The next step is to use sand to make various ceramic and metal molds to facilitate quick glass blowing.
In the beginning, Chen Jingke still needed to provide ideas, but soon the craftsmen's shaping skills and patterns surpassed his. Sometimes he had to be shocked by the creativity of these people.
But his work is not over yet, he is preparing to make an ultra-difficult glass product.
A product that seems very simple and was very common in previous lives, but is actually very difficult and can be called the flower of the glass industry.
plate glass.
Yes, it's flat glass.
Human beings have mastered glass making techniques for thousands of years. During this period, the East and the West worked together to create various glass products.
The shapes of some glass products are very complex and exquisite, and are not inferior to modern ones at all.
However, the ancients who could make complex glassware could not make even the simplest flat glass, let alone large pieces of flat glass.
It was not until the 1950s that the technical difficulties were overcome and the float glass-making technology was invented, realizing the industrialized manufacturing of flat glass.
It was only then that large pieces of floor-to-ceiling glass became a common architectural decoration.
So how did humans make flat glass before this?
There are two processes, one is the method of producing small pieces of flat glass, and the other is the method of producing large pieces of glass.
The production technology of small pieces of flat glass is relatively simple. First, the glass is blown into a bladder shape, the two ends are cut off, and then the middle is cut and spread.
After tempering and trimming, it becomes a relatively rough piece of flat glass.
If you need more delicate and transparent flat glass, you will need to spend time polishing it.
The most difficult thing was to make large pieces of flat glass. It was not until the eve of the Industrial Revolution that the French invented the die-casting process to produce flat glass.
That is to put the molten glass on a flat metal plate and roll it back and forth with a rolling shaft to get a piece of flat glass.
But when the glass solidifies, ripples form on the surface, making it blurry than a mosaic action movie.
If you want to get smooth and transparent glass, you need to spend time polishing it.
This process requires the cooperation of two workers and is extremely time-consuming. Even the most skilled workers will need a hundred man-hours to polish the desired effect.
If an accident occurs and the glass breaks, I'm sorry and have to start over.
Therefore, large pieces of flat glass are very expensive. It was so expensive that when Guangxu wanted to install one for his door, Cixi personally issued an order to reprimand the officials of the Ministry of Household Affairs for not stopping it.
Even Cixi thought it was expensive. You can imagine how high the price was at that time.
Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to say that flat glass is the flower of the glass industry.
What Chen Jingke has to do now is to take down this flower.
Of course, it's not float glass. This thing doesn't have a certain industrial foundation, so don't even think about it. What he wants to do is die-cast glass.
In fact, unless there are special needs, die-cast corrugated glass can be used as architectural decoration without polishing at all.
This kind of glass with its own mosaic can also protect people's privacy to a certain extent.
He told the craftsmen his idea, and they all worked together to quickly come up with a set of similar die-casting equipment.
After constant improvements and corrections, we finally created corrugated glass that barely meets the requirements.
The craftsmen were very calm about this machine and this rough piece of glass. They had no idea what it meant.
Some people even think that it is a waste of time and effort to build a machine for such a piece of glass.
If you have that time, you might as well study more unique glass shapes.
Chen Jingke didn't have the same experience as them, nor did he explain much. It would be difficult for people who have not experienced it to understand its meaning.
As long as these craftsmen honestly work according to his orders, it will be fine.
Flat glass needs to be cut. As we all know, the best tool for cutting glass is diamond, which also has another name: diamond.
Diamond is not unique to modern times. The ancients discovered it long ago. The name diamond is what the ancient Chinese called it.
Wan Zhen of the Eastern Jin Dynasty wrote "Nanzhou Foreign Objects": Diamond is a stone, its shape is like a bead, it is strong and has no cracks (piece).
"Tang Liu Dian" also has records about diamonds, where it is called diamond.
It's just that the ancient Chinese didn't play with diamonds, and not many people in the world even played with diamonds. Everyone is not very rare about this kind of thing.
It wasn't until modern times that a certain business group associated it with marriage and love, and hyped it up for hundreds of years, successfully raising it to a sky-high price.
In fact, diamond reserves are very abundant. On average, everyone can get a basket and be rich, and they can also be manufactured artificially.
The key is that artificial diamonds are exactly the same as natural diamonds, and no current equipment can tell the difference between the two.
If you want to know which one is man-made and which one is natural, all you need to do is rely on the certificate. Whatever is written on it is what it is.
That’s why some people say that the most successful business hype in the world is selling diamonds.
The ancients did not play with diamonds, and the place of production is not in China, so this thing is really a scarce thing.
But the most indispensable thing in the palace was rare things. Chen Jingke proposed to use diamonds to cut glass, and Changsun Wugou immediately sent several pieces, and they were not small in size.
The largest piece weighs about one or two, which translates to more than a hundred carats, and the smallest piece weighs thirty or forty carats.
The status of these items in the palace's treasury is not much different from that of stones, and no one cares about them at all.
