To make poured flat glass, the glassmakers first have to find a suitable formula, and the commonly used ingredient list is: silica sand, washed, sifted; Alkali salt - replaced by seaweed and wood ash; quicklime, cured with water and sifted; Saltpeter. () zuihou is broken glass.

Ji Siwei instructed the people to put all the raw materials into the sintering furnace for calcination to remove the water. After the furnace is released, the sintered block is cut into small pieces. One by one, it is melted into the crucible - the volume of the sintered material is much larger than that of molten glass, so it is necessary to wait for the previous melt before adding new raw materials.

All of this work is carried out by apprentices. Among the children admitted from Guangzhou, the older children who are not suitable for study and training are organized into the apprenticeship corps and are educated by apprenticeship. Apprenticeship is a form of skill transfer that is mainly taught by word and example in the actual production process. It is possible to train a large number of jishu workers with basic skills in a relatively short period of time. It plays an important role in the industrial development of the crossing group - according to the estimation of Zhan Wuya and others, after 3~6 months, most of the simple jobs in the industrial sector can be filled by local apprentices, and the crossers with advanced skills can focus on more complex and precise work.

The apprentice corps adopts the mode of centralized accommodation and militarized management. Wake up at 6 a.m. every morning for a morning workout, running and doing exercises. Then breakfast was eaten, and they were even better than the school children in terms of clothing and food - after all, working in a factory was much more expensive than studying. The standard of food is 2,570 kcal per day. The varieties served are similar to those of the cross-public: brown rice, sweet potatoes, vegetables and fish products. No fat or meat.

The whole team started work at 7 o'clock and worked until 6 o'clock in the evening. Lunch is served in between. After dinner, you will spend another hour studying the culture. Go to bed at 9 o'clock. The apprentices have no holidays or pay, but the children are well adapted - they are well fed, well housed and well dressed. The masters are also kind, and they don't beat and scold as the apprentices outside. And they soon learned that they were learning new skills that they couldn't learn outside at all. For the few children who have become so homeless that they refuse to work, the Wanderers naturally have no interest or time to change their outlook on life -- the place where Zuihou goes is the labor camp, and after a few months there, they will cry and cry out that they are coming back -- not everyone will be able to come back.

Looking at the indigo-colored soil dressed in fat. Cloth overalls, wearing rattan hard hats, under the leadership of the team leader, tamed the teenagers who walked into the workshop like lambs, Bai Yu sighed: "I kind of know why Marx said that capitalists are evil." ”

Xiao Bailang climbed on the truss and was overcoming a huge block of pulleys, the chain of which he had processed by himself in the chain bearing workshop yesterday.

"NND, this is the cruelty of children and teenagers—" Bai Yu. However, he was born in computer networks, and he also worked as a human soul engineer in another time and space, and he came to the workshop to formulate the regulations of the industrial school for the Ministry of Education, but he didn't expect to be arrested as soon as he came.

"If you don't mutilate children and teenagers, you will be mutilated." Xiao Bailang although eyebrows. The face of the pseudo-lady with clear eyes was very queenly, Bai Yu had no choice but to shut up, and he muttered, "Socialist democracy and the legal system are also what the party has always advocated." ”

"There's no socialism here," Xiao Bailang said, holding a hammer with a hammer. With the disobedient pulley, "What are we called?" By the way, last time Du Wen said that we have a tendency towards oligarchyism. ”

Before Bai Yu could speak, he saw the captain over there with a serious face. Xiang Ji Siwei snapped a German-style heel touch, raised his hand and reported: "Report: The first glass team of the third squadron of the first industrial brigade of the apprentice corps reports to you!" It should have been 11 people, but it was 11 people. Report complete! Please instruct! ”

The glass squad is handicap. didn't let Xiao Bailang, who was climbing on the truss, and Bai Yu, who was delivering the tools below, laugh angrily.

Ji Siwei waved his hand solemnly: "Take a break!" He took a look at this group of half-grown children who had been trained by the army for several months, and they worked hard to show their "military appearance" one by one. He suddenly noticed that the squad leader actually had an armband on his left sleeve. If you look closely, there are some patterns on it - maybe it's an official rank symbol, right? This group of people in the army is really good at doing this.

"Today's job is to continue the foil burning work internship, and you will be divided into three groups for a follow-up internship. Did you bring sunglasses? ”

"Bring it!" All the children pulled a pair of sunglasses out of their pockets.

"Okay, start the internship!"

The crucible filled with frit heats up in a roaring glass kiln, and every once in a while, Ji Siwei takes out a crucible, checks on it, and adds frit.

"Everyone, notice that an opaque white scum has now appeared in the crucible." Ji Siwei wore an asbestos turban and sunglasses to teach to several apprentices.

