment the furnace bridge emerged from the land, the camera zoomed in quickly. On top of the furnace bridge, the black lump of iron was uneven. Many parts were still glowing red, flickering like the metal was breathing.
He hit it hard with a stone, and it almost visibly deformed, a sign that it was near melting…
Amazing.
Audiences both domestic and international were left in awe.
Before Bi Fang, no one had been able to venture alone into the jungle and smelt iron from nothing…
It was too extravagant.
Compared with this, those who found “wild ore” and brought it to factories to smelt were undoubtedly crap!
This was no longer about teaching wilderness survival or manual skills; it had reached the point of how to rely on wisdom to rebuild civilization entirely without modern amenities!
The appearance of iron put Bi Fang’s live stream on an entirely different level from the past.
It used to be simple Wilderness Survivalist, but now, it was completely different.
From catching fish to chicken soup, from lean-to shelters to fenced ones with roofs, to having raincoats on rainy days.
All sorts of stone tools, salt, and now iron.
All the essentials of life were there, and even more high-end materials had appeared.
No one doubted that if Bi Fang had brought a packet of wheat seeds instead of just shorts and a grass skirt when he got off the plane…
No!
Maybe just a piece of potato would suffice, or he might not even need that, given more time to
Gathering all the iron, Bi Fang returned to the side of the blast furnace, placing the iron chunks into a ceramic bowl, sprinkling plant ash over them, and surrounding them with kindling wood to ignite. He continued to add charcoal throughout the process without deviation.
By now, the audience no longer cared whether an iron knife could be made or not. Without the System’s task assignment or Bi Fang’s sense of urgency, they felt content the moment Master Fang produced iron.
The white smoke ceased.
Bi Fang lifted the furnace lid and took out the ceramic bowl.
Fortunately, the crimson iron showed signs of melting, but just signs. The actual melting began only with the iron grains at the bottom of the bowl.
Thousands of grains, each less than a third the size of a rice grain, melted together, clinging to the bottom of the bowl.
“To fully melt the large lumps of iron, the conditions are still not quite enough,” Bi Fang said, looking up at the over two meters long chimney.
The current conditions weren’t sufficient; it needed to be further improved!
“The chimney needs to be further lengthened to three meters. We also need to make a bellows so that afterwards, it will be almost enough.”
Tossing the iron lumps back into the bowl, Bi Fang went straight to work.
He went back to the riverside, dug the clay, cleaned it, extended the chimney, and then began to make the bellows.
The construction of the bellows was very simple.
“The main components are the inner fan and the external housing that restricts the airflow.”
Bi Fang took two pieces of stiff bark, each twenty centimeters long and five to six centimeters wide. He carved a groove in the middle of each, then fit them together, forming a cross-shaped fan blade.
He then took a fine wooden twig, peeled it clean, scored a cross on one end with the Stone Dagger, split it into four flaps, and inserted it into the center of the fan.
Both ends of the fan were bound securely with fiber rope to ensure it wouldn’t disintegrate due to material issues. Holding the long stick, Bi Fang rotated it, testing it beside the campfire. The airflow was substantial.
Then, using clay, he crafted an external housing around the fan to concentrate the pumped air through a single outlet.