In fact, many times, some things, even if you don't keep them secret, outsiders can't copy them, and some things, even if they are kept secret in every possible way, will be known to outsiders.

The reason why the "mule machine" with a mixed structure of ironwood was chosen in the first place was because its structure was complex enough, unlike the wooden Jenny machine, which did not have any technical difficulties. Many parts on the "mule machine" cannot be manufactured even if they are held in real objects, after all, the machining accuracy is placed there, and even skilled craftsmen can only stare dryly.

Because he knows that technology is the fundamental premise to prevent others from "copycating", Shi Yiwen even deliberately increased the complexity of the machine, that is, the parts are more precise, and some parts can only be manufactured with machine tools in the space, of course, more parts need to be measured by professional measuring tools such as vernier calipers, which is also lacking in the outside world.

After leaving the yarn factory, Shi Yiwen went to the iron factory again, and even went to the apprenticeship class, watching those drawings learn the mechanical principles there, learning the knowledge of simple machine tools, as well as the knowledge of water wheel drive.

"Maybe we should open a class on the use of lathes, pliers, planers, milling machines, and machinery, so that in the future we can build an industrial workshop here and produce early machine tools with machines in the space."

Rather than wasting his time developing the technology of making iron machine tools from simple wood and iron machines, he wanted to make the factory a veritable iron factory—a modern chemical factory that used water turbines to drive iron machine tools to produce a steady stream of standard industrial products.

Therefore, he has been thinking about how to use the dozens of machine tools in the space, there are not many machine tools, but the types are quite complete, turning, boring, drilling, planing, milling machines are available, with them as an industrial machine and another time and space The production efficiency may be ridiculous, but in this era such a factory is the existence of the sky. With them, it is possible to build machines from machines.

"But, who will teach?"

Shi Yiwen sighed, it seems that there is no suitable candidate except for himself.

Come on, let's go back and organize the textbooks.

At this moment, Xu Siyuan walked over and bowed first, and then Shi Yiwen said.

"Childe, you are here at the right time, we are in trouble in the factory."

"Trouble? Who's in trouble with us? ”

Shi Yiwen was stunned for a moment, and asked urgently, could it be that this head snake came out, I don't know if I am a dignified brocade guard?

Then Xu Siyuan's words made Shi Yiwen dumbfounded, this trouble is not anything else, but there are no raw materials.

"Childe, there are not enough raw materials for gunpowder in the gunpowder factory."

"You mean the nitre?"

Shi Yiwen almost instinctively thought of soil nitrate, based on the books he had read in the past, it seems that the source of soil nitrate is the most difficult, after all, China does not have a large saltpeter mine, and in this era, European countries are using what method of collecting nitrate from dung fields to produce soil nitrate.

"Childe, look at what you said, there is no shortage of soil nitrate, that is, we don't have the imperial court's nitrate class, Shandong and Henan are rich in soil nitrate, there were no hundreds of thousands of quintals that year, that thing is sufficient, the price is cheap, don't worry about buying, there is no sulfur in our factory now."

The lack of things in the factory made Shi Yiwen stunned and surprised.

"No brimstone? How could this be? ”

"Owner, this sulfur is the largest gunpowder, Beizhili does not produce sulfur here, because there are few uses, Wang Gong factory is bought from Henan and other places, we are also through Henan merchants to sell, but the amount of sulfur has not been large, so they do not ship much, I have calculated according to the output of the gunpowder factory, we need at least 1,000 quintals of sulfur a year, in order to ensure the production of the factory, however, the traders in Henan and Huguang all said that they can only guarantee 500 quintals at most, and they can't help it. Unless we can wait until next year, and the next batch will have to wait at least two months before it can be shipped, the gunpowder factory will have to stop for the time being. ”

After a long time, Shi Yiwen knew how to come back, if it was not bad, it turned out to be backward raw material production, which restricted the output of modern factories.

Listening to Xu Siyuan's words, Shi Yiwen's eyes stared at the "tank towers" in the factory, a few trees nearby had long been smoked without leaves, and this acid factory was the most polluting in the iron factory, maybe we should consider moving out and building a more professional acid factory, and in terms of the current printing volume, we can't use so much nitric acid, you can adjust the equipment and adjust the output.

"Since they don't have a way there, then we'll make it ourselves."

"Make it yourself? What does Childe mean? ”

Xu Siyuan looked at his son and said in surprise.

"Let's make our own brimstone? But is there a sulfur mine near the capital? ”

"There is no sulfur mine that can make sulfur, sulfur is the essence of fire, that is, the matter of adjusting the equipment for making acid. Nothing difficult. ”

In fact, it is not necessary to mine sulfur from sulfur mines to obtain sulfur, not to mention the lack of natural sulfur in the Central Plains itself. Compared with the mining of sulfur ore, it is simpler to produce sulfur from raw materials such as pyrite, and the purity is higher. This kind of burning sulfur technology, as early as the Han Dynasty has been mastered, when the Central Plains began to extract sulfur from the black coal-bearing pyrite, its process: in the adobe kiln, the ore and coal are stacked, ignition roasting, in fact, coal is used as a reducing agent, sulfur vapor is reduced after passing through the coal, and the sulfur is condensed from the top of the kiln.

Now that the factory itself produces acid, according to Shi Yiwen's idea, it is natural to adjust the production process, and then extract part of the capacity to make sulfur. It should be simple.

However, it turns out that things are not as simple as Shi Yiwen thought, because acid production needs to increase the air volume and desulfurization as much as possible, while sulfur refining needs to control the oxygen value, the air volume is too large, or the oxygen value is too high, it will cause the loss of elemental sulfur, and it also involves a series of problems such as sulfur furnaces.

Learned from the lessons of the last time, Shi Yiwen reduced the ten-ton hot-charging earth furnace several times, and the output was reduced at the same time, and the construction of the earth furnace and sulfur furnace was naturally faster, but it only took half a month for the sulfur furnace to start loading and producing. Ten days later, the first batch of wool sulfur produced by the acid plant was removed from the cooling chamber.

"That's how sulfur is made?"

Looking at the wool sulfur picked up by the workers, Xu Siyuan was surprised. He didn't expect that sulfur could be "burned", his appearance, in Shi Yiwen's eyes, only made him smile slightly, he was not surprised by this, if it wasn't for the fact that he had seen burning sulfur, he himself didn't know, sulfur can be burned out of pyrite, even if this technology is an extremely primitive technology.

"Yes, this is only wool sulfur, and gunpowder needs to be refined to improve the purity."