After designing the drawings of Jenny's spinning machine, He Zhiyuan asked the craftsmen who originally made bearings to make this new spinning machine.

In the history of later generations, with the advent of the shuttle loom, the efficiency of weaving has increased, and cotton yarn is in short supply. In such a situation, the Englishman James. Hargreaves invented a new spinning machine in 1764. Different from the original spinning machine, this spinning machine arranges the yarns vertically and drives them with a spinning wheel, which greatly improves the efficiency of spinning. Hargreaves named the new machine after his daughter, the world-famous Jenny spinning machine.

Mingwei also had multi-spindle spinning machines, but these machines were still horizontally loaded and could only arrange a maximum of five spindles. In fact, the spinning machines of the five spindles in the Ming Dynasty are not popular, and more spinning machines on the market are all four spindles.

Since the beginning of spring, He Zhiyuan has built three workshops in the north of the city in one go, namely a mechanical processing workshop, a steam pumping workshop, and a textile workshop. The three workshops were all built with high walls, and Ding Zhuang patrolled the town day and night, and the level of security was no less than that of the Academy of Sciences.

He Zhiyuan took the drawings and went to the mechanical processing workshop that had just moved to the north of the city, and this time he directly found Ding Sihai and asked him to build this strange-looking textile machine according to the drawings. Ding Sihai and the craftsmen were already surprised, and this time they didn't even ask, they discussed with He Zhiyuan for a while, and after figuring out the design drawings, they organized the craftsmen to build this spinning machine. It took Ding Sihai three or four days, and after several failures, finally built a twenty-spindle Jenny spinning machine.

The structure of this spinning machine is simple, but the design is very ingenious. When spinning, as long as the operator rotates the large runner of the spinning machine and drives the shaft, the shaft will rotate the spindle rod through the rope sleeve. After this step, a small inversion of the large runner turns it down again to remove the yarn from the spindle hook. Finally, put down the spindle pressure plate to make the spindle rotate coaxially with the spindle, and roll the yarn onto the spindle, which completes the whole process and spins the cotton into cotton yarn.

The efficiency of this new spinning machine is four or five times that of the Ming Dynasty spinning machine, and not only that, but the cotton yarn it spins is of the same thickness, and the cotton cloth woven with this cotton yarn is uniform and fine, and the quality is far better than that of ordinary cotton cloth of this era.

He Zhiyuan sent someone to install this spinning machine in the compound of He Mansion, because it is the safest, and dozens of family members patrol and guard it every day, so there is no need to worry about leaking secrets.

After that, he came to the textile factory and called He Zhizhen and asked: "A few days ago, you said that there is a clever weaver who can spin yarn, and now I need a weaver who can spin yarn to help me try a new spinning machine." ”

"The owner is talking about Lu Chuanmei, she has officially taken over the shift and is now working. I'll go and call him. He Zhizhen replied happily.

"No need to call, you can take me to the workshop to have a look." Since the start of the textile factory, He Zhiyuan has not been to the workshop, and he decided to take this opportunity to go to the workshop to have a look.

Walking on the way to the workshop, He Zhiyuan asked: "How is the working status of the weavers now?" ”

"Owner, now the weavers are active, most of the weavers will take the initiative to work overtime for two hours after getting off work. They all said that four hours a day was too short. They all hope that the owner will add some more machines, and they will do more. He Zhizhen replied happily.

Because most of the female workers are still in the apprenticeship period, when the looms are still stopped, these regular weavers are still in a position to work overtime, and when all the female workers are out of the apprenticeship, they all start their official shifts, and the looms do not stop. It is impossible to work overtime, so these weavers are looking forward to the owner to build more looms.

In those days, there was no concept of an eight-hour workday, and most workshops worked six hours, or twelve hours. Now these weavers feel that four hours of work is too little, and they can't make more money if they want to.

He Zhiyuan understands the requirements of these weavers very well, but He Zhiyuan also has his own considerations, most of these weavers are not at home, and they have to take care of the elderly and children when they go home, so they must be given enough free time, otherwise blindly extending the working hours will be very unfavorable in the long run. So after careful consideration, he set the working hours as four hours, three shifts and three runs, with one day off every ten days, just in time for the craftsmen to maintain and overhaul the looms.

Then He Zhiyuan asked again: "Have you studied all the confidentiality regulations?" ”

"I learned it on the first day I entered the factory." He Zhizhen replied.

He Zhiyuan shook his head and said: "It's not enough, it must be emphasized once every ten years, so that every worker knows the importance of confidentiality, if anyone leaks secrets, not only will they be swept away, but even their husband's job will not be saved." Let them fully understand the importance of confidentiality and the price to pay for leaking. ”

He Zhizhen nodded in agreement as she walked.

