Zhang Dayong organized carpenters to make these cotton textile tools in four days, and gins, slingshots, cotton gins, spinning wheels, and looms were born two hundred years ahead of schedule on the 30th day of the first month of the second year of Tianxi. Meng Ming found a few maids who were quick with their hands and feet and knew how to spin linen, and according to the method he said, cotton into cotton cloth required a more complicated process.

The cotton that is first packed is opened and the cotton seeds inside are separated from the cotton wool with a ginning machine to expose the cotton wool inside. The exposed cotton wool is then bounced large and fluffy through a large slingshot, and then passed through a roller that looks like a hedgehog in the cotton ginner, and combed through it. This process is called carding, and carding is divided into carding and combing. Generally speaking, combing wastes more raw materials, generally requires longer cotton fibers, and the less impurities of the cotton cloth are obtained, the better the quality.

The combed flakes of cotton are again pulled through a smaller roller roller and turned into slivers. The sliver is again subdivided into thinner, thread-like patterns wound around a tube. The obtained part of the cotton sliver will be sent to the spinning wheel for twisting, that is, the sliver is further thinned and stretched, the spinning wheel pulls up the thread head and winds it on the turntable, and the water spinning wheel rotates when the cotton sliver is swung, so that the cotton on the cotton strip is continuously pulled into a yarn and wound on the spinning wheel. After the cotton yarn is obtained, it is wound into small spindles, fed into a loom, and woven horizontally and vertically into cloth.

It took an hour to test and debug the machine, and because he was not skilled, he spun three zhang cotton cloth. The first two zhang lines were uneven and sparse, so Meng Ming ordered them to be cut down and discarded. The last zhang met the standard in his heart, so he asked these maids to continue weaving, and after weaving nine zhang, these ten zhang cotton cloth was much softer than linen, and it could be used directly, that is, pure white, and it would need to be printed and dyed in the future.

Isn't this just calling a few old women on the farm who can batik to print and dye. The specific step is to put the white cloth flat on the table and dot the wax flowers. The method of lighting the wax is to put the beeswax in a porcelain bowl and melt the wax with charcoal ash from the brazier, so that you can use a copper knife to dip the beeswax in it. The first step in painting is to find a good place to paint on the white cloth. There are two ways to paint, one is to cut patterns according to the paper, and then draw various patterns and patterns; One is to use your fingernails to draw a general outline on a white cloth, and you can draw a variety of beautiful patterns as you like.

The method of dipping and dyeing is to put the painted wax pieces in the dyeing vat of the dyed color, and each piece needs to be soaked for five or six days. For example, if you dye blue, you will get a light blue color after the first soaking, and then you will get a dark blue color after soaking it several times. If you need to dye the cloth with dark and light colors, after the first soaking, dip and dye the dotted wax flowers on the light blue, and two dark and light patterns will appear after dyeing. When the wax piece is broken due to folding, it will produce natural cracks, generally known as "ice patterns", and sometimes "ice patterns" are also artificially made according to customization, "ice patterns" can make the batik pattern more layered, and the flavor is unique and dusty.

The cotton cloth printed and dyed can be dyed in five or six days, and now it begins to be printed and dyed according to the process in the dyeing vat.

Put away the remaining lint, you can make quilts, you can make six quilts, eight cotton jackets, and eight pairs of cotton shoes, just enough for Meng Ming's family and Yuchan's family. Meng Ming told the tailors at home about the style of the quilt and cotton jacket, and they made it in the evening, so they asked the maid to send it to the family and the jade cicada's house. Meng Ming's father and mother all praised it, saying that it was much warmer than the linen quilt and linen jacket. In the future, you have to build a weaving factory and make money.

Meng Ming decided to build a weaving factory on his farm, and then build a few waterwheels, using water conservancy to drive the spinning machine, saving labor and effort; Water conservancy can also be used to drive the mill to grind the surface. Now the Song Dynasty already has the current waterwheel. At this time, it was the farming time, Meng Ming called Qin Li and asked him to call the tenants to build five waterwheels with a diameter of six meters and three with a diameter of five meters, give the money to start work, and find a lot of carpenters. These waterwheels were erected for about a month, and it was March, just in time for spring ploughing. The timing is appropriate. Now Meng Ming is developing bearings, of course, he has to refine qualified steel.

After Meng Ming took the duty, he showed the remaining piece of cotton cloth to Lu Yiqing, and he was stunned. It is said that this is much stronger than linen, and if the cost is comparable to linen, it will definitely replace linen in the future. Meng Ming showed him the cotton jacket he was wearing and the cotton shoes he was wearing on the soles of his feet, and he also talked about the quilt, he said: "This is enough to withstand the cold." This cotton is also a species that benefits the country and the people, and must be vigorously promoted."

Meng Ming told him that this should be done slowly, new things need to be accepted by people, and they need a process, and they also have shortcomings, such as potatoes and sweet potatoes with large yields, barren tolerance, and no picking. However, sweet potatoes cannot be used as a staple food, and long-term consumption will hurt the stomach; Potatoes can be used as a staple food, but the taste is poor, and of course they can also be used as vegetables. It was used for emergency relief in years of famine. Sweet potatoes can be used to make wine, and potatoes can also be used as snacks. They also have to find ways to increase the yield of wheat and rice, and dig deep for ways to increase yield. In addition, Meng Ming also has a seed trial plant called corn, with a yield of ten quintals, suitable for planting in the north, drought tolerant, and trial planting this year. This year's R&D Division has a heavy task.

Next year's cotton must be planted on a trial basis, and all 10 bales of cottonseed will be planted. Meng Ming asked his father to buy a printing and dyeing factory, so that he could directly produce finished colored cloth, and by the way, he would also improve the printing and dyeing process.