Although Zhao Kuangping only thinks about making money, he knows very well what is a big thing and what is a small thing.
Just like before when he discovered a loophole in the prince's business, his first reaction was not to take advantage of the loophole, but to run to his father to tell him about the matter to see if the loophole could be plugged.
When he met the inventor this time, Zhao Kuangping immediately took him into the palace to meet the saint.
"The common people thank you for your wealth, and bow down to the emperor!" The inventor knelt down and worshiped the emperor when he saw him.
Zhao Han attached great importance to this matter and put aside all his official duties to meet him. He smiled and said: "No need to salute, just get back on your feet quickly."
The guards moved a chair, and Xie Fu sat down in panic.
"Come closer, don't sit too far away." Zhao Han said.
"Thank you, Your Majesty!"
Xie Fu was both excited and nervous. He was getting closer to the emperor. His mind went blank. He was so excited that he didn't know his last name.
Zhao Han asked: "How did you make this calligraphy method? Do you have any drawings?"
Xie Fu stood up quickly and said, "The drawings are with the palace officials."
The guard came directly with a stack of blueprints, and there were blueprints for each step.
First, we use hundreds of refined steel and use traditional methods to cast and engrave steel molds. Then we use the huge power of the steam engine to directly punch out copper molds with steel molds. Once we have the copper molds, we use traditional methods to cast movable type. The metal movable type uses European alloy formulas.
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This type casting method seems to be more complicated than the traditional type casting process, but when it is actually used, the efficiency is increased by hundreds of times, and the cast metal movable type has extremely small errors.
Another time and space also appeared, probably during the Opium War, when the British Dyer invented it specifically for Chinese movable type. However, it only took more than ten years to be eliminated by the technology of the American Jiang Bili. The United States directly used the electroplating movable type method, which cost a lot of money.
Lower and more efficient, it was used by Chinese publishing houses until the Republic of China.
As for Gutenberg’s metal movable type formula, it is no secret for a long time.
Gutenberg was involved in a power struggle in his later years and was exiled by the church. His printing factory workers were scattered all over Europe, and his metal movable type formula and printing ink formula also spread. European missionaries brought these technologies to Asia, and in Manila
There are printing plants in both the city and Yecheng, mainly printing books such as the Bible.
After China occupied Manila and Coconut City, it also took over the printing factory and printed Chinese textbooks for various subjects.
European metal and ink formulas spread to the mainland and are now widely used in China.
The formula of Gutenberg metal movable type is: lead (80%), antimony (12%), tin (8%). It has good inkability, low melting point, short solidification time, and the cast movable type is full and clear. This alloy ratio has always been
Used to modern times.
The formula of Gutenberg printing ink is: linseed oil, turpentine, and carbon black are mixed to prepare an oily ink. As a solvent, linseed oil has low surface tension, and turpentine further reduces the tension, and at the same time the adhesion performance is also improved, allowing very small and clear Chinese characters to be printed.
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Combining these two formulas, the Chinese character content that used to take three or four pages can now be accommodated in one page, and it is clearer to read.
After the lead alloy movable type was produced, even the copper movable type from the Chinese official printing factory was ordered by Zhao Han to be melted down to make copper coins. There is no need to hide anything, the Chinese copper movable type is just not as useful as the European lead alloy movable type.
Zhao Han looked at a few drawings and was very curious: "What did you do before?"
Xie Fu said: "Caomin's father used to be a slave of the Xie family in Foshan. When the heavenly soldiers came to kill him, my father was freed from slavery, but he still worked as a servant in the Xie family. Caomin dropped out of middle school and went to work in the Xie family's iron factory.
In the past few years, the common people came up with several inventions, but they were all occupied by the Xie family, and they were only rewarded with one tael of silver each time."
Although patents are good for inventions, they are not necessarily good for inventors.
Xie Fu continued: "Later, the common people learned to be smart. Xie allowed the common people to make inventions with peace of mind, so the common people used Xie's machines to invent this new set of calligraphy methods. The invention was completed, but it was not made public, only that it was not finished yet.
Then he claimed he was ill and fled to Jiangxi, applied for a patent in Nanchang, and then took a boat to Nanjing."
Afraid that the emperor would think he was disloyal to his employer, Xie Fu explained: "Your Majesty, Cao Min's inventions in the past few years have earned at least tens of thousands of taels of silver for the Xie family. But Cao Min doesn't even have the right to sign the patent, and they all belong to the young master of the Xie family.
Invention. The common people...the more they think about it, the more unwilling they become, so they ran away this time."
"Do you plan to go back for revenge in the future?" Zhao Han asked.
Xie Fu shook his head and said: "The Xie family was kind to Cao Min and his son. Now that the grudge has been cleared, Cao Min just wants to bring his parents to Nanjing and will no longer have anything to do with the Xie family in the future."
Zhao Han continued to flip through the drawings and found a few tables at the back. He was immediately surprised and said: "Hey, your new calligraphy method is so thoughtful."
Xie Fu explained: "The current method of casting characters has unclear specifications and different sizes. The common people think that since the error of steam engine characters is small, why not adopt a unified standard? So the common people secretly count..."
"Caomin has counted 30 books on the market, with a total of more than 1.2 million words, all of which are best-sellers. There are only 13 words that are used more than 10,000 times, more than 200 words that are used more than 1,000 times, and those that are used no more than 25 times.
There are more than 3,700. Therefore, the common people divide the number of uses of Chinese characters into commonly used characters, spare characters, and rare characters."
"In the future, when casting movable type, more commonly used characters will be cast, less spare characters will be cast, and rare characters will be cast even less. When typesetting, the printing house can also follow this standard and place the movable type in categories, so the time for finding and retrieving characters will be greatly shortened.