He Zhiyuan continued: "The Jiading patrol team should also strengthen security defense, the news of our invention of this new loom will spread soon, some unscrupulous businessmen covet our loom, and may send spies to peek at our loom, so that the patrol team can focus on guarding against this." ”

There are five rows of large east-west workshops in this factory area, each with a hundred looms. Under the leadership of He Zhizhen, the two of them entered the workshop where Lu Chuanmei was.

At this time, the sound of a loom in the workshop sounded very loud, which made He Zhiyuan's ears very uncomfortable, but these weavers didn't care, they were all engrossed in operating next to the loom, and they didn't notice that the two of them entered the workshop at all.

The two of them came to Lu Chuanmei's loom, she was operating the loom quickly, her movements were skillful and very rhythmic. He Zhiyuan looked at the neatly stacked cloth behind her again, it was indeed strong and dense, and it was smooth and unbroken. He Zhiyuan nodded appreciatively and said, "It's really good, at first glance, it's an old weaver who has been weaving cloth for many years." ”

Lu Chuanmei, who was weaving, heard someone talking, looked up and found Director He talking with a young man, she saw He Zhizhen's respectful expression in front of him, and thought of what the master said, so she guessed that this young man was the owner.

It was she who stopped the loom, stood up and said respectfully: "The owner is good, Mr. He is in charge!" ”

He Zhiyuan looked at the middle-aged woman in front of him with an ordinary appearance and thin yellow muscles, and thought to himself that this woman was not only well-woven, but also very flexible.

"You're Lu Chuanmei, right?" He Zhiyuan asked, and before she could answer, he continued: "I heard that you are good at weaving cloth, and you have spun yarn before?" ”

"Yes, the owner." Lu Chuanmei replied cautiously: "When I was in Chaoyi before, I first spun and then weaved at home, and I did these jobs for more than 20 years. ”

"How many spindles are you using in a spinning wheel?" He Zhiyuan asked her.

"Four spindles." Lu Chuanmei replied truthfully.

"If I give you a spinning wheel of twenty spindles, will you be able to use it?"

Lu Chuanmei thought for a while and said, "As long as the owner tells me how to use it, I will use it after I am familiar with it." ”

When He Zhizhen heard about the spinning wheel of twenty spindles, he asked in surprise: "Owner, can one person with twenty spindles be busy?" ”

He Zhiyuan smiled and said, "It's busy, and it's very relaxed." ”

When Lu Chuanmei heard this, she was also very curious, because she didn't show it because of the restraint, but she thought in her heart that the owner was just a capable person, since this kind of shuttle had been invented, presumably the spinning wheel of twenty spindles must also be true. If there really were such a spinning wheel, wouldn't the efficiency be increased by four or five times!

At this time, He Zhiyuan said to the two of them: "You two go to my house and try this spinning wheel with 20 spindles." ”

Two quarters of an hour later, the three of them came to He Mansion, He Zhiyuan instructed the servants to find cotton, He Zhiyuan told Lu Chuanmei how to use this spinning machine, and briefly demonstrated, Lu Chuanmei tried to operate this spinning machine.

After about two quarters of an hour of familiarization, Lu Chuanmei became more and more proficient, and soon she was able to spin cotton yarn of uniform thickness. He Zhizhen, who was standing on the side, said: "Owner, your spinning wheel is too godly, it is four or five times faster than the original spinning wheel, and the yarn spun is of average thickness and is very symmetrical!" How did you come up with such a machine? Is this science again? ”

He Zhiyuan said with a smile: "This kind of machine was invented using scientific principles, and these principles are available in books. ”

"Oh, it's a pity I can't read." He Zhizhen sighed: "If you are literate, you can also learn science." ”

After a while, Lu Chuanmei finished spinning the cotton, and the twenty spindles were also full of cotton threads. Lu Chuanmei put away the spun cotton yarn and carefully observed the cotton yarn she spun by herself. I secretly admired the ingenuity of the owner, and he knew so much about such a young boy, so he could pay it back when he grew up? She has not praised the owner these days, and everything the owner has done has told this apprentice as long as she knows it. Therefore, these weavers all regard He Zhiyuan as a celestial man.

He Zhiyuan saw that Lu Chuanmei had finished spinning, so he asked her: "How do you feel about this spinning wheel?" ”

"Great, spinning is fast and labor-saving, much better than the original four-spindle spinning wheel." Lu Chuanmei praised sincerely, paused for a moment, and then said: "This spinning wheel invented by the owner has suddenly increased the efficiency by four or five times, and if a few spinning mills are built, those women who spin and weave at home will not be able to work anymore." ”

He Zhiyuan secretly admired Lu Chuanmei's vision, don't look at her illiterate, but her vision is very keen, and she suddenly saw the future development trend. In the history of later generations, it is true that a large number of housewives lost their jobs because of the appearance of the shuttle loom and the Jenny spinning machine, and there were even violent incidents of smashing new looms and yarn machines.

However, the wheel of history will not be reversed for fear of blocking new and advanced things, and this obstruction is futile and powerless. However, He Zhiyuan will not let this kind of violence be staged here, at least not in Juzhou!

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