It is that this crossing artifact still has some shortcomings, and the glass contains a large amount of subtle qi and numbness, although it does not affect the use, but it seriously affects the appearance. ()

In fact, truly colorless, transparent glass objects did not exist in any time and space in the 17th century. In the early days, it was common for glass products to have color casts and bubbles. Even modern glass products are not absolutely free of bubbles, but the number is very small and imperceptible. For the traversers who are accustomed to seeing the crystal clear of modern glassware, the raw materials in front of them are still a little rough.

So the next step is to get rid of the bubbles. Removing air bubbles, in the glass industry the term is called "clarification", some people vaguely remember that clarification is to add a clarifier. But no one knows exactly what the fining agent is.

In addition, remember that stirring is also a process to remove air bubbles, and the two may be used together.

People vaguely remember that arsenic seems to be a kind of fining agent. This highly toxic drug is hard to come hold of in any time and space. Fortunately, in the past, according to the requirements of the agricultural department, Guo Yi had already purchased out the arsenic in Guangzhou City, and Wu Nanhai originally planned to use it for soaking.

The so-called arsenic clarification, arsenic is added to the liquid glass, when the arsenic enters the liquid glass, steam is generated due to high temperature, and these vapors exist in the form of large bubbles in the glass slurry, and the large bubbles will gradually absorb the small bubbles scattered around in the process of stirring the glass slurry, and finally take away the small bubbles.

This method is indeed feasible, but the contamination of the process is terrifying when arsenic is added to the hot liquid glass and sublimated into a highly toxic vapor. The glass team received several masks and gas masks to start the first shiyan.

After the glass melts, the glaziers first throw some ground saltpeter into the > to decolorize. Then I started to stir the glass paste constantly, the pot had a lid, and the stirring steel drill could only be carried out through the hole in the lid, which was very laborious, and after a while, people were tired and sweaty. Every hour of stirring, add some arsenic in while continuing to stir.

The resulting glass was quite clear, but the consumption of raw materials was so raw that it took up almost a whole kilogram of arsenic.

Kilograms of arsenic, none of the arsenic in the pharmacies in Guangzhou City came or five or six kilograms. At this efficiency, they would have to build an arsenic industry to support the mass production of the glass industry.

However, this approach is extremely uneconomical.

After the group made suggestions, someone proposed a clarification method that appeared in the novel in the past: the forced boiling method of blister wood. Blister wood is forcibly inserted into the molten glass with steel. Let it boil and take away the bubbles in it.

This so-called ground blister wood is easier to find than arsenic. There is a lot of rotten wood on the shore of Bopu. Hurry up and find some. He poked it with steel and pressed it hard into the molten glass.

According to those present, it was as if fireworks had been set off. The red-hot ground glass liquid suddenly exploded. Squirting everywhere. Fortunately, everyone at the site was wearing asbestos protective clothing for steelworkers. Otherwise, someone would have to go to the hospital.

The person who made this suggestion was criticized by everyone for half an hour, of course, he was very aggrieved, and this was not something he fabricated. However, the production process cannot be imitated simply by description. Since there is no information detailing how this process works, it can only be temporarily stopped and continued shiyan.

After tossing and turning like this several times. Finally, someone found a glass manufacturing manual from the "big library" Chaoxing e-book and inquired about the process of removing air bubbles: first, add the fining agent arsenic to the ground. In fact, table salt can also be used and then mixed and stirred.

Stirring isn't just about holding the steel and stirring it. Inside the glass pot is a stirrer, a hollow cylinder made of refractory clay, which is moved inside the molten glass by a steel brazing operation with a hook. As long as the stirring time is long enough, not only will most of the bubbles disappear, but the streaks and stones in the liquid glass will eventually disappear, and the liquid glass will become completely homometrical and transparent.

Sure enough, after taking the pot out again in this way, the bubbles in the liquid glass almost completely disappeared. The viscosity of the whole molten glass is also reduced, and the molten glass becomes very symmetrical and flows smoothly. This glass can even be used as a material for less demanding optical instruments, such as eyeglasses.

