Early the next morning, Shang Yi took Ye Yaoqi to the glass factory to inspect the current status of glass trial production.
Glass is known as an artifact of time travel, and the manufacturing process is not complicated. In fact, some experts in later generations are very surprised that ancient China can produce more difficult-to-process colored glaze and exquisite porcelain, but the time for making glass is far behind Europe.
, which is indeed a bit puzzling.
However, although making glass is not difficult, making glass without any experience is not something that can be done immediately. Therefore, after Shang Yi traveled to this era, he did not start making glass immediately like others. But
After defeating the Spanish Expeditionary Force, although there were no professional glass workers among the captured Spanish craftsmen, there were still several people who had done the work of making glass. In addition, after all, Shang Yi had very rich theoretical knowledge, so the glass
The factory's top project can also be officially launched.
Preparations for the glass factory started years ago, and construction started just after the New Year. Currently, trial production of glassware has begun. It is said to be a glass factory, but in fact it is a production workshop. Fortunately, the production of glassware does not require a large
As for the location, let’s stick to it for now and expand the scale step by step.
The main raw material of glass is easy to find. In fact, you can get dissolved glass liquid by heating quartz. Generally, the sand on the beach is rich in quartz. But you must not heat the sand directly, because the glass produced in that way will contain too many impurities.
Too much will affect the quality of glassware, so it is best to use quartz sand, which can be used after simple selection and washing. In addition, a certain amount of lime and soda ash must be added.
Lime is also easy to find in this era, only soda ash is a big trouble. However, Europeans have long found an alternative method, which is to use plant ash instead, and seaweed ash is the best. Just pick up the seaweed and dry it in the sun
Burn it into plant ashes. This method is European
It has been used in Europe for hundreds of years and is still used in this era. There is obviously no shortage of seaweed in Zhejiang. These technologies are all in Shang Yi’s computer, so when he communicated with the Spanish craftsmen, they were also stunned.
I was stunned, thinking that Shang Yi also worked as a glass worker.
Then what is needed is a glass furnace. This gadget Shang Yi doesn’t know how to do. After all, his computer doesn’t have everything. Of course, you can also explore it yourself, but this will take a lot of time. Fortunately, there are
Spanish craftsmen are here, and they can make up for Shang Yi's shortcomings in this regard, so they avoid many detours.
However, after Shang Yi and others arrived at the glass factory, they found Lin Fengwu sitting at the table in the factory room, holding her cheek in her hand, staring at a dozen finished glass bottles.
Of course Lin Fengwu knew the commercial value of glass, so after the glass factory started working, she squatted here without anything else, hoping to make glassware. At the same time, she could also act as a translator between Spanish craftsmen and Chinese craftsmen. And in her
There was a Spanish craftsman next to him, who also had a embarrassed expression.
Ye Yaoyao couldn't help but ask: "Miss Lin, what are you doing?"
When Lin Fengwu saw them coming, she stood up and pointed at the glass bottle on the table, smiling bitterly: "Sister Ye, look, I have made it three times in a row, but I can only make something like this. Where can I buy it?"
Shang Yi picked up a bottle and saw that the glass bottle was not completely transparent, was green in color, and contained a large number of bubbles in the middle. Although it did not affect its use, it was obviously uncompetitive as a commodity.
The Spanish craftsman looked embarrassed and scratched his head and said: "I made the liquid glass based on my memory. There should be nothing wrong with it. Why does the glass look like this?"
This Spanish craftsman is called Michel. He used to work in a glass factory for two years, mainly responsible for blowing glass dishes, but he is considered an expert among these Spanish craftsmen, so when Shang Yi proposed to make glass, he also I volunteered for the job, of course I was hoping for the bonus, but I didn't expect this to happen. I couldn't help but feel a little uneasy, for fear that Shang Yi would get angry.
However, Shang Yi did not get angry. After putting down the glass bottle, he said: "Michelle, when you burned the glass liquid, did you add saltpeter?"
Michelle was startled for a moment, but immediately clapped her hands and said, "By the way, add saltpeter. How could I forget that when I worked in the glass factory, they bought a lot of saltpeter. That's what they did." "." Then he said to Lin Fengwu: "Ms. Phoenix, don't worry, I will definitely be able to make colorless glass next time."
In fact, adding saltpeter is used as an oxidant to remove impurities. Of course, it is impossible to completely remove them. However, in this era, truly colorless and transparent glass products do not exist. Early glass products had color casts and Bubbles are a common phenomenon.
Their conversations were all in Spanish, which Ye Yaoqi couldn't understand, but Lin Fengwu heard clearly. She couldn't help but widen her eyes, looked at Shang Yi, and said, "Do you make glass?"
Shang Yi nodded and said: "I understand a little, I understand a little."
