Chapter 49: paper and china
The next day, Paul once again invited Quiller Foster to the hall, accompanied by everyone from the Lichman Adventure Group.
Quiller happily guessed: "My friend, I guess you are going to show me your 'gadgets' today?"
"That's right!" Paul snapped his fingers, turned his head and said loudly, "Come on!"
I saw two servants coming over with two trays in their hands and putting them on the table. The trays were covered with cloth, so the contents could not be seen.
Quiller said with a smile: "Huh? Is there a lot of mystery?" Everyone in the adventure group also showed guessing expressions.
"Clang clang clang!" Paul lifted the cloth on the first skewer all at once, "the first one, 'paper'".
"Paper?" Everyone was puzzled. You made it so mysterious just to let us see the paper?
The head of the adventure group, Meru, looked sullen: "Is the lord kidding us?"
Paul shook his fingers and said, "Don't worry, my paper is extraordinary. It is not made of sheepskin, but made of very cheap raw materials. The production process is simple and saves a lot of manpower. Material cost, the price is much lower than parchment."
Quiller had heard Paul talk about the new type of paper in Port Fulan, so he wasn't too surprised, he picked up a piece of paper and kept rubbing it, admiring: "This 'paper' is really good, it can replace parchment. If it can be mass-produced as you said that day, the prospect should be very promising. By the way, what is this made of?"
Paul refused: "Sorry, business secrets. Even if you are my friend, you can't disclose it."
"Hmph! How petty. What's that second tray?"
Paul lifted the cloth on the second tray, "Keep your eyes open and look carefully! Clang clang clang! I call this thing 'porcelain'."
"Oh!" Everyone exclaimed after seeing the things on the tray.
This is a porcelain dish, immaculately white and crystal clear, this is the first impression that everyone feels after seeing it.
Similar to Europe in the Middle Ages, the utensils used by most people in this world are pottery, and those who have some conditions use metal utensils, such as copper utensils, and the upper-class nobles use silver utensils, but no matter how they are maintained, metal products are always The problem of rusting cannot be avoided, and after a period of time, it will not be as clean as before. The appearance of porcelain is much better, and its appearance is so much higher than that of yellow pottery and bronze.
Paul proudly introduced: "How is it? Doesn't it look good? And it won't rust!"
At the beginning, the Europeans took great pains to obtain the secret recipe for making porcelain. In the end, it was the French missionary Perry Entrecollet who went undercover in Jingdezhen. Local porcelain comparable to Chinese porcelain has been produced. In fact, the biggest core of the secret of porcelain is two: kaolin (or magnet) and high temperature.
Fortunately, kaolin was discovered not far from Huxin Town. Paul recruited a group of potters, set up a cellar factory, and started firing porcelain experimentally. It was not ideal at the beginning, because the temperature was not easy to control, and firing porcelain required a high temperature of more than 1200 degrees. In order to solve this problem, Paul hired a glass craftsman to manufacture the world's first mercury thermometer. Although there were errors, it was barely enough. Mercury thermometers also cannot reach the measurement range above 400 degrees. Use a thermometer to measure the temperature around the porcelain cellar, combined with the spitting temperature measurement method that Paul recalled—that is, spit into the kiln mouth, the saliva will turn into small jumping water droplets before evaporating, and then judge the temperature according to the height of the beating water droplets —Finally, a sustained and stable high temperature of over 1200 degrees was produced.
Another important step before firing in the cellar is glazing. If there is no glazing, although porcelain can be fired, it will be rough. The glaze is made by mixing pottery clay water with plant ash and stirring evenly, and it needs to be filtered before use. This step greatly affects the appearance of the finished product, but it is not so much during the trial production. The perfect glazing skills need to be explored slowly by craftsmen.
When Paul regained Port Fulan, the craftsmen in Huxin Town finally produced the first batch of decent porcelain after a lot of experiments. The porcelain dish in front of me is one of the trial products. It does not have the beautiful pictures on it like the common porcelain on the earth. Because the pigment formula for coloring the porcelain is a secret, Paul is afraid that if the mix is mixed, it will affect the firing, so the trial product If there is no painting, let’s solve the problem first. The technology of painting is for the craftsmen to study slowly.
The trial product is actually not perfect, there are many flaws, far from being pure and flawless, but it is enough to shock the natives of other worlds like Quiller.
Quiller asked excitedly: "You... you want to sell this kind of thing?"
Paul nodded proudly and replied: "Of course, this is just an experimental product in the early stage, and there are still many flaws, far from being perfect. I will sell it in the future, and it will be more beautiful than this~ www.readwn.com~ There will be more Draw all kinds of beautiful patterns."
The young master of the Foster family sighed; "This will set off a storm!" No matter how much Quiller hated the family business, after all, he still inherited some business genes.
Looking at the people in the Lichman Adventure Group who were also staring at the porcelain plate in a daze, Paul said loudly: "I announce that each of you present will receive a piece of trial porcelain, and I will issue a certificate in the name of the Greiman family. , proving that they are the first batch of porcelain in the world. Although these trial products are far from being perfect, if the porcelain can be sold well, their collection value will be far from inestimable.”
Dean in the adventure group hurriedly said: "How is this possible? This kind of thing is too expensive, we can't accept it. Oops—" Dean's foot was stepped on severely by the leader Meru.
Meru made a gesture of admiration and said to Paul: "Lord Greyman, I'm sorry, I feel very sorry for my misunderstanding of you before. In fact, you are neither lewd, cowardly, nor cowardly. It turns out that you are a generous, kind, A good man who cares about his people."
Paul clasped his hands in front of his chest, raised his chest and looked up, "Hmph! Have you finally seen my real side?"
Ugh? No, is that the kind of image I was in your eyes before? Forget it, I am happy today, so I will forget the villain as an adult.
He made a straight face: "This is not a free gift. After you return to the south, you must promote it for me."
Quiller and Meru repeatedly agreed.
One made a guarantee: "Our businessmen will definitely compete to ask you for agency rights."
One with bright eyes: "Get rich, get rich!"
Well, the son of a powerful figure in the council, and a famous adventure group, should be able to generate a lot of advertising effect.