A few years ago, the research team solved the two major difficulties of glass decolorization and clarification, and the team staff who were inspired by the success agreed to continue to tackle the manufacturing of glassware without rest during the New Year, and contribute to the early realization of the Ming Dynasty of glassware production.

When Wen Desi walked into the steaming glass factory shed, most of the people were listlessly squatting outside the shed fanning, the glass stove was still emitting a compelling heat, and the temperature in the shed was hot enough to be 378 degrees. After a while, I was sweating profusely. A large basket in the middle of the floor was filled with smashed pieces of glass, and on the floor and on the countertop, there were strangely shaped glassware, some of which could barely be seen to be cups or bottles.

Ji Sihui listlessly told him that the trial production of glassware was completely unsuccessful, and no one had the ability to blow out a suitable shape. These amateur glassmakers have been honing their glassblowing skills since early in the morning. I searched through all the materials and couldn't find anyone who taught people how to blow glass. The only clue is a documentary about handmade glassmaking, and the workers on TV blow about what they want, and they don't know the point at all. Not to mention glasses, bowls, bottles and other utensils, not even a few similar utensils have been made. From the early morning of the first day of the new year to now, several baskets of blown things have been loaded.

"Mr. Wen, this is not easy to do." Ji Siwei's head was full of sweat, the furnace was blazing here, and there was no qualified glassware, so the leader of the chemical team was so anxious that he was on fire.

"Don't worry, there are still a lot of glassware stocks in the Planning Commission, which can top a stage." Wen Deji was more anxious than him, and still pretended to be calm to comfort him.

"It's not hard to see people carrying the burden." Ji Wusheng said in Shanghainese: "It's our turn, we can't figure it out." ”

"There's no other way, just keep trying, practice makes perfect." Wen Desi has nothing else to say, and he is also very unfamiliar with this business.

A group of people were sighing for a long time, Li Mei came from outside the door, and as soon as she entered the door, she greeted everyone with a smile, and gave everyone a lot of small baskets made of bamboo scorn

It's packed with betel nut. Wen Desi knew that since the women's welfare club had formed its own supply, it had been selling this chewy and red-mouthed thing among the crowd all day long.

In fact, Li Mei's intentions do not stop there. Her news is very well-informed, and the news of the trial production of glass in the industry department reached her ears very early, which is tantamount to doping glass for Li Mei, who is thinking about increasing the variety of welfare cooperatives every day! If you can ship it in batches, you can reach it! Then she kept thinking about going to the glass factory to see if she could get in touch with the factory director. The custom of greeting the New Year on the first day of the Lunar New Year gave her a very good opportunity.

"Why do you all look like this in the new year?" Li Mei soon felt that the atmosphere was strange.

"Is it going to be okay?" Ji Wusheng said angrily, "After tossing for most of the day, a pile of garbage came out." "As he spoke, he said that he couldn't do anything now by blowing glass.

Li Mei patted her hands when she heard this: "Oh, you guys really have it." What do you say all day long, ask me about this! ”

"What?!" Everyone's eyes suddenly widened. Wen Deji was also taken aback, Li Mei's file did not say that she had worked as a glass worker, and the Ming family did have a single wooden jishu that was not available in the crossing, but it had nothing to do with glass.

"Can you blow glass? That's great, hurry: help demonstrate. Ji Wusheng's spirit came immediately, and he almost went directly to pull the old lady.

"How can I blow glass." Li Mei's still relaxed and calm appearance, "But when I was the manager of the material trading company, I had a lot of all kinds of glass goods in my hands, and I knew a little bit about them." ”

She pointed to the strangely shaped glassware and said, "Let's talk about cups and stuff, there are generally two kinds of blown and one molded."

Deji cried out in a lost voice: "Molded! How did I forget! ”

"Wrong. Mr. Wen, you also remembered? Li Mei smiled with a smile on her face, "Since you can't make a blower, it's better to put on a molded press, in fact, when it comes to glasses, there are many more molded than blown." ”

"Okay, let's try it!" Ji Sihui thought that this idea had opened up a new situation. Molding requires the use of molds, and designing and manufacturing molds is a piece of cake for the mechanical department, let alone such simple little things.