At this time, Michelle was rushing to go to the production workshop. Shang Yi stopped him again and said: "After adding saltpeter, the color can be eliminated, but what about the bubbles? Glass with so many bubbles, of course, That’s not possible.”
After hearing this, Michelle scratched his head, obviously running out of ideas. In fact, he was only half-experienced in glass making, and he only knew a little bit about it. He only vaguely remembered that removing air bubbles, in the glass industry The term "clarification" means adding a clarifier and then stirring, but he didn't know what the clarifier was made of.
Although Shang Yi had never made glass, he had richer theoretical knowledge than anyone else in this era. Seeing him like this, he smiled and said: "The method is very simple, just add some salt to the glass liquid, and then combine and stir. This method should be able to eliminate most of the bubbles. Of course, it is best to use a professional stirrer when stirring, otherwise the glass liquid will splash out and hurt people."
As he spoke, he drew a simplified diagram of a stirrer on the paper. It was actually a hollow cylinder made of refractory clay, placed in a pot for burning glass liquid, and then operated with a steel drill with a hook. Movement in the glass liquid. As long as the stirring time is long enough, not only will most of the bubbles disappear, but all stripes and stones in the glass liquid will eventually disappear, and the glass liquid will become completely symmetrical and transparent. Early optical glass adopted this method. It is made by various methods and is used to make commercial glassware, of course.
After listening to Shang Yi's words, Michelle nodded repeatedly and immediately went to the workshop to instruct the workers to carry out the construction according to the method Shang Yi said.
However, although these methods are simple for Shang Yi to say, they cannot be done right away and require repeated experiments by workers. Therefore, there is not much point in staying any longer. After Shang Yi simply asked about the situation in the glass factory, Then he returned to the General Military Mansion.
Three days later, when Shang Yi came to the glass factory again, Michelle reported to Shang Yi very excitedly that the bubbles in the glass liquid produced by this operation method had almost completely disappeared. Moreover, the entire glass liquid was very viscous. The density has also been reduced, becoming very symmetrical and flowing smoothly. This kind of glass can even be used to make simple optical instruments, such as telescopes, magnifying mirrors, etc. that Shang Yi needs most.
At the same time, Michelle also took Shang Yi and others to see the semi-finished products of a new batch of glassware that had just been made. Although they had not been annealed and could not be touched, they looked colorless, transparent, crystal clear, and indeed sharper than before. Those batches of glassware were much stronger. Lin Fengwu was also very happy. Such glassware is definitely competitive in the market.
However, these glassware are only semi-finished products now. After annealing, they still need to be polished and polished before they can be considered complete products. It will take at least four or five days. But the trial production has obviously been successful, and the next step can be Mass production of glassware began. Of course, there was also a batch of convex and concave lenses that Shang Yi needed.
Michelle also admired Shang Yi with great admiration. She also praised Shang Yi endlessly and said a lot of words such as "You are such a genius" and "You are amazing".
Shang Yi just smiled and said: "It's just a few glass bottles, nothing special. Next we have to make mirrors and window glass."
After listening to Shang Yi's words, Michelle and Lin Fengwu were both surprised, because flat glass is needed to make mirrors and window glass. This craft method is also very rare in Europe, so the price of flat glass products is also extremely high. Expensive, a glass cup about ten centimeters high can be purchased for about three or four taels of silver in the Chinese market, while an oval mirror of about ten centimeters can be purchased for more than ten taels of silver, although it is not as high as other time-traveling predecessors. A cup costs one hundred taels of silver, but the profit is considerable. After all, the raw materials for glass cost nothing at all.
The world's first flat glass casting system was created by the French around this time. It is called the flat plate casting method. The glass liquid is poured onto a large flat iron table to solidify and then polished. Mass production began in 1688, and by In 1760, the annual output of flat glass in France had reached more than 1,000 tons, most of which was used for window glass and carriage window glass.
However, the advantage of this method is that it can produce large-sized flat glass, but the disadvantage is that the initial investment in fixed assets is too large, which is almost equivalent to building a modern factory. The British first introduced this method in 1691 , the result was a complete failure, and the second introduction almost went bankrupt due to cost and loss rate issues.
In the early 19th century, another method of producing flat glass appeared, called the manual blowpipe spreading method. It was described in detail in Verne's "The Mysterious Island". The advantage of this method is that a small workshop can Flat glass has been produced, but the disadvantage is that the technical level of workers is too high. No one can do it in this era, and Shang Yi only has theoretical knowledge, so he can only give up.
However, in China and even in East Asia and Southeast Asia, the market for flat glass is completely blank. Therefore, as long as flat glass is produced, it can be taken a high-end route. Shang Yi has the final say on the price. You can get as much as you want.
Money. You can buy a piece of flat glass with a side of about one meter for one thousand taels of silver. Anyway, there will always be scammers who will sell it.