Chapter 205 Progress
"Sir, come and see!"
Early the next morning, Craftsman Dahn enthusiastically invited Luo Ning to the expanded ironwood workshop to visit the loom he had tinkered with recently.
Based on the drawings provided by Luo Ning and the many improvements made by Dahn, Luo Ning has already seen the prototype of the treadle loom.
"Congratulations, Dahn, this loom is already five or six points in shape."
He sat on the stool in front of the loom and tried to step on the pedal twice. He recalled the scene of weaving in his mind and felt the feedback from the loom in front of him.
"The weaving frame should be almost the same, but the rotation when continuously pedaling is a bit jerky, and the pedal mechanism is not smooth enough. It should be carefully polished and its transmission mechanism should be optimized."
"Also, have you tried the effect?" Luo Ning asked, fiddling with the bamboo reed.
Dan shook his head awkwardly, "Sir, this loom was only fully assembled two days ago, and no formal operation has been attempted yet."
Craftsman Daen is well-known in the Wushan Territory. At this moment, he is being inspected by the lord and behaves like a student facing the teacher checking his homework.
It's not that he is afraid of Luo Ning's authority, but that he cares very much about his production results.
"You can ask Leah to help you give it a try."
Luo Ning suggested, "But before trying it, there are still many areas that need to be improved on this loom."
He began to give suggestions to the machine. For example, the bamboo reed was too sparse, and the gauze was based on eight hundred reeds. The bamboo reed made by Dahn probably did not even have three hundred and needed to be renovated. In addition, there was also a problem with the healds, and Tools such as bamboo baskets, bamboo baskets, shuttles, etc. that match the loom also need to be made.
Luo Ning asked all the questions he could think of, especially when he said that he hoped to have a loom put into use during this year's cocoon harvest, which made Craftsman Dahn feel a lot of pressure.
Regarding this, Luo Ning held an optimistic attitude. After all, there is motivation only when there is pressure.
It's only February now, and there are still six months left before this year's silkworm cocoon harvest. It is still possible to transform it with the personal ability of Master Daen.
After Luo Ning inspected the loom, he took a look at the production of iron and wood equipment.
As William recruited apprentices and carpenters from Swamp Town were sent here one after another, the number of people involved in the production has reached more than twenty!
Nowadays, the production capacity of Ironwood shields, Ironwood armor and other armors has been greatly improved. There is no problem in completing the order for the first knight squad of Wushan Castle before April.
Even according to William's estimate, there is probably a batch left.
Luo Ning promised to provide sufficient food, allowing them to increase their horsepower to produce as much as they could, and also asked the other party to study the possibility of ironwood arrows.
Now Rydal and McCann are training new infantry, archers and cavalry, and it is estimated that there will be two knight squads in the first half of the year.
Regardless of whether there are enough professional knights for the moment, the number of the three types of soldiers mentioned above can reach more than two hundred, and the necessary armor and weapons need to be matched.
After inspecting the ironwood workshop, Ronin turned to Kallus' blacksmith shop and Jim's pottery workshop.
When he left last time, Ronin assigned Jim a task - to bake bricks and modify the kiln to increase the temperature inside the kiln.
This matter was known to Kallus, and combined with the fact that refining molten iron also requires high temperatures, blacksmiths, potters, and masons took the loess from Shanlin Town and fired a batch of bricks, and then used these bricks to build an iron-making blast furnace and The kiln for firing porcelain has achieved unexpected results.
First of all, Jim has been able to fire white porcelain. Although the success rate is less than 30%, it is already a good start.
In order to reward several people for their efforts and achievements, Luo Ning distributed one gold coin and five silver coins to Jim and his apprentice respectively.
At the same time, the next phase of tasks was arranged for themββ
Improve the ability to control the temperature of the kiln to improve the success rate of porcelain firing. At the same time, we collect various colored ores to make glazes of different colors, and try to draw patterns on the body to form patterned porcelain.
new igh.πππ
Although successfully firing porcelain is more than half of the success, but if you want to produce exquisite, unique, high-value, and diverse finished products, you still need to try more.
After this firing is successful, you can consider moving Jim and others to Huitu Village to settle down. After all, the kaolin veins are there.
Smelting clay and firing it in Huitu Village saves a lot of effort than transporting the materials back to Shanlin Town.
On the other hand, Kallus has already built the blast furnace for ironmaking according to the drawings drawn by Ronin.
However, although the blast furnace looks decent, it is still a bit unsatisfactory in the iron-making process. Occasionally, a little molten iron can be obtained, but most of the time the iron blocks put in do not melt and no molten iron comes out.
Luo Ning watched Kallus and his apprentices add materials to the blast furnace, blast them, and smelt them. There should be no problems with the process, and there are no problems with the blast furnace. The fuel used is also made of high-quality charcoal, which is more energy-saving than ordinary wood. bring higher temperatures.
After comprehensive analysis, Luo Ning considered that there was something wrong with the blower.
Although the blast furnace is not very large, the accompanying blower is still a bit small.
Even if the apprentices pull hard, the amount of air blown in at a time is very limited. Without enough oxygen entering from the bottom of the blast furnace, it will not be able to generate a temperature sufficient to melt the iron.
This problem is easy to solve.
Ronin asked Kallus to contact William Carpenter and ask the other party to arrange for one or two apprentices to make two larger ones based on the appearance of the blower.
If it is possible to replace the blower, then Luo Ning has mastered the ability to smelt molten iron. Later, he will cast farm tools in batches, making Wubeiling's farming technology a step further.
Although pig iron cannot be used to make weapons, if the skill of frying steel is added, the way to obtain steel will be much simpler.
The only pity is that no iron ore veins have been found in Wubei Territory. Iron ore will probably need to be purchased from outside.
While observing the iron smelting, Luo Ning was also wondering if the iron smelting furnace could be transformed through magic?
For example, create a fire magic array in an iron-making blast furnace, and use magic cores or magic crystals to generate high temperatures to melt iron ore.
However, after thinking about it, Luo Ning did not continue his research.
First of all, he didn't know how to make this kind of magic array;
Secondly, whether you use magic core or magic crystal as energy, the price paid is very expensive.
A full magic crystal costs hundreds of gold coins. Using it to smelt iron is simply an unnecessary increase in costs and a waste of money.
In contrast, using wood as fuel, although it is a bit more troublesome to collect and process, is much more economical than using magic cores and magic crystals.
After spending two days, Luo Ning had a good grasp of various situations in Shanlin Town, and everything was developing in a good direction.
After he himself arranged the development direction of the territory, he devoted his time to practicing and making third-level and fourth-level spell scrolls.
Time flies, and March enters in a blink of an eye.
During these days, Wilson and his assistants traveled through several territories under the escort of several cavalry squads.
Thanks to their active supervision, spring plowing is proceeding in an orderly manner in places such as Shanlin Town and Swamp Town.
Land preparation, seed treatment, sowing, fertilizing, irrigation, etc., every job has changed.
Although this change still has a lot of room for improvement, it has made a lot of progress compared to the previous barbaric sowing methods.
With the popularization and standardization of field management work in the future, Luo Ning believes that this year's grain harvest in Wubei Ling will definitely be better than in previous years, unless unexpected situations such as natural disasters occur.
"Sir, Knight Rogner wants to see you." The manservant Galen came to the study door and reported respectfully.
"Has the food already arrived?"
Luo Ning put down the pen in his hand and drew a horizontal knife shape on the paper.
"Bring him to me." (End of chapter)
