After inspecting the smelting workshop, Charles was led to a small room.
"What is this place for?" Charles turned to ask Greenspan.
It was a small room right next to the river, with a huge waterwheel turning outside, and there seemed to be some kind of power equipment inside.
"This is Bergnan's armory," Greenspan said helplessly. "It's a shame this fellow wasted a lot of gunpowder money and only produced a few double-barreled rifles. One even backfired, injuring the worker who was testing it. The breech-loading gun you requested was made several times, but it couldn't fire effectively."
"Oh, a gun has already been made?" Charles didn't mind at all. "If it backfired, that should be a quality issue with the steel, how could it be his fault..."
"Ah, my sir, you truly are the most sagacious sir!"
Before Charles finished speaking, the room door was opened from inside, and a man in a greasy work uniform came out, grinning.
He was Bergnan Connor, the firearms designer on whom Charles had placed great hopes. Unfortunately, this designer was clearly distracted; hearing Charles and his companions talking in the room, he had already put down his work and come out to greet them. This greatly displeased Charles, who always believed that rigorous engineers should be focused.
"Bergnan, weren't you researching firearms? Why have you only made a few rifles after all this time? Where is the breech-loading gun I asked you to research? How is it coming along?"
"Hehe! My lord, you may not know, but this time the workshop has developed crucible steel, which can refine pig iron into steel. I am now trying to directly manufacture rifles from steel. After several studies, I found that as long as the steel is eighty percent the weight of pig iron, we can produce firearms with the same range.
This way, for the same weight, we can make the barrel longer and the caliber larger, and the range and power will naturally become even stronger!" Bergnan immediately changed the subject.
When Bergnan first met Charles, he was quite honest, despite his somewhat lewd expression. Now, perhaps feeling that his livelihood was secure, he was becoming almost impudent in front of Charles.
"Then have you calculated how many times more expensive a pure steel gun is compared to a pig iron cast gun?" Charles immediately grasped the crux of the problem.
He knew how those American congressmen behaved in history. If there were two guns of similar power, and the lighter one was more expensive, those congressmen would absolutely not choose the lighter one, but the cheaper one.
Even if there was a slight difference in power, they would still choose the cheaper one. Following the tradition of American congressmen, they would rather not issue weapons or salaries, just sign an order, and the common people could go to war.
"Hehe! That's right, although this steel is much simpler to refine, its price is still much higher than pig iron. Moreover, the quality of such steel still has problems; it's only slightly harder than pig iron. An eighty percent usage is already the limit to ensure they don't backfire." Bergnan, worthy of being an escaped serf from a noble family, saw Charles' change in expression and immediately flattered him with a fawning smile.
Charles perfectly understood why steel guns would backfire. Let alone the crucible steel he forcefully pushed into existence, even ordinary steel in modern society is absolutely unsuitable for manufacturing gun barrels or cannon barrels.
It's only now, when pig iron gun barrels are still in use, that there's a slight possibility of substitution, and even then, it can only substitute gun barrels, not cannon barrels. Although this aspect is rather strange, the fact is that ancient cannon barrels made of ordinary steel are not as tough as bronze cannon barrels. Real modern cannon barrels are all made of alloy steel.
"Sir, there's really no need to manufacture steel guns. Currently, the highest profits come from manufacturing steel products for production and daily life. The output of steel is already not much, and diverting a large amount of steel to manufacture firearms might not even sell," Greenspan interjected.
"Then what do you think of the efficiency of such guns? Can the extra investment be recouped? Which type of gun manufacturing yields the highest profit right now?" Charles continued to inquire.
These ordinary steels were originally best suited for making tools for production and daily life. If there wasn't a large demand from the canal project, Charles might consider focusing the research direction of steel mainly on arms manufacturing.
But now that Greenspan stated that such steel yields the highest profit, he immediately began to set his sights on the civilian steel products market. Pure military use, of course, was not as good as combining military and civilian applications.
"The efficiency is too low, it definitely won't be recouped," Bergnan and Greenspan replied almost simultaneously.
