Chapter 369 - 160: Charcoal Burning and the Native Tribe
The rainy season is drawing nearer.
The workload for the two members of the Native Tribe is also increasing day by day.
After obtaining the gun barrel, Chen Zhou showed an unprecedented enthusiasm for forging a high-performance rifle, wishing he could split himself in half: one half to build the forge, the other to make charcoal.
The charcoal kiln had just been completed for less than two days when it welcomed its first job.
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A large amount of carefully selected sections of hardwood were placed inside the kiln, forming an arch shape.
As a bundle of dry wood caught fire at the bottom of the fire pit, the hardwood gradually ignited inside the kiln.
The kiln door, facing the air intake, continuously fed oxygen into the kiln, thick white smoke billowing out of the chimney like a giant python rising into the sky.
Based on the experience Chen Zhou gained from previous experiments, at least five hours of burning are required in the initial stage of oxygen control for this batch of wood.
He patiently waited by the charcoal kiln, periodically observing the smoke drifting from the chimney or checking the fire through the vent.
The waiting process was extremely long.
Once the wood was fully burned, the smoke changed from white to blue. Observing this change, Chen Zhou immediately sealed the kiln door to reduce oxygen and enter the anaerobic carbonization phase.
This process lasted even longer than the burning stage, requiring more than ten hours.
Chen Zhou had specially brought his sleeping bag to the charcoal kiln. There was a wooden water room set up in advance for fire prevention, where he could rest at night.
After a night of anaerobic carbonization, the smoke turned into a faint blue smoke.
Though it was the first time using a large charcoal kiln for charcoal production, relying on the experience summarized from experiments, Chen Zhou made no mistakes in handling the placement of the wood or controlling the oxygen.
After nearly a day and night of ignition and carbonization, the process entered the final step—completely sealing the kiln door.
At this point, the kiln was almost devoid of oxygen, with only partially formed charcoal in the high temperature inside.
Once at this stage, Chen Zhou no longer needed to stand guard by the charcoal kiln all day.
After the carbonization ended, all he could do was wait for the enclosed kiln to slowly release its temperature until it completely cooled down.
This process often lasted 24 hours or even 48 hours. Slow cooling was beneficial for preserving the shape of the charcoal, while rapid cooling would cause the charcoal to crack.
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With his heart set on the forging business, Chen Zhou didn’t dare to waste his time.
Once the charcoal kiln entered the cooling phase, he immediately returned to the cave to gather the two members of the Native Tribe to work together on developing the cave.
The door to the "Forging Room" or "Blacksmith’s Shop" was opened on the left side of the kitchen, more than 3 meters from it, yet still within the small yard.
If there were enough stone, Chen Zhou might have chosen to build a workshop with brick stones.
But all along, the cut wood for wood-stone walls greatly exceeded stone in quantity, and after months of laying bricks in the yard, building a toilet, and constructing walls in the cave, the stock of stone bricks had already been nearly depleted.
The Forging Room might involve the construction of several large facilities and the storage of many materials. A small space would inevitably feel cramped; having long suffered the inconvenience of a small storage room, Chen Zhou was determined not to repeat the mistake.
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The three of them swung their tools to dig inward, then used carts to dump the sand outside. The work progress was incomparable to when Chen Zhou worked alone.
Once the first batch of charcoal was cooled, the Forging Room had been expanded to tens of square meters, and this was with the two members of the Native Tribe needing to tend to the fields and sheep and learn language and writing. Otherwise, more could have been excavated.
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When he opened the kiln door, Chen Zhou tested the temperature. Feeling it was cool enough, he carefully extracted the charcoal inside the kiln.
On his first production, although the process went smoothly, his control over the timing was not sufficiently precise.
An entire batch of high-quality hardwood yielded only about 200 pounds of premium charcoal. The rest of the charcoal was nearly all fragmented, especially the ones at the front, which had already broken into palm-sized pieces.
Fortunately, Chen Zhou did not pursue the completeness of the charcoal. During forging, to raise the temperature, he would even crush large pieces of charcoal into smaller pieces or grind them into charcoal powder to increase the oxygen contact area and improve combustion efficiency.
The premium large charcoal pieces were directly loaded onto a cart and stored in the yard, while some pieces with less severe fragmentation were also sent over.
The remaining small charcoal pieces underwent a selection process, with only those having smooth cut surfaces and producing a crisp sound when struck being kept as premium charcoal. The rest, the substandard fragmented charcoal, was packed into rattan baskets and given to the two members of the Native Tribe.
When the rainy season arrives, they can burn charcoal indoors for cooking to avoid smoke.
Lastly, Chen Zhou had to remove the ashes and uncarbonized wood left at the bottom of the kiln.
These ashes were not much different from plant and wood ash, and he planned to mix them with the manure in the composting area for fermentation to use as fertilizer when opening new fields.
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After the first kiln of charcoal was made, Chen Zhou immediately loaded the remaining wood into the kiln—
The rainy season was long, and the more charcoal, the better.
Repeating a similar process, when the charcoal entered the cooling phase, Chen Zhou returned to the cave again to collaborate with the two members of the Native Tribe in developing the Forging Room.
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Time flew by.
When the clear sky was gone, and the overcast clouds covered the island, with drizzling rain falling, Chen Zhou had already produced two kilns of charcoal and expanded the Forging Room to nearly 100 square meters.
During this half-month, besides making charcoal and digging and transporting soil, the only work he managed to squeeze time for was building a toilet for the two members of the Native Tribe.
Before obtaining the gun barrel, he originally planned to spend this half-month building a large wooden house with a kitchen for the two members of the Native Tribe.
But plans couldn’t keep up with the changes. The allure of firearms was too great for Chen Zhou.
Busy preparing for forging work, even this toilet, he barely found time to construct. If not for the high importance of the toilet, he might have saved even this bit of time.