–Lunchtime
My Lau Lau was well received.
「 Ohooo! Delicious~! 」
Arisa’s cheeks are falling off.
「 It has a nice texture and the mix is delicious 」
Karin’s also happily eating.
「 You just steamed it in a leaf, yet why is it so different? 」
Eri’s surprised as she knows how to cook.
She was on her period that she couldn’t even move just a few hours ago, but now she looks fine.
She seems to have been completely revived after witnessing a cuisine she’s never heard of.
But for today, she should rest as much as she can.
She’s on a menstrual leave until tomorrow.
「 As always, if you don’t like the taste, just add salt. 」
We use salt whenever we can.
They’re useful because they don’t require a lot of time and effort to refine.
「 You know what they say about salt~ 」
Arisa took a pinch of salt and sprinkled it over the Lau Lau
Then, she takes a bite of the boar meat and shouted “the best~”
I also sprinkled some salt just like her, and it definitely elevated the taste.
Salt is the best, I thought.
「 Speaking of which, I’m curious 」
Karin says after eating.
「 Why aren’t we making iron? 」
「 Huh? We can make it? 」Mana’s surprised.
「 I thought that we couldn’t, not that we don’t 」Shiori said.
「 I think we can. Right, Hokage? 」
「 Karin’s right. We can make iron 」
The consistent use of iron is not because we cannot make iron.
We can make steel with what we have right now if we want to
「 Of course, there’s a reason why we don’t 」
I raised my index finger.
「 First, safety. Making iron requires temperatures higher than our ordinary campfire. Naturally, you’ll be at risk for burns, or rather, you’ll get burned, no matter how careful you are. And burns are much more serious than any injury. After all, manufacturing iron requires over 2000 degrees of temperature 」
「 「 「 T-Two thousand?! 」 」 」
「 The fires burning around here are usually at about 300 degrees. Simple math would let you conclude that you need 7 times hotter flames. If things go poorly, serious injury is unavoidable. But we’re talking in Celsius, in absolute temperatures in chemistry, the difference is four times greater 」
「 Anyway, that just means that it’s really hot 」
「 That’s right 」
The primary reason for not making steel is for our safety.
「 You said that it’s the first reason, that means that there’s another? 」 Karin asks.
「 Yes. The second reason is that it takes time.
Just as mentioned earlier, we need about 2000 degrees of flame to manufacture. And to make that happen, we need to lay the groundwork for many things. It requires equipment commonly called the blast furnace, but it’s challenging to build one. With the number we have, we’ll have our hands full just building the blast furnace and won’t have time to do anything else 」
「 I see 」
Our time also suffers, not just our safety.
Furthermore.
「 Lastly, the third reason is that it’s much cheaper to mass-produce bronze in this world. 」
「 What do you mean? 」
「 To tell the truth, the campfire flame isn’t enough to make bronze. The melting point of copper, its main ingredient, is about 1100C so we need the flame to reach that temperature. To make that happen, you need a reasonably good furnace, but not a blast furnace 」
「 But, we don’t have that kind of a furnace, right? Although, the furnace Hokage made is built to increase the bonfire power. But, can that make 1100C? 」
It’s a simple fire enhancement device.
Stones are piled up in a pyramid shape and hardened by filling holes with soil or clay.
The chimney’s at the top and the outlet for materials is at the bottom.
It’s doubtful that you can call that lump an iron furnace, but it’s possible to increase its firepower.
「 No, it can’t. Its heating power is probably just reaching 600C 」
「 So that’s why 」
Even when surprised, Karin continued with “That won’t be enough.”
「 That furnace is built for ease of use. It’s a simple build, so the performance isn’t that high. Meiko made a tool for pumping oxygen a bellow, but if we had more of those, we can pump oxygen until it reaches 800 or 900C.
But, we can make bronze at 600C 」
「 How? 」
「 Because the stones we’re using to make bronze is bronze stone to begin with 」
「 Bronze stone? Does that exist? 」
「 In this world, yes 」
Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin.
It’s a mixture of copper, with a melting point of approximately 1100C and tin, with a melting point of 230C.
The reason why we mix them is because copper alone is too soft.
Then, the melting point of the resulting bronze is about 900C.
Normally, you can only make bronze by mixing copper and tin.
However, there have been bronze ores in this world from the start.
Furthermore, they have very high tin content.
Hence, their melting point is below 600C
「 Strictly speaking, the bronze ware we’re making aren’t the same ones you learn from history. This is still bronze, but it has a higher tin ratio. That’s why you can process them with just a bit of intensified bonfire 」
Bronze ores are falling in large quantities. There’s a deposit near the Shinomiya cave.
Of course, they’re natural products so their quality has a wide range.
This is mainly the case when copper content is too high and the fire is too hot.
In that case, we just add tin or lead to lower the melting point.
「 And so, there’s no benefit in making iron. Even in history books, iron only replaced bronze because it’s possible to mass-produce it at a lower cost, not because they’re in need to switch 」
「 I see. Hearing that makes me feel at ease that Hokage’s our leader 」
Karin said, then everyone nodded their heads.
「 Well, chat’s over, let’s start with our afternoon work 」
「 「 「 「 Oooh!! 」 」 」 」
As soon as our iron production talk is over, we started our afternoon work.