Zhu Youxiao vigorously developed and popularized the pot camel machine, but there is a serious defect that limits the efficiency of the pot camel machine, that is, the tire and sealing problem, now the agricultural "iron cow" uses hard jujube wood wheels, and the military is iron wheels, which is too bulky. Zhu Youxiao misses the rubber tires of modern society very much, but it is useless to miss it now, and it can't be solved at all. Anyway, this guy is also from a rag collection, or a supply and marketing school such a learning collection school graduated, the various techniques of collecting rags are still proficient, in the learned waste acquisition classification, it seems that eucommia bark can extract rubber, but that thing is too valuable, basically can't afford to use, it seems that there is a plant called rubber grass, what is it called Russian dandelion, yes, it is this kind of thing, its glue content is about 26 percent, and it can also be hybridized, the glue content can be improved, and it can also be propagated by cuttings, Large areas are more suitable for planting, especially in saline areas.

There is a large area of wild rubber grass in the Yining area of Xinjiang, this Zhu Youxiao has also heard of it, and now Yining has been recovered by Lu Xiangsheng, so is it possible to let Lu Xiangsheng find this grass, and let Song Yingxing study it after taking it back, to see if the rubber can be extracted, even if it cannot be deeply processed, but to be able to make elastic solid tires are much better than the current wooden and iron wheels.

So, Zhu Youxiao sent someone to find Lu Xiangsheng, anyway, this is not a problem that can be solved in a day or two, and Zhu Youxiao is not too urgent. However, the people sent here didn't dare not be in a hurry, so during the Mid-Autumn Festival, they brought a horse team of rubber grass, which is found everywhere in Yining, and it is easy to find it. In fact, rubber grass is wild in North China and Shaanxi, but it is similar to dandelion and is not easy to find. Now Lu Xiangsheng has sent thousands of catties of rubber grass, and they are all rooted, which Zhu Youxiao specially advised, in addition to bringing some pots and jars to raise, it seems that Lu Xiangsheng is also an interesting person.

Zhu Youxiao found Song Yingxing and asked him to see these rubber grasses. Song Yingxing was originally researching his own alloy steel, but was interrupted by Zhu Youxiao, and his heart was furious? Seeing that Zhu Youxiao asked him to come and see a pile of hay, the fire in his heart was even greater, if he was in his heart, did he make an old mistake and wanted to work as a carpenter? Maybe Zhu Youxiao is used to going too far with these big bulls.

"Long live Lord, it's still far from winter, aren't you in a hurry to burn the kang head now? Do you still use me to start with a clay kang? "Song Yingxing, this guy failed to make steel today, and as a result, he burned this fire on Zhu Youxiao's head, which made Zhu Youxiao feel very funny.

"Heh, heh" Zhu Youxiao said with a smile, "Ying Xing, did you eat gunpowder today, why is it so popular?" Don't be angry! Do you see all this hay, you break it and see how it is different from other grasses? Can you do something else? ”

Song Yingxing looked at Zhu Youxiao, picked up a piece of rubber grass in doubt, broke it with his hand and found that the filament inside was very long, and then asked Zhu Youxiao: "Long live Lord, this silk is very long, but it can't be spinned?" So what do you think it's for? ”

"You see that our 'iron bull' is not very loud to run, and it is easy to break the wheel when it runs fast, I feel that if the silk in it is extracted, it will definitely not be too loud if it is put on the wheel, so that the wheel is not easy to break, and it runs fast, I have an idea, do you want to try?"