"Wait, we're going to get the specs down first." Wen Desi said, "Since the mold is used, it is necessary to set the appearance, specifications and dimensions, so as to facilitate the standardized manufacturing in the future, otherwise it will cause waste." ”

Everyone looks at each other, glasses, glass bottles, these things usually see a lot, who knows what its specifications and sizes look like? Xiao Bailang still thought about it: go to the warehouse of the Planning Commission and take out a copy of all kinds of glassware, won't you know about the field surveying and mapping?

When Wen Deji hurriedly called Ma Qianzhuo and asked to borrow a batch of glassware temporarily. The glassware research team here is divided into two ways, one is composed of Ji Wusheng, Xiao Bailang and other metallurgical machinery personnel, and immediately began to survey and map and open the mold after receiving the sample. On the other hand, the chemical personnel led by Ji Siwei continued to smelt frit and prepared enough raw materials for subsequent large-scale production. At present, the division of labor has been decided, and each one takes action.

Wen Desi himself has also done molds, anyway, there is nothing to do during the New Year's holiday, so he went with the mechanical part, and by the way, he provided some professional advice for the manufacture of molds.

Xiao Bailang looked at all kinds of glasses, glass bowls, glass vases, wine bottles, water bottles, and various tea and coffee sets borrowed from the Planning Commission, and did not know which one to draw first.

"Let's have an octagonal glass." It's hard to say what the market is really useful for this 17th century. Let's start with something simple.

"Okay!" Designing a mold for this kind of thing is not difficult for Xiao Bailang, who is a mechanical background.

I looked at the octagonal cup, measured the size, drew a simple three-view view in the notebook with a pencil, picked up the ruler and pencil and designed the mold drawings on the spot.

"Mr. Wen, how about you take a look at this mold?"

Wen Desi looked at the picture below, the mold of this cup and bowl is very simple, it is a two-part combination design, and there is a matching fixture, there is no problem.

"That's it. The material doesn't need anything good, so Ji Wusheng casts it with pig iron. ”

The first day of the new year in 1629 passed like this.

The next day, Ji Siwei sent a few pairs of pig iron molds that he had made overnight to the glass factory. Since the physical properties of the molten glass were roughly known through glass blowing yesterday, after discussion and several trial productions, the process flow was determined: first apply a layer of charcoal powder mixed with tung oil on the inside of the mold to prevent the molten glass from sticking to the inside of the mold. Then Ji Sihui dipped the blowpipe into a ball of viscous glass slurry, and while blowing air into the blowpipe, he rounded the taken out frit on a clean iron roller, and then began to lift the blowpipe and the glass bubble to blow squarely, so as to avoid the brid being concentrated at the bottom of the glass bubble. When the volume of the glass bubble reaches a certain size, put down the blowpipe, stretch the glass bubble to the length of the pig iron mold with > forceps, put the glass bubble into the pig iron mold, and make the glass bubble sink to the bottom of the mold. After a few moments, soak the glass with cold water. Opening the cast iron mold, a beautiful octagonal glass appeared in front of everyone, and everyone sighed as if relieved.

Then he made round glasses, glass bowls, Western-style goblets, and even glass wine bottles—something Guo Yi had been asking for for a long time.

The haode glassware is placed in an annealing kiln for annealing. They are then sent to the machine shop, where the mouthpieces are cut off with a high-speed wheel saw, and the boys of the mechanical department's apprentice team are polished.

The first batch of molded utensils made the entire glass research team fall in love. After receiving the good news, the Executive Committee ordered that one piece of each of these glassware items be taken and sent to the Planning Commission for permanent preservation as an "important historical relic."

Ji Siwei made persistent efforts, and simply asked Xiao Bailang to design a set of molds in the shape of the flat bottle Red Star Erguotou in accordance with Guo Yi's request in the telegram, and made 300 wine bottles in one go. This small object has a simple shape and few materials, so it is just right for everyone to get started and practice.