Bergnan added:
"Actually, the double-barreled rifle you asked me to make, sir, is very good. Many people in town who saw our gun test want to buy this gun. And cast iron barrels are much cheaper than steel barrels."
"Yes! sir, Antoine wants to use this gun to equip the militia for self-defense. Because refining pig iron into steel or forging it into wrought iron yields greater profits, and the town doesn't have money to re-equip the militia, we haven't agreed." Greenspan confirmed from the side.
"How can you not agree! Greenspan, Antoine's militia is our family's militia, the guarantee of our family's safety. Of course, we must prioritize providing them with guns. Moreover, the town's treasury now has enough money to buy firearms.
I will have the appropriations committee allocate a special fund to buy these double-barreled rifles." Charles decided. "Also, manufacture another batch of double-barreled rifles for external sale. I think this gun also has broad sales prospects in the civilian market. The extra barrel can just compensate for the long reloading time of rifles, and hunters will definitely like it.
Currently, the workshop is small, and pig iron and steel production are low. When production increases in the future, we must cater to all aspects of the market. Moreover, currently, steel production is low and prices are high, but they will definitely fall in the future. At that time, the profit from firearms will definitely be higher than the profit from other steel products."
He recalled a famous painting commemorating the French Revolution, called Liberty Leading the People, where the revolutionaries' main weapon was a double-barreled rifle. This was a very promising dual-use military and civilian firearm, because it also had another name: the double-barreled shotgun.
"Yes, sir," they both replied at the same time.
"Bergnan, you must also strengthen technical research and improve the performance of existing firearms as much as possible. The research on steel guns is excellent. Even if it's not profitable now, continue the research until a gun that can make a large profit is developed."
The double-barreled rifle still has a lot of room for upgrades, so Charles naturally wanted to strengthen research. As for steel guns, that was the development direction for "future firearms," so research certainly needed to be strengthened.
"Well, I've also been experimenting with steel guns, and I've found that if I increase the toughness of the steel, I can increase the amount of gunpowder, which can slightly increase the range of the firearm.
However, you might not know that such testing is very time-consuming and prone to backfiring, so after Mr. Greenspan reduced the supply of steel, my experiments haven't yielded any results until now." Bergnan didn't dare to look at Greenspan and directly reported to Charles.
"Reduced steel supply?" Charles shook his head, estimating that steel was in short supply recently, and Greenspan must have prioritized using it to make civilian goods for sale.
He had no doubt about Greenspan's loyalty and did not blame him, merely turning his head to instruct:
"Greenspan, immediately resume steel support for the experiments and prioritize developing new firearms. Although making money is paramount, once new firearms are released, we will not only gain profits but also bring benefits to our family's political standing throughout America."
"Yes, I will immediately have the workshop resume the steel supply to the laboratory," Greenspan agreed without hesitation.
Everything he did was for the benefit of the Godfrey Family. Hearing Charles' command and reasoning, he naturally wouldn't hesitate. He also didn't feel the need to express special gratitude for Charles not blaming him for unilaterally reducing the steel supply to the laboratory.
"Good! Then that's all for now." Charles prepared to turn and leave.
"Hey! My lord, aren't you going to look at other things?" Bergnan quickly called out to stop him.
"Other things? Didn't you say only a few double-barreled firearms were made, and no other firearms?"
"Of course no firearms, but I didn't say no cannons were made!" Bergnan protested loudly, displeased.
"Cannons?" Charles was startled, "Who told you to make cannons? Was it successful? Did any backfire?"
If a firearm backfired, at most one person testing it would die. If a cannon had a problem, it wouldn't be a matter of just one or two deaths.
"Hehe! Well, didn't you say you wanted me to experiment with making breech-loading firearms? That was quite difficult, so I first tried casting a few cannons. They're cast iron, so even if they backfire, they can just be crushed and refined into steel directly." Bergnan said with a grin.
"Was it successful? Where are the cannons?" Charles became interested.
"They're in the big courtyard behind us." Bergnan was very excited and prepared to lead Charles there.
"That's also the only successful work, besides the double-barreled rifle, in all this time," Greenspan, standing nearby, also reported to Charles with a smile.