Crush the smallest piece of diamond and use the small pieces to make a glass knife. The next step is to test your skills and patience.
Two skilled craftsmen were hired to polish it. They first practiced with small pieces of glass, and then polished with large pieces of glass after mastering the skills.
While the craftsmen were polishing the glass, Chen Jingke was not idle and started another invention.
In other words, he made plate glass not simply to make windows, but for a more important purpose.
Plane mirror.
This is the magic tool for cutting leeks.
I won’t go into details about the silver mirror reaction here. Under the current conditions, he couldn’t get harmless materials like glucose, so he could only choose to use toxic mercury.
In order to prevent mercury from hurting people, he thought of a way.
Make a copper shell to wrap the mirror tightly, and stuff some sulfur powder inside the shell - sulfur can absorb volatile mercury gas.
With such multiple protections, the harm of mercury mirrors is almost negligible.
When the first mirror was made, the craftsmen finally showed shocked expressions. Then they thought they understood Chen Jingke's purpose of making the die-casting machine, and admired him very much.
Next, Chen Jingke used his power for personal gain and made dozens of mirrors the size of A4 paper, which he prepared to take away and give away when he left the palace.
He didn't directly give these small mirrors to Changsun Wujia. They weren't shocking enough. If he wanted to, he would just give them a floor-length mirror.
After waiting for another ten days, two pieces of flat glass measuring one meter and a half high and seventy centimeters wide were polished and turned into two floor-to-ceiling mirrors.
It was wrapped in an exquisite shell made of copper. If he hadn't been afraid of being criticized, he would have wanted to inlaid it with gold, silver and precious stones.
Even so, these two floor-to-ceiling mirrors are extremely beautiful.
When they appeared in front of Changsun Wugou, the queen could no longer maintain her image and rushed over to hug them without letting go.
Looking at herself in the mirror, she asked in disbelief: "Is this also made of glass?"
Chen Jingke felt a sense of accomplishment in his heart and said: "Yes, this is also made of glass, and the process is very complicated. It takes two craftsmen almost ten days to make two such mirrors."
A smile appeared on Changsun Wugu's lips: "Is that so? Then we have to sell it more expensively. What do you think of Bai Min?"
Chen Jingke thought for a while and said: "It's too low. I think it's cheap if it's doubled."
Changsun Wugou said without hesitation: "Then double it, three hundred coins per side."
Chen Jingke is not talking nonsense. In the 18th and 19th centuries, such a large flat glass sold for one hundred pounds in the UK. At that time, each pound contained about 7.32 grams of pure gold, and one hundred pounds was equivalent to 732 grams of gold.
Of course, prices in two different countries at different times cannot be exactly the same, but this can at least be used as a reference.
Converting ancient and modern units, one tael in the Tang Dynasty is equivalent to thirty-one grams today, and seven hundred and thirty-two grams is equivalent to 23.6 taels in the Tang Dynasty.
In the Tang Dynasty, one tael of gold was approximately equivalent to ten min coins, and 732 grams of gold was approximately equivalent to 326 copper coins.
And this is only the price of flat glass, and the price of making it into a flat mirror is even higher.
Also, there were competitors in the UK back then, and France and other countries were also selling glass, and competition drove down prices.
At this time, the Tang Dynasty was the only one in the world, and Sanbai Min was definitely very kind.
However, considering the sales volume issue, Chen Jingke thought for a while and suggested: "It is true that being expensive can bring you more money, but it will also lower the sales volume. It is not as good as 200 yuan per side."
"In this way, more people will consider buying, and more money can be made with small profits but quick turnover."
"And when the price is low, those businessmen will be willing to sell mirrors abroad. When overseas sales are opened, real money will come rolling in."
Changsun Wugou had a different opinion, saying: "No, if the mirror can be produced in large quantities, your idea is right, but the manufacturing process is complicated and takes a long time."
"It takes two skilled craftsmen ten days to make two sides, which is only seventy sides a year. Even if we use a hundred craftsmen, it will only be more than three thousand sides a year."
"The world is so big, how can a mere three thousand mirrors be filled up? I think three hundred mirrors are too cheap."
Chen Jingke thought about it for a moment and realized that this was true, and said: "My aunt said that I was wrong, so I'll give it three hundred coins."
Both mirrors were left behind by the eldest grandson Wugou. Although Chen Jingke argued hard, one was for the little Sizi. A mother cannot compete with her daughter for things.
Changsun Wugou said directly: I will keep it for her first, and then give it to her when she grows up.
Okay, Chen Jingke was speechless immediately.
However, considering that the mirror contained mercury and would be dangerous if broken, there was no further argument.
The mirror was his last product. After it was successfully made, he could not come up with any new tricks. The rest had to be explored by the craftsmen themselves.
So he said goodbye to Changsun Wugou, and after receiving permission, he returned to Zixiao Temple with the dozens of small mirrors.