As soon as Song Yingxing heard that there was something new to study, he immediately said, "Okay, okay, long live the lord, tell me your attention." ”

"Well, I'll tell you," says Zhu Youxiao, "first the hay roots are mechanically ground to grind the plant tissue and produce a glue curd, then the rubber wire is separated from the plant tissue through a dry vibrating sieve, and finally the rubber wire is separated from the root epidermis by the puff method." The purification process of crude rubber mainly includes: stirring the rubber wire in hot water, standing and finally extracting the pure rubber floating on the water surface. As for how to continue to deepen the processing, that's your own business. ”

"In addition, let me tell you, you try not to do experiments yourself in the future, let your disciples do it, your task is to study the results of their experiments, if you always do experiments by yourself and let the disciples see, then when will they be able to become teachers? No matter how much you do alone, how much can you do with ten people and a hundred people? Don't be afraid that they will fail and make money in vain, and if they don't let them all practice, I'm blind money. Remember, from now on, your task is to move your mouth, guide them to do it, make plans for them, and let them learn to think, learn to record, learn to sum up experience, and then we will really have a large number of scientific and technological talents. ”

"Also, did I make your high-purity glass, this thing can be made into a high-magnification magnifying glass, just like a telescope, but if you want to see clearly, you must have high-purity glass, this can completely allow your students to go to experiments separately, you can summarize your own experience, just record and summarize the experimental data." Zhu Youxiao then said.

After Song Yingxing brought these rubber grass back, he wrote the methods described by Zhu Youxiao into one process after another, explained the requirements of each process in detail, and then asked the disciples to experiment in strict accordance with the requirements, and each group was divided into two sets of people, one was responsible for hands-on experiments, and the other was responsible for recording various situations that occurred during the experiment, whether useful or useless.

It's really good, after more than half a month of testing, Song Yingxing's disciples really made a large piece of raw rubber, and Song Yingxing was happy to come to Zhu Youxiao to report the good news. Zhu Youxiao looked at Song Yingxing and said: "The first step is basically successful, and the next step is how to turn it into a strap on the wheel, and you have to make it wear-resistant and waste-resistant." And see what else this thing does, what else can it do? In this way, you ask the disciple to choose a few people to specialize in this thing, and see if it can be made like a pocket, fill it with gas, and so on, and put some other caustic soda, sulfur, and so on, and see what changes it makes. ”

Song Yingxing happily went back to arrange the task, as for how the disciples added materials to it, he didn't care, as long as he made a good record for him, the emperor said, just spoil it, just make useful things.

When the thousands of catties of rubber grass were used up, Song Yingxing's disciples finally made the wheels to take out, and a total of three were made without raw materials, in fact, it was also an apprentice who inadvertently sprinkled charcoal chips into it to harden the rubber, and then after many experiments, it was finally made. Zhu Youxiao asked them to install these three wheels on an "iron bull" for experiments, and it was much better than wooden wheels and iron wheels. Zhu Youxiao asked Song Yingxing to reward them with one hundred taels of silver each. Then Zhu Youxiao asked them to continue to study how to make inflatable inner tubes, and also drew them a drawing of what to make them, and told them that they had to think about how to make these things in the factory.

In order to ensure that Song Yingxing's disciples can continue to experiment, Zhu Youxiao asked Lu Xiangsheng to send a large amount of rubber grass, and told Lu Xiangsheng that he should not only continue to collect rubber grass, but also pay attention to protection, expand the planting area of rubber grass, see if the planting area can be greatly expanded by the method of fiber insertion, and see what grows best in those soils, which is a national strategic material and so on.

Song Yingxing's disciples are really hardworking, after continuous, wasteful tests, soft and hard rubber, air cushion rubber, closed cylinder rubber have let them solve, with the solution of these problems, the power of the pot camel machine, the use efficiency has been greatly improved. For this reason, Zhu Youxiao invested in the construction of a practical rubber factory, needless to say, Song Yingxing's disciples each ate a dry share.

The power of example is endless, and in the time that followed, Lei Zhentian's disciples developed extremely powerful explosive particles*,*, nitrocellulose wool, and smokeless*. Bi Maokang's disciples developed a barge gun, a simplified version of the cannon, with a range of ten miles. Xu Guangqi's disciples used high-definition glass to build a microscope with 600 times magnification, and also built a large astronomical telescope, and books such as "Geometric Originals" have long been published.