984 [The Ministry of Industry also has supporting inventions]
Xie Fu's calligraphy method is not profound or mysterious.
The breakthrough lies in the use of steam engines and steel molds, which can stamp out copper molds in large quantities and at low cost.
I heard that a Foshan blacksmith was actually appointed as the deputy supervisor of the Ministry of Industry's Type Foundry. The official letter-forging craftsmen couldn't sit still, and Zhang Shunmin, a doctor from the Ministry of Industry, asked for an interview. 3
"Why, you also invented a new method of casting calligraphy?" Zhao Han asked with a smile.
Zhang Shunmin replied: "Your Majesty, the official craftsman of the Ministry of Industry, has indeed invented a new method of casting calligraphy." Zhao Han was quite surprised and asked: "What method?"
Zhang Shunmin replied: "The original lead type, copper type, and copper-lead-tin alloy type in the Ming Dynasty are not as good as the European lead alloy type formula. After the full switch to European lead type, the Ministry of Industry has been making improvements based on the characteristics of this alloy.
The casting method has now achieved results. It is called a 'type casting furnace' and can cast fifty or sixty movable types per hour."
"good!"
Zhao Han slapped his thigh in approval.
Xie Fu improved the molding technology, while the Ministry of Industry improved the character casting technology. The two technologies can be perfectly matched.
Zhang Shunmin continued: "Your Majesty, the invention of the type casting furnace has not been reported because it can continue to be improved. The current invention is a hand-operated furnace, and the Ministry of Industry is improving it into a foot-operated or hand-cranked furnace. Once the improvement is successful, movable type will be
The casting efficiency can be increased at least several times, or even ten times!"
"Is improvement work complicated?" Zhao Han asked.
Zhang Shunmin organized his words and said: "It's not complicated, but it's not simple either. Occasionally, I have to ask the bachelor of Qintianyuan Physics Museum for advice. I haven't run out of ideas yet, and I have designed a small structure of the Heavenly Hand."
That kind of movable type casting technology must be completely improved and perfected. It cannot cast one or four hundred characters per hour. It is the thing used by Tianshou in the late Qing Dynasty. Its requirements for science and technology are not low, and the prerequisite is that there are no fine character molds and
Lead alloy movable type formula.
That set of technology has not yet been upgraded to Tianshou, that is, the "Thomson automatic type furnace", which has been used from the early years of the Republic of China to New China. It cannot cast 15,000 Chinese movable types every day! It is not less than 600 pieces per hour. It seems
The efficiency has been reduced, but it can be used directly before casting, so the caster must go back and polish it in the early stage.
Xie Fu said: "The repair of the character furnace has been completed, and everyone involved will be rewarded generously!"
An official invention is the same as a private invention, and its patent right automatically belongs to the unit where it belongs. 气6_
Zhao Han invented this calligraphy method. In fact, the patent should also belong to the Xie family factory. But the Xie family went too far. They took away the patent and even the right to sign the patent. This was in compliance with the "Xiaotong Patent Law".
Even if the royal family does not come forward, the outcome of a lawsuit will be determined by who loses and who wins. 2_
Peng Haitian continued: "The Ministry of Industry has not yet proposed the use of movable type to make dead plates."
"Dead version?" Xie Fu didn't understand.
Peng Haitian said: "The engraving hand is printed repeatedly, and the movable type cannot be disassembled at will. Can't the engraving and the movable type draw on each other's strengths? The typesetting of the movable type is cumbersome. It must be dismantled before printing is completed, and it must be retyped after the last printing. Therefore, the Ministry of Industry
The official craftsman came up with the idea of first using movable type for typesetting, and then using a movable type plate to make a clay mold to cast the lead plate. The movable type can be dismantled and reused, thus saving the number of movable types. The lead plate is used for printing and cannot be saved after printing.
When printing, it is necessary to typesetting again, just take out the lead plate and print again." 3
That is the real printing and plate making!
