Real Steel

1872, Pittsburg Pennsylvania, Andrew Carnegie, one of the most successful men in the history of business started his first profitable Steel Mill. The profits from this mill allowed him to buy out his local competitors and soon consolidated them into the legendary Carnegie Steel company.

Carnegie went on to become one of the richest people in that era as well as one of the most giving by giving away almost all his wealth to charity.

What did he have that allowed him to succeed mentally is a matter to debate, but from an innovation stand point its simple. He didn't just sell steel. He sold cheap steel.

He used a newer process in steel production to mass produce steel on a larger, cheaper scale which allowed him to charge less than his competitors.

That was the Bessemer process patented by Henry Bessemer.

Its no stretch to say that the mass production of steel is likely one of the most important breakthroughs in regards to construction during the industrial era and paved the way for modern construction.

My current world still hasn't cracked it yet and still produces predominantly regular wrought iron, cast iron, and some high carbon steel although in low quantities.

Real steel is technically pure 99% iron with 1% carbon.

This is where forgemastering came in and the art helped amp up purification of metals by compensating using the Hammer of Will to purify iron and even magic metals.

There's one thing blacksmiths understand the importance of here. That is impurities. They can't tell exactly why because atomic theory hasn't been fleshed out, but they can tell, based on their purification levels iron will exhibit different properties.

In essence more carbon, means brittle iron.

Purifying pig Iron into pure 99% iron is very difficult to do consistently for my smaller dwarven brethren.

Typical blacksmiths can do it considering the forgemastering techniques around here but their rate of production is miles below Carnegie.

It's not like they ever felt the need to have that much steel anyway. Dwarves are master forgemasters. They can carve out mountains using runic carved stones to hold up the ceiling. Plus the variety of magic metals here in the mountains are better for specific tasks that steel would normally be used for.

So what can I use steel for?

I can't use magic metals yet so I won't be constructing the perfect sword anytime soon but what I can do is mass produce steel sword cheaply for the population of warriors. I can also Alloy it to produce specific metal cheaply that don't require magic metals.

If there's a market for iron, then steel will always find a way to be useful as long as the production of it is simpler or simple enough that iron becomes the inferior model.

So why am I worried about this now?

I own a clinic which is happily producing me some revenue I might add. Revenue Im sure I'll have use for later. Adding an industrial steel mill wouldn't hurt. In fact, an industrial steel mill would be a lovely step toward bringing modern conveniences here.

Alloyed steel is fundamental to an electronic infrastructure. So I am killing like a thousand birds with one stone by bringing steel into the picture.

[You miss the internet and the conveniences it comes with that much]

Information is power and if what I know about runes to be true, I can surely set up some sort elementary computer.

It will also help with peace efforts. Notice how the dawn of social media made physical warfare less likely.

[yes but information warfare became the modus operandi after the dawn of internet]

I'd rather have living citizens then dead warriors. No child should be under house arrest like I am for years at a time.

[I understand your plight but social media eventually brought about more division than connectivity because of many reasons]

In that case I will put safe guards to prevent such an occurrence.

[Centralized authority?]

More like a good foundation

That's right. Being stuck in the forge room while learning about the magical wonder that is runes has made me think about how to help the world around me in my own digital baby raised mind.

Certain things from the modern era had their pros and cons but no one is denying that the free flow of information the World Wide Web provided was paramount to helping education and literacy world wide.

Educating people is something I'm keen on and always leads to a better world I think.

And it all starts here.

I am currently standing in front of a giant 20 feet tall grenade shaped blast furnace in Nordris yard. The furnace has an entry at the top.

Wearing a typical blacksmith apron and wielding a small but appropriate hammer in my right hand, I stare at the make shift Bessemer converter. Nordri is standing behind me in mild curiosity.

This grenade shaped furnace purifies iron by heating it up and literally blasting it with hot air causing the oxygen in the air to remove the carbon and other impurities

We have a side chamber connected to the the grenade by a lose rotating pole. This chamber is where the hot air is collected through the use of runes to be funneled through the bottom of the grenade using runes as well. That pole is there to rotate the furnace whenever necessary.

All of this is handled by one runic panel. Of course I didn't come up with the runes. I had shot the idea to Nordri so he would cover up all the lack of modern engineering that I have no knowledge of.

The idea is that we put about two tons of pig iron, preferably already molten, into the furnace when the furnace is rotated towards us. We then rotate it up using a winch that rotates the pole. Then we activate the runes blowing the hot air. The oxygen literally strips the carbon from the iron and leaves through the top entry as a gas leaving purified steel and some left over residue on the bottom of the chamber.

This little experiment I have going on here is the future of the tribe.

This is the first official joint venture between the Wounded Giant clinic and the Ice Dwarves' Hammer owned by Nordri.

We have about a ton of unrefined pig iron currently in the furnace. I am making a demonstration in showing Nordri that the rate we can forge the steel is far slower than the rate of its production.

Seeing the color of flames change from the top of the converter from blue to red indicating the impurities have left the chamber, Nordri and I prepare to move a large heat resistant bowl in front of the furnace so that we can pour the molten steel into into by rotating the furnace. This bowl will collect the steel and some left over slag which we will separate out manually since the slag is on the bottom of the bowl usually.

Normally this would be automated by a big crane but Nordri is moving the bowl by hand. His body being heat resistant to a degree and a mountain of strength he's the only one that can move the bowl.

Of course we are at a safe distance from the converter to not get burned. After the flames die down Nordri slowly moves the bowl in front of the raging inferno.

I activate a run on the runic panel which looks like a crystal iPad with runes on it.

The furnace tilts over revealing the mouth of the beast and the fiery steel begins to pour into the bowl. Nordri is of course far away but even for the distance he can tell by the color, how good is the purification.

In truth this process is not fool proof method to complete purification but it certainly gets the job done. All it's required was heat proof clay bricks, a strong metal pole, a winch, and some runic know how.

After we get a full bowl I turn of the converter and Nordri begins to walk up to move the furnace. I am already scrambling to look for the molds we will be using.

We start transferring the molten steel out of the bowl into brick shaped Ingot molds using teamwork with Nordri pouring and me putting down the molds.

My hands are doing very fine work at this moment. I'm sweating as well. Nordri looks to be fine but I can tell he's extremely concentrated.