Chapter 135: typography

After discussions with two female advisers, Paul presented his new ideas at a regular meeting of the State Council.

He emphasized two points: the health industry and the printing industry.

The officials of the Government Affairs Council who participated in the meeting took turns to experience a microscope, and they all exclaimed that it was incredible. They did not expect that there is another world in the tiny place that cannot be touched by human eyes.

Someone said to Paul: "This will set off a major earthquake in the academic world. I suggest that you send your new discoveries to the Mingli Headquarters. They will definitely erect a statue for you in the central square of the holy capital."

"Haha, is it?" Paul scratched his head a little embarrassedly, after all, he didn't really invent the microscope.

In addition to widely publicizing the concept of hygiene and popularizing scientific nursing methods such as disinfection and antibacterial, Paul also asked the Government Administration Council to provide material and financial support for the two female consultants in order to train a group of "professional" medical personnel, and in every A village and town set up a health center and send medical personnel to station it. Of course, at this stage, money is still charged.

But officials are clearly more interested in the lucrative printing industry than in science and technology like microscopes and microbes.

Think about it, if you print words and pictures on sheets of worthless paper, and then bind them into a book, it will immediately become a book that requires a lot of manual labor to copy. The price difference between a book and a pile of paper But it's getting bigger.

Moreover, printed books have two huge advantages over handwritten books:

One is quality. Transcribers often have typos, smears and other flaws when copying books. With printing, as long as there are no mistakes on the printing plate, the text on the book will be correct. Then hire a master engraver with higher skills to make the printed characters neat and beautiful, which will definitely make a big difference from traditional hand-written books.

The second is the cost. The scribes employed by the traditional book copying industry must be able to write well, and their own cultural level should not be too low. In this era when literacy is considered a talent, it is a huge cost to hire such a large group of people. There is also the cost of time, and the difference is even greater.

This is simply a way to grab money... Ah no, it is a great progress in the history of human civilization.

"Gentlemen, the printing technique we can use now is only a very elementary technology. I call it engraving printing. At the current stage, we can only use it for emergencies. Engraving is still very time-consuming and labor-intensive. Like the Holy Book A tome like that can take a long time to engrave.”

Paul introduced his improvement plan to everyone: "My idea is to develop a tool that can arrange words or letters zìyóu, which I call movable type printing."

He explained the principle of movable type printing to everyone, and the officials were amazed again.

Finally, Paul took out a stack of paper and handed it to the officials of the Ministry of Industry, which contained a detailed description of the principle of movable type printing and the structure of the original printing machine, and ordered: "Give this to the craftsmen in the machinery factory, and mobilize people to cast a Batch movable type, and make a printing press."

Casting metal movable type is troublesome. If the casting of movable type is not regular, it will seriously affect the typesetting of characters. It was necessary to develop a special printing ink. In Paul's memory, the printing ink invented by Gutenberg seemed to be composed of linseed oil, lamp soot, varnish and other raw materials, which could stick to both metal and paper. superior.

If you just cast metal movable type, you have to manually apply ink and wipe the paper, and the characteristics of ink make this kind of work not easy, but having a printing machine can greatly save time and effort.

The most primitive movable type printing machine in the West seems to be modified from a screw press type flax press. This kind of mechanical structure is simple. The transom has a rotatable wooden screw that holds down a reinforced pressure plate or top plate that slides between the uprights, and anyone who wants to apply pressure evenly on a flat surface is likely to think of using this simple device.

The structure diagram of the printing press that Paul gave to the craftsmen was drawn according to this equipment.

He announced: "Once the printing machine is successfully developed, we will build a printing factory and promote this technology to the people, so as to vigorously promote the cultural and educational undertakings in the territory."

"In addition to this, I have already commissioned Quiller Foster to bring from the South a large number of Southern books, poetry, essays, novels, etc., and we can print these books in large quantities, bind them beautifully, and then reprint them. Shipped south to sell to the arty aristocrats and the rich."

This is another source of wealth.

At the regular meeting, Paul also got three pieces of news that made him happy.

The first good news is that Hansel, who went to the capital again, sent a letter saying that this time he recruited more talents, including several alchemists, and besides talents, he also gathered a large number of Refugees are going to be sent to the Northwest Gulf together.

The war in the south created a lot of refugees going north, which caused a headache for the northern lords. It was already "struggling" to feed their subjects. How could there be "surplus" food to feed these refugees? The influx has continued to deteriorate the security situation in the major territories.

Now Hansel is flaunting the banner of recruiting refugees all the way, and has also set up shelters on several major traffic arteries. While holding the mentality of watching fools jokes, the big and small lords organize their hands to tie up the refugees in their territories and send them to his Send it to the shelter.

"The letter said that there might be as many as six or seven hundred people in the first batch. Do we have the ability to accept these refugees?"

"The Government Council has already made preparations to accommodate refugees. Considering that due to customs and other reasons, they are likely to have conflicts with the locals in their lives. We have built a batch of temporary houses on the south bank of the Weiss River for them to live in. In addition, The factory owners and farmers from all over the country were notified and asked them to come and recruit people."

On behalf of the State Council, General Manager Ford gave Paul a satisfactory answer.

The second good news is that the ordnance factory improved huǒyàodepèifāng. In theory, the combination ratio of nitrate, sulfur, and charcoal is 78.74%: 11.84%: 11.32%. Huǒyàopèifāng is the best huǒyàopèifāng, that is, this kind of huǒyào generates the most gas, releases the most heat, rises the most, and has the most lethal power. strongest.

The craftsmen did not know the chemical knowledge, but they still relied on a lot of experiments to conclude the best huǒyàopèifāng for muskets and cannons respectively. The combination ratio of nitrate, sulfur, and charcoal for firing huǒyào for guns was 75%: 10%: 15 %, the combination ratio of nitrate, sulfur, and charcoal used for firing huǒyào is 78%: 8%: 14%.

After this improvement, not only the power of huǒyào has been enhanced, but also the service life of the guns has been extended~www.readwn.com~ The artificers also designed a set of huǒyào grinding and stirring equipment driven by water, so that the production of huǒyào Efficiency and fineness are greatly improved, and a lot of manpower is saved.

The third piece of good news is that the craftsmen of the ordnance factory finally produced a reliable spring. The artificers from the capital brought advanced heat treatment technology and made great contributions in this regard. With the spring, the first flintlock gun was assembled. Combined with the improved quality of the huǒyào, the firing rate reached more than 80%.

Paul ordered to continue to urge the ordnance factory to improve the flintlock. With flintlock guns, soldiers can be arranged more closely, which greatly increases the density of firepower, and can also avoid the interference of weather factors to a certain extent. Sooner or later, he will have all his troops replaced with flintlock guns.

Paul suddenly had a flash of inspiration: "I suddenly thought of another idea to make money. Now that we have a good spring, can we make a shock absorber for our carriage, the current carriage is really uncomfortable to sit in."

Using springs to make shock absorbers for carriages is a profitable tool for people who travel through all walks of life, how could he let it go.

The officials of the Ministry of Industry said that Paul's idea would be conveyed to the craftsmen in the machinery factory immediately. In fact, the shock absorption of the carriage does not need to rely on springs. The world already has various shock absorption measures.

After arranging a series of things, Paul decided to set off for Fulan Port again, because two new sailing ships have been manufactured, and one of them will soon go south to open a new sea route. He wants to see " Expedition Team" lineup.

Unexpectedly, this time, the female advisor Ladi offered to go with him.

The female consultant said to Paul solemnly:

"My lord, you may encounter some bad things on the road."