The cost of manufacturing a pure steel gun barrel is fifteen times that of a wrought iron bronze gun barrel.
In addition to the cost of steel itself being more expensive than wrought iron and bronze, the cost is quite unexpected.
To complete the rifling of a pure steel gun barrel, eleven scrapers are needed. And such scrapers are enough to complete the rifling of five wrought iron bronze gun barrels.
The Xia army's artillery barrels were all rifled, which allowed the shells to hit farther and more accurately.
But the completion of rifling is a great test of craftsmanship and materials.
The material hardness of the steel barrel itself is very high, so the scraper consumption is very high.
After all, with the current technology, the hardness of the scraper is very limited.
On the contrary, if you use the same scraper to create rifling for the wrought iron bronze barrel, you will save a lot.
How much does a scraper like this cost?
A total of eighty-seven taels of silver.
To build a gun barrel made of pure steel, it would cost eleven scrapers. The cost in this regard is really scary.
If you replace it with a mature iron bronze barrel, it will naturally greatly reduce the financial pressure.
"We have completed calculations and found that with the same charge, the range and accuracy of the two barrels are exactly the same, but the manufacturing costs are very different."
Zuo Dai told the actual situation, but the decision-making power was in the hands of Zuo Menggeng and the headquarters.
But how to choose? Do you still need to hesitate?
Sun Yuanhua also stood up and increased his persuasiveness.
"There is feedback from the Navy that steel artillery is far less corrosion-resistant than wrought iron bronze artillery. In just half a year, many of their active artillery need to be replaced."
The artillery used by the navy must not only consider performance and weight, but also an important indicator, which is the ability to adapt to the environment.
After all, above the sea, humid air and salty seawater will cause serious corrosion to metals.
Compared with steel, bronze performs better in this regard.
Therefore, after the war ended, the Navy immediately summarized the situation and fed it back to the Naval Weapons Research Institute.
Sun Yuanhua is now the deputy minister of the Armament Department, director of the Naval Weapons Research Institute, and has the rank of lieutenant general.
After these years, he has already fallen in love with Xia Guo's working environment and has given full play to his strengths.
As a technician and in the military, he avoided the intrigues and intrigues in the officialdom and lived a very comfortable life.
His strong love allowed him to burst out with unparalleled subjective initiative, manage the Naval Weapons Research Institute in an orderly manner, and make great contributions to the Navy's campaign.
Now all the issues regarding artillery have been summarized.
Whether it is the army or the navy, including the financial department, the unified response is that steel artillery is too expensive and cannot fully adapt to the environment, and is not as good as bronze artillery.
Regarding this situation, Zuo Mengeng was helpless.
Of course he knows that steel artillery is the future trend. But reality has determined that insisting on steel artillery is irresponsible to the country and the army.
"What do you say?"
When he was in a dilemma, he decided to listen to everyone's opinions.
Although Huang Zongxi didn't care about weapon research and development, he still spoke freely.
"Everyone knows that collodion explosive is better as a propellant, but the current steel cannot withstand it. But His Highness has a saying, the times are developing, and technology is also progressing. Who knows when the new steel will be able to meet the standards
?Therefore, the research and development of steel artillery must not stop. The more difficult it is, the more research needs to be done on new materials."
He looks at problems from a developmental perspective and understands what the future trends will be.
The steel that Xia State can now produce has made great progress, and it has understood the importance of alloys and explored the properties of many alloys.
Anyone engaged in the chemical industry asserts that alloy steel suitable for casting gun barrels will definitely be found in the future.
But at this time, no one can be sure.
Maybe it's a few years, maybe it's decades, maybe even hundreds of years.
As a military expert, Zuo Mengeng certainly knew that in order to improve the strength of the gun barrel, nickel elements needed to be added to the steel.
However, with today's technological level, it is difficult to even discover nickel, let alone refining nickel.
The material problem of steel gun barrels cannot be solved, which greatly limits the promotion of new military technologies.
As a combat commander, Liu Yiyuan decided to proceed from reality.
"Steel cannons represent the future, but bronze cannons represent the present. I think both should be considered without being biased. In order to meet the needs of national defense and military, bronze cannons should be mass-produced. But for future advantages, steel cannons
The research cannot be stopped.”
These words were immediately recognized by everyone.
The people present are not short-sighted and cannot see clearly the direction of the future. But no matter how good the ideal is, there are always practical limitations that must be considered.
Seeing that everyone had unified opinions, Zuo Mengeng finally made the decision.
"That's it. The Armament Department has set up an independent artillery research institute to ensure financial investment and not interrupt the research and development of steel artillery. From today on, all the artillery installed in the army will be replaced by bronze cannons."
Just this decision immediately saved Xia Jun's military expenditure by more than one-third.
The cabinet and the Ministry of Finance finally breathed a sigh of relief, and the pressure was no longer so great.
Liu Yiyuan put forward a new idea based on the battlefield situation.
"It is currently unrealistic to use collodion explosives as propellants, but the effect of using it as explosives is very good. Especially in the grenades used by soldiers, the black powder can be replaced by collodion explosives."
"The First Cause of All Realms"
Among all explosives, black powder has always been the least powerful.
Even though the burning speed of collodion explosive is not suitable for use as explosives, it is still much stronger than black powder.
This is also the reason why Xia Jun's artillery shells were filled with collodion explosives.
Only the grenades used by Xia Jun still use black powder as the charge so far.
However, feedback from the battlefield shows that the power of such grenades is always inferior. In many cases, it is even difficult to create fragments and kill the enemy in a wide range.
If it were replaced by collodion explosives, the power would be greatly increased. Even if the shrapnel's killing effect was average, the power of the explosion alone would be enough to injure people.
Zuo Mengeng did not agree hastily, but said to Zuo Dai: "Your equipment department can test it and see how it works. The most important thing is to ensure safety."
Grenade is a powerful weapon carried by soldiers. Once an accident occurs, it will pose a major threat to the lives of soldiers.
Therefore, for such weapons, safety is always the first consideration.
Zuo Dai quickly wrote it down.
If the grenade charge is completely updated, it will inevitably greatly improve the Xia Army's ability to attack difficult situations.