"This we call it glass nitrate, which is the product of using saltpeter to clarify the liquid glass, which contains a lot of impurities, and it must be cleaned to make clear and transparent glass."

Several apprentices in their teens stared at the red, burning liquid glass in the crucible with serious faces, and kept pushing the sunglasses that slid up and down their noses.

"During the entire melting process, although the crucible is closed, it is not visible. But as a glass worker, you must always pay attention to the situation in the crucible—"

Then one of the apprentices raised his hand.

"You say, what's the problem?"

"Master Ji said that you should always pay attention to the glass liquid in the crucible, but this crucible has a lid, and every time you want to look at it, you have to move the crucible out - last time Master Wang talked about smelting, he specifically talked about maintaining a good temperature. In that case, weishenme does not remove the lid? Isn't it possible to see the inside of the crucible directly from the stove? ”

"Because glass can't be contaminated, otherwise it won't be able to look flawless. Soot tends to fly away, and it falls into the open crucible. Do you understand? ”

The apprentices are one head. At this time, another apprentice raised his hand: "Weishenme doesn't use firewood to make a fire?" The wood burns cleaner than this black coal. ”

"Okay, good question."

He then explained the calorific value, cost, and ease of access to fuel in a few minutes. The apprentices listened as if they understood.

To train this group of Ming Dynasty street children who have been wandering in the city and countryside for several months and cannot read a single word into new industrial workers, the industrial public has spared no effort to the extreme. Skills training is relatively easy, Chinese have always been known for hard-working, intelligent and diligent, but cultivating a new mode of thinking is not an overnight thing. Anyway, if you can talk about it, you can talk about it, don't seek to be able to understand, first instill the concept into it.

Ji Si asked "What's your name?" ”

"My name is Sun Xing." "My name is Huang Zhongshan."

"It's good that you can ask such a question." Ji Siwei spared no effort to praise. Such children are rare, and they need to be greatly encouraged.

After smelting the molten glass overnight, the two of them carefully removed the crucible from the furnace with a lifting rack and carefully placed it on an iron frame under the crane. This iron frame is fitted with long handles on both sides for easy pouring.

At this time, the liquid glass in the crucible is already in a red-hot state, and the viscosity is just right. The crucible is hoisted and transported by overhead crane to the pouring table of the pig iron.

The pouring table was originally constructed by laying copper plates on a solid stone table. At the time, it was believed that copper stained molten glass less than iron. However, in actual production, it was found that the copper was easy to crack when the molten glass was poured onto it. Once cracked, the copper plate was completely scrapped.

The British improved it in the mid-19th century, using pig iron as a platform. The Traveler is an exact imitation of the British design, though not as large as the platform. But the structure is completely similar, casters are also installed. In this way, the pouring table can be pushed directly down to the door of the individual annealing kiln. There is no need to use specialized tools and vehicles to move.

Minor improvements were also made in the mechanical department - between the pouring table and the annealing kiln were laid a simple rail, a proposed small rail that was inserted directly into the hard ground and did not use sleepers. But it can greatly save manpower - after all, pushing a platform of more than 8 tons is not an easy job.

After the molten glass has been poured from the crucible onto the countertop, workers use an iron roller to bulldoze the gelatinous molten glass. The platform is surrounded by iron bars to ensure that the molten glass will not be pushed to the ground.

The whole pouring work was successfully completed, and the molten glass poured on the pouring table was easily flattened into a piece of flat glass, and the thickness of the glass plate could be controlled according to the amount of molten glass poured each time. Then it's annealed for up to 10 days.

"This is really better than any blowpipe method." Ji Siwei witnessed the first batch of flat glass being sent to the annealing kiln, and said to Wang Luobin excitedly.

"It's not over yet, after the annealing is over, it will have to be milled before it can be used." Wang Luobin said. He remembered reading in books that it was a very slow and hard job.

During the pouring process, the top of the glass plate is in contact with the rolling roller, and the bottom is in contact with the iron plate, and the surface is rough. It has to be sanded and polished.

The grinding work is carried out on a stone platform, and according to Wang Luobin's requirements, the quarry specially quarries a large bluestone, which is a kind of stone with delicate texture and low hardness, which is the most suitable as a grinding platform.

The grinding process is as follows: the underside of the glass plate to be ground is coated with a layer of lime so that it does not move during the grinding process. Then put a glass plate smaller half on the flat glass that needs to be sanded, and glue a wooden board to the glass plate on it, and fix a horizontal wheel made of light hardwood on the wooden board. The wheel then moves the top panes back and forth, creating a steady friction between the two panes. To increase the friction effect, water and fine sand are injected between the two glass plates. Raised edge stops are also installed around the mill to ensure that water and sand are not lost.