On the ninth day of February, two bell towers in Fanjiazhuang and Tianjin were built. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

The bell tower built by Li Zhi is not a bell tower of the Ming Dynasty, but a bell tower with a large clock with hour and minute hands.

With the progress of various technologies in Tianjin, Tianjin people have higher and higher requirements for time. Originally, the citizens used to rest from sunrise to sunset, and they would sleep more on rainy days. But now this obviously doesn't work:

The working hours of various factories are fixed, so workers have precise requirements for time; Students in the school have several classes a day, and both teachers and students have requirements for time scheduling; Every day on the first day, the newspaper office takes out the free daily newspaper and distributes it, and when it is late, there is no more; Every day, in the middle of the day, the workers get off work, and the vendors have to wait for this time to do business...

Because of the advancement of technology, the pace of life in Tianjin is getting faster and faster, and the requirements for timing are getting higher and higher. The old "morning", "morning", "noon" and other methods of timekeeping have completely failed to keep up with the development of productive forces.

The way of working that waits for an hour has begun to hinder Tianjin's development.

Li Zhi complied with the requirements of the change in the way of work and made the original pendulum clock.

Historically, the pendulum clock was invented in 1657 by the Dutch physicist and astronomer Huygens. It's 1645, and it's going to be another 13 years before Westerners invent pendulum clocks. But for industrial designer Li Zhi, the original pendulum clock is not a very complicated thing, and Li Zhi can invent it in advance.

This type of clock uses isochronism in which the pendulum moves back and forth, and uses an escapement to turn the needle dial. Li Zhi drew the structural design in March last year, and then organized craftsmen to experiment with manufacturing. The craftsmen recruited by Li Zhi are mainly locksmiths, and the best at making gadgets in Daming in these years is the locksmith.

There were some minor problems in the manufacturing process, and it took more than half a year to study the finished product, and it was not until November last year that the finished product was manufactured.

Because the technology of this era is relatively rough, the friction of various gears inside the pendulum clock is relatively large, and the pendulum clock made has to manually apply force to the pendulum every five minutes. Such a pendulum clock obviously needs to be scouted by a special person, otherwise it will gradually stop after five minutes of walking.

No matter how wealthy a large family is, there is no need to hire a person to take care of the clocks. On the whole, Li Zhi's pendulum clock does not yet have the level to be transformed into a private commodity.

However, if you make a clock tower, you are not afraid of rough technology.

The clock tower made by Li Zhi is 28 meters high, with beams and columns made of reinforced concrete, and the walls are bricked, and it is a full eight stories high. Inside the tower, there are five people who work on it, and every few minutes they reapply the force to the huge pendulum, ensuring that the pendulum always has full power and is accurate.

Li Zhi divided the day into twenty-four hours. The clock tower has huge dials on all four sides, each with hour and minute hands, showing what time it is. There is also a bronze bell at the top of the clock tower, which rings once every hour during the day to announce the current time point to the whole city.

With this towering bell tower, the lives of the people of Fanjiazhuang and Tianjin Acropolis have changed greatly. From now on, the timekeeping will be accurate to the minute.

Of course, bell towers are being built one after another. According to Li Zhi's plan, in the future, as long as the city has a population of more than 10,000 people, a bell tower will be built.

On this day, Hong Chengchou, a staff officer of the Shogunate General Staff, was walking on the road to the Acropolis with Wang Pu, who had come to Tianjin to open a money village, when he suddenly heard the sound of the bell tower chiming the time.

Li Zhi raided the eight Jin merchants this time, but left half of the family property for the Datong royal family, and Wang Pu's royal family almost monopolized the trade between the Ming Dynasty and Mongolia. The Wang family also climbed on Li Zhi's express train to do business in Tianjin.

Wang Pu brought his relatives into Tianjin, and Li Zhi asked Hong Chengchou to come out to greet the reception.

Hong Chengchou stopped talking, listened carefully for a while, and said: "Mr. Wang, it's four o'clock in the afternoon, that is, Shen Shizhong. When the needle turns to the forty position, that is, in another one-third of an hour, I will take you to see the Duke of Jin. ”

Wang Pu was stunned and asked, "This clock tower can be accurate to one-third of an hour?" ”

Hong Chengchou said with a smile: "This clock tower can be accurate to one hundred and twenty hours. Twenty minutes is one-sixth of an hour. ”

Wang Pu shook his head and said: "The Duke of Jin Guo can kill the enemy and make meritorious contributions when he gets off the horse, and he can invent and create when he gets off the horse, the invention of this clock tower is really amazing, Wang Pu admires it tightly!" This Tianjin is really not in vain, Wang Pu has seen a long time. ”

Hong Chengchou stroked his beard and said: "This clock tower is indeed wonderful, I used to get up every day when the sky was slightly bright, get up to eat and read a book for an hour, and then go to the staff headquarters to sit on duty." However, it is difficult to grasp the time of reading, and if you see the wonders, a few hours will pass inadvertently, and the time will always be missed. ”

"After having this clock tower, I started reading at seven o'clock in the morning every day, and when I finished reading it at nine o'clock, I went to the staff headquarters to sit on duty, and I didn't miss anything again."

"In the past, the shogunate's meal times were very chaotic, and the dining hall was open every day. Some people can't figure out the time and are afraid that they will be late, so they go to the cafeteria half an hour before the meal time to wait for food, wasting a lot of time. There were a few times when I couldn't figure out the time and went to the cafeteria late, and the cafeteria was already closed, so I had to go hungry. ”

"In the past, there was no clock tower, and when it came to agreeing with others, the weaker party often had to wait for a while in advance. With this clock tower, the waste of time is greatly reduced. If you really talk about it, it can save people a considerable amount of waiting time every day. I think it saves everyone at least half an hour of waiting time. ”

"For example, when there is no clock tower, Jin Guogong said to see you at 3:40, I'm afraid you will go to the Guogong Mansion before 3 o'clock and wait. Now we can get there at 3:30, and all at once we will save thirty minutes, which is a quarter of an hour. ”

Wang Pu nodded and said, "Elder Hong has a point. ”

Hong Chengchou stroked his beard and said: "Guogong seems to have done a small thing, but this clock tower can actually improve the efficiency of Tianjin and Fanjiazhuang a lot. In the words of the Duke of Jin, even in the end, the living standards of the people will be improved because of this! ”

Wang Pu thought for a while and asked, "This bell tower is indeed a good thing, but it's a pity that there is no other place except Tianjin." ”

Hong Chengchou said with a smile: "In the future, the cities of Tianjin and Shandong will build such bell towers." I heard that the Son of Heaven was also interested in this bell tower and asked the Duke of Jin to go to the Forbidden City to build a large one in front of the noon gate. ”

When Wang Pu heard this, he muttered for a long time and did not speak.

Hong Chengchou stroked his beard and smiled: "What is Mr. Wang thinking?" ”

Wang Pu said: "Tianjin is changing with each passing day, and I am wondering if my Wang family should move more people to Tianjin now that I have the support of the Duke of Jinguo." I think the first batch of people to come to Tianjin should be 200 people. We want to open money banks, pawnshops, and Mongolian specialty shops. ”

Hong Chengchou laughed and said, "Don't worry, don't worry!" Tianjin's development is not a day or two, and the Wang family will have a chance whenever they come. ”