Xie Fu asked: "Has it been invented yet?"
Zhao Kuangping said: "Two years later, no official craftsmen have proposed that idea, but there are still few problems during the specific research, and those problems are being solved step by step." That kind of clay mold lead plate technology only existed in history.
In the 1970s, "Zi Lin Xi Bao" and "Shen Shen" first used that thing.
But it has no major flaws:
First, the clay mold must be broken when the lead plate is cast, so the clay mold cannot be preserved. It is a disposable consumable and can be used to cast the lead plate repeatedly;
Seventh, although the lead plate cannot be preserved, it is brittle and easy to break. It will be damaged if you are not careful during use or transportation.
The previous method of improvement was to use ordinary thick paper instead of clay molds, that is, paper-type stereotypes.
A set of paper patterns cannot be cast repeatedly for more than ten times, and it is easy to transport over long distances. Before typesetting and printing in Nanjing, you only need to transport the paper patterns to Beijing, and then the stereotypes can be cast and printed at a slow speed. If it is shipped to Xi'an, it can also be transported slowly.
Quick cast printing.
The printing of a book only requires dozens of sets of paper patterns to meet the needs of all parts of the country, and the typesetting work only needs to be regressed once. It also saves the production of several sets of paper patterns. As long as they are kept properly, they can be used even seventy years ago.
.
Zhao Han changed the character mold, the Ministry of Industry changed the character casting furnace, and then developed the casting technology.
Eight technologies, perfectly matched by Tianshou.
Generally, it is casting technology, which is an epoch-making revolution. The cost of book printing cannot be reduced to a finite high.
It should be difficult to develop clay molds and lead plates. However, the technical flaws are too small, and it will take many years to degenerate into paper molds. In another time and space, it took seventy years. In that time and space, it may have been seventy years.
It is impossible to take less than a hundred years.
If you want to continue to degenerate into a copper plate, Xie Fu can see it. Because of its rear technology, it must light up photography technology (optics, chemistry) and electric power technology. No matter what, Xie Fu can help me.
As soon as you know the art of printing.
To be honest, once the inertia of printing technology is formed, China's research and development speed will be slower than that of Europe under the same scientific and technological basis. Because printing Chinese characters is too cumbersome, while European letters are complicated, Europe's demand for printing technology improvements is
So urgent.
Looking at the performance of the official craftsmen of the Ministry of Industry, we know that what we lack is the European alloy movable type formula.
Without this recipe, all kinds of ideas come to mind.
Taking advantage of the alloy properties of the formula, the research and development of type casting furnaces is a logical step. There is no such demand in Europe, because Europeans need so few movable types. Chinese character typesetting is also a small problem. Since the European lead alloy formula is easy to use and easy to pour, it is natural.
Thinking about making cast plates, there is an urgent need in Europe.
Just like in some cold zone areas, the land is ripe every year, and even if you lie flat, you can rely on the sky for food.
Countries in temperate zones need to face various natural disasters. While solving the problems, they can promote political and technological development.
It is precisely because it is easy to print Chinese characters that it can slowly promote the improvement of printing technology. The bottom line is that there needs to be a focus, that is, Gutenberg's alloy formula. A series of technical improvements are currently centered on the alloy formula.
.
During the Manchu Qing Dynasty, foreigners were prohibited from privately manufacturing movable type, and the alloy formulas were always passed down. Missionaries in the Ming Dynasty, however, devoted themselves to compiling Chinese religious books and directly asked Chinese booksellers to help with printing. They basically had the financial resources and energy to print books themselves.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, they completely missed the introduction of lead alloy movable type.
It was not until the end of the Qing Dynasty, when the imperial court had no control over anything, that movable lead type appeared in China and developed rapidly.
The King of Chu, Zhang Shunmin, was so busy that he handed over "The Literature and Art of the King of Chu" to Wu Rui and Jin Shengtan. I personally contacted the steam engine manufacturer and took out the design drawings of the type casting machine (actually a type casting mold) to customize a new steam casting machine.
