"Childe, what do you think of these stones?"

Outside the gate of Shifu, the stonemason driving the carriage said respectfully.

The stones were selected by Shi Yiwen at the Shogunate Mountain Quarry a few days ago, and the blue-gray stones were extremely smooth.

"Is there anything lighter?"

Touching the blue-gray slate with his hand, Shi Yiwen asked.

"Childe, there are some light gray stones, if you want them, I will send you the small ones after they are polished."

"Cheng, send the stone over, if there is a light gray stone in the future, just grind it according to the size I said and send it directly."

When the stone slab was carried into the house by the stonemasons, Shi Yiwen muttered in his heart.

"These limestone slabs should be usable."

After returning from the bookstore that day, the disappointed Shi Yiwen did not give up the plan to open a bookstore to print newspapers, but entered the space and looked for answers to the problem in the library.

After looking up some information, Shi Yiwen did not choose lead printing, but chose lithographing, which was invented in 1796, which is a direct printing with a lithograph with dense pores on the surface as a plate for flat or round flattening. It is to use the principle of oil and water repulsion, draw the graphics and texts on the stone with fatty ink, and then wet the surface of the stone with a chemical mixture, so that the pores of the stone without pictures and texts are stored with mixed liquid, which is a chemical reaction that makes the calligraphy and painting become a part of the stone.

Compared with engraving printing, lithographing does not need to learn for a long time, his advantage is to save people and effort, lithographic printing speed is fast, and can print a pocket book that is easy to carry, thanks to this, the simple technology of lithographing has been widely used after being introduced into China.

Of course, a more important reason is that it can print small characters, which is precisely the most difficult part of engraving printing, because small characters are difficult to engrave, and the fonts of ancient books are very large, which naturally wastes paper and increases costs.

A stone slab more than a foot wide, more than two feet high, and half a foot thick rested on the table, and if it weren't for the fact that the table was made of thick and thick hardwood, I am afraid that it would have collapsed.

"It should be similar to Sondhovenite, it's all limestone anyway......"

Touching the slate with his hand, it looked flat and smooth, with a delicate surface, Shi Yiwen said to himself.

"Anyway, it's not painting, it's just writing, as long as it's limestone."

Despite what he said, Shi Yiwen also knew that not all limestone can replace Sonthofen stone, that is a special lithographic stone, after lithographic printing, it is synonymous with lithographic stone, after all, not every limestone is as balanced as its character, but it does not mean that it is irreplaceable, in ordinary printing, slightly inferior limestone can also be used.

After carefully inspecting the slate and making sure that the slate was very flat and smooth, Shi Yiwen said to the young man beside him.

"Xiao Wu, you try it, make a plate in this stone."

Xiao Wu was a calligrapher he hired from the bookstore, and he specialized in writing "anti-characters" on woodblocks, and after he wrote the "anti-characters" on wooden boards, the engravers carved them into inverted raised characters or images.

Lithography is also the same as stereotyped printing, and it is also necessary to write "anti-characters" on the slate, but it is not ordinary ink to write "anti-characters".

"Childe, written on a stone tablet?"

Xiao Wu looked at the slate in surprise.

"Yes, write with this crayon, although you have been practicing for a few days, this one is still different from ordinary pens."

When Shi Yiwen went to find the slate, Xiao Wu had been learning how to write hard pen characters there, and after a few days, he could also write a good hard pen with crayons.

"The little one knows."

As he spoke, he picked up the crayon and copied the book on the stone slab, the book is the most common current book, the character is the square pavilion style that was commonly used when printing books, but the font is much smaller, only a quarter of the size of an ordinary book.

While watching Xiao Wu lay on the slate and write, Shi Yiwen mixed a mixture of nitric acid and gum sap, a chemical mixture that would only adsorb on the blank slate that had not been drawn by crayons, and form a hydrophilic layer.

The preparation of this chemical solution is also simple, only nitric acid has encountered problems, but there is a chemical store near the library in the space, although the scale is not large, but still found more than a dozen bottles of nitric acid analysis pure, for production is certainly not enough, but for testing is more than enough.

It took almost half an hour before Xiao Wu wrote the entire slate full of words, because it was an experiment, but he didn't pay attention to any format or pattern, just copied the entire slate.

When Xiao Wu finished writing the slate, Shi Yiwen brushed the mixture on the slate.

"Childe, what is this for? Isn't it to be engraved? ”

Xiao Wuyu asked with some confusion as he watched Gongzi brush things on the stone slab. At the age of nine, he entered the bookstore and began to learn to write "anti-text", he is no stranger to printing and stereotyping, at first, he only thought that Childe wanted people to engrave words on the stone slab, but now Childe's actions have completely subverted his understanding.

"Lettering?"

Shi Yiwen said with a smile.

"Sometimes, you don't necessarily need a knife for engraving."

At least lithography is not knife-based, it etchs the slate with the help of a mixture, which is actually a chemical reaction involving nitric acid. The principle of chemical reaction in this is obviously not understandable to people in this era, and even together with Shi Yiwen, if he hadn't found a few lithographic books published in the forties and fifties in the library, I am afraid that he would not know why, compared with lead printing, another advantage of lithographing is that it can maintain the artistic beauty of Chinese calligraphy.

Finally, after completing a series of preparatory work, a printing slate was made, and then Shi Yiwen began to use ink - because the bookstore used ink to print books, so he deliberately used tung oil, pot ash, etc. to mix printing ink, although it was a little simple, but it was also usable, after all, this was how the soil ink in the base area was prepared.

Under Xiao Wu's gaze, the slate was inked, and then Shi Yiwen personally laid a piece of paper, and then rolled it lightly with his hands, Xiao Wu is no stranger to this action, after each ink board is engraved in the bookstore, it has to be tried to print, but but, can the slate carved without a knife really print the words?

When Shi Yiwen took the first proof, Xiao Wu's eyes widened, and he stared at it blankly, and the moment the paper turned over, he exclaimed.

"Words, words, really, really have words......"

It's really printed!

With wide eyes and stunned looking at the dense small words on the paper, a thought suddenly popped up in Xiao Wu's heart - if you don't have to be rigid in the future, what will Uncle Hu and them do in the future?