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"In addition, Cao Min also compared the books on the market and formulated font sizes for movable type. They were divided into seven types: explicit, clear, middle, line, explanation, annotation, and zhen. It is not only convenient for typesetting, but also beautiful, concise and easy to read."
Zhao Han praised: "Great kindness!"
Zhao Kuangping said: "Congratulations to my father, you must be big enough to use it."
Zhao Han said to his son: "I will lend you money so that you can set up a factory and recruit people. First order a steam engine, and then order a type casting machine. From now on, the movable type of Si Li Supervisory Factory will be purchased from your type casting factory. However,
I will definitely not buy the movable type from the Ministry of Rites Printing Factory from you. Let the Ministry of Industry use this technology to run a type foundry."
Then, Zhao Han said to Xie Fu: "When you cooperate with the King of Chu, you can decide whether to invest in shares or buy out the patent. As for the Ministry of Industry and Commerce Type Foundry, I will not give you patent fees. I appoint you as the Ministry of Industry and Commerce Type Foundry."
Deputy Supervisor. Remember, once you become the Deputy Supervisor of the Ministry of Industry Type Foundry, you can no longer do business if you have an official status. Your cooperation with the King of Chu can only sell off the patent or share the patent dividend."
Can you be an official?
He is also the deputy director of the Type Foundry of the Ministry of Industry!
Xie Fu was stunned by happiness in an instant, and immediately said: "Your Majesty, if the common people can become the deputy supervisor of the Ministry of Works, they will give the patent for casting characters to the King of Chu without charging a penny in royalties!"
Zhao Han smiled and said: "The Zhao family is not the Xie family and will not occupy your invention. How to use the patent, you can discuss it with the King of Chu yourself. Remember, when you become an official in the Ministry of Industry, don't rest on your laurels. You must continue to improve the casting of characters.
Fa, in the future, the name left in history will be Bi Sheng of our Datong Dynasty!"
"I will live up to your majesty's trust!" Xie Fu's blood surged all over his body. He left his chair and knelt down to kowtow.
Zhao Han said: "I will send travelers to bring your family to Nanjing and give you a mansion in the capital. The houses in the city are gone, so you can live outside the city."
Zhao Han is naturally happy. This happiness is not only due to the improvement of printing technology. There is also Xie Fu, who was born as the son of a domestic slave and graduated from a modern middle school. He has the current inventions, which all reflect Zhao Han's achievements.
Only the calligraphy craftsmen are injured. If this method is popularized, a large number of calligraphy craftsmen will lose their jobs.
Of course, the new type of calligraphy also requires calligraphers, but the number is not that large. At the Li Supervisory Factory, the Ministry of Rites, and the Ministry of Works, the calligraphy craftsmen dismissed this time were directly thrown to the King of Chu to set up factories, which not only solved the unemployment problem
, the King of Chu didn’t have to worry about recruiting people everywhere.
After Zhao Kuangping and Xie Fu resigned, Zhao Han called in the Minister of Rites and the Minister of Work.
The Ministry of Industry was responsible for opening a new type foundry, while the Ministry of Rites was preparing to replace textbooks.
Textbooks printed in the future will all use new type casting and use standard font sizes. The printed textbooks can have more content on each page and are concise, easy to read and better recognized.
Old-fashioned textbooks can still be used, especially for poor children. They can save a lot of book fees by getting old books for class. The government is not allowed to force new books to be replaced, and it is not allowed to expel students who use old books from the classroom.
This is a printing revolution!
The revolution had already begun, starting with the adoption of European metal alloys and European ink formulas. It also started with the change from vertical to horizontal printing of textbooks.
Xie Fu's series of inventions accelerated this printing revolution.
There are too many Chinese characters, unlike those in Europe that can be done with twenty or thirty letters. Therefore, the casting of Chinese movable type has always restricted the development of printing technology, and it is difficult to reduce the cost significantly. Xie Fu's calligraphy skills, plus a set of
Clear and standard is equivalent to opening the door a crack in Chinese printing and kicking most of the door open.
Next, we can continue to improve and continue to improve efficiency.
But if we want to achieve another leap forward again, we have to wait until the electrical age and use electroplating to cast characters!
Xie Fu's calligraphy method is sufficient for this era.
Printing costs have been slashed a lot, so even ordinary people can afford to buy newspapers without renting newspapers to read.
The cost of books for schoolchildren is no longer so expensive, which is more conducive to the implementation of enlightenment in remote areas and accelerates the assimilation of foreign races by Chinese civilization. Administrative and military expenditures in remote areas can also be reduced faster.
The more Zhao Han thought about it, the more excited he became. He was too lazy to work and asked his concubines to visit the Imperial Garden together.
The king of Chu, Zhao Kuangping, was also very excited and negotiated a patent royalty with Xie Fu. 5% of the profit of the word foundry every year was distributed to Xie Fu for twenty years.
Within two years, the King of Chu had the exclusive patent for casting characters.
After two years, Xie Fu can sell the calligraphy patent to other businessmen outside Jinling Prefecture. After three years, he can sell the calligraphy patent to businessmen in Jinling Prefecture.
If someone infringes a patent, businessmen in the relevant areas will help litigate the case in order to protect their own interests.
For example, during the period of exclusive patent ownership, the King of Chu will be very vigilant. No matter which province he encounters a copycat factory, he will issue a proper complaint. Not only will the other party stop the infringement, but also the other party will be required to make up for the patent fees and compensation.
The allocation will be negotiated between the King of Chu and Xie Fu.