Lettering machine.
Then I have to contact raw material suppliers, coal, copper, steel... If I have enough money, I ask my father for an interest-bearing loan, and the royal finance will directly lend it to me.
It took two months to complete the prototype of the steam type molding machine. We also brought in the type furnace from the Ministry of Industry. It is a hand-operated type furnace that has been improved and improved. It can only cast dozens of movable types per hour, and
After casting, it still needs to be polished.
Even so, the use of hand-operated type casting furnaces still requires the payment of patent fees to the Ministry of Industry.
Until autumn, seven steam type molding machines were shipped, and the foot-operated type furnaces were initially replaced. Above the roar of the machine, copper type molds were stamped one by one, and were thrown to the foot-operated type furnaces to make movable lead type. Each machine
A type furnace can produce 700 to 700 movable types in one hour (currently, the number of perfectly reprinted types can reach 1 to 400).
On the contrary, the steel mold used in the steam engine is completely slower than the steel mold used in the steam engine. That thing needs to be carved by hand.
Peng Hai personally inspected the type foundry and looked at the endless movable lead types coming out of the furnace. He praised: "It is indeed slow, much slower than before!"
Zhang Shunmin laughed and said: "The steam engine stamps copper type molds too slowly, and the foot-operated type casting furnace is completely inferior. Erchen ordered seven steam machines, but two are actually more than enough. The remaining two are...
What if we sell it to the Ministry of Industry at the original price? Erchen pays the shipping fee." 2
"No." Xie Fu couldn't help laughing.
A group of craftsmen were polishing lead movable type. Xie Fu bent down and picked up a few pieces, and found that they were all repeated common characters.
Xie Fu asked: "How many characters are carved on the steel mold?"
Peng Haitian said: "Those are made of highly refined steel. It is really difficult to carve characters, and the requirements for craftsmen's skills are low. Over the past few months, only less than 800 steel molds have been carved."
Steel molds are consumable parts of the machine, and only one character of the same size needs to be engraved. After the steel molds wear out, Tianshou punches out copper character molds in batches, and then uses the copper molds to cast lead movable type.
Xie Fu reminded: "Since the foot-operated type casting furnace is as fast as a steam engine, the few copper type molds he produces cannot be sold to other printing shops. We can buy them and cast the characters ourselves."
Zhang Shunmin explained: "Erchen also thought about it, but Erchen's fonts are all produced according to standard font sizes. Some of them are very different from traditional fonts, and some of them are very different from traditional fonts, so we can only make do with them. I contacted Erchen.
We are willing to buy from several companies, but we only buy the most commonly used fonts with low consumption." 2
"Market upgrading is also a problem." Xie Fu nodded.
The Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Rites and the Supervisor of Rites, updating equipment is a matter of the emperor's word.
But for private printing companies, we have to measure profits. It has been several years since lead movable type was introduced to the country, but few large workshops are still using old movable type, and the materials are all kinds of types, including wood movable type, copper movable type, lead movable type, and tin movable type (those
Chinese metal movable type is basically made of alloy, but the formula is the same as that of Europe, and the printing turbidity is sufficient).
On the contrary, European inks were promoted rapidly, and old-fashioned printing inks were almost produced.
It may take a long time for the standard font size formulated by Zhao Han to be fully accepted by the market. The adoption of this standard in official textbooks cannot promote market replacement, but it can only promote it. The old movable type that people have worked so hard to cast is
It may be thrown away in the warehouse to collect dust, and it will be discarded only after it is slightly worn.
Of course, with the combination of the two type casting technologies, movable type would be incredibly cheap compared to the future.
Without the cheap movable type produced by King Chu, printing companies will vote with their feet. In the next one or two years, the entire Jinling Prefecture will make their own movable type and go directly to King Chu to buy new high-quality and low-priced movable type.
