Speaking of movable type printing, we have to mention Gutenberg, who may be working hard to make a lead type printing press in the diocese of Mainz in Germany.

Qin Cang really plagiarized the ideas of his contemporaries this time.

In the mining area of Mount Etna, minerals such as tin, antimony, lead, and zinc are excavated one by one. However, it has not yet reached the point of large-scale production, so the lead, tin and antimony that Qin Cang uses now are all obtained from other parts of the Mediterranean by merchants.

Zinc aside, this kind of thing is simply a social annoyance. Zinc alloys are particularly cheap, but you have to know that cheap is not good. Everything made of zinc alloy has a problem, it ages very quickly! Especially things like doorknobs, fences, etc. If you leave it for a year or two, you can break it with your hands.

Lead, antimony, and tin were the raw materials for the production of lead movable type printing.

The newly established printing supervisor was named in the prison yard, but he worked in the side room of the big iron prison. Their task was to improve the printing press, which had been in circulation in Western Europe for a long time, so that it could carry movable type printing. And more importantly, the development of lead movable type.

The key to movable type printing is in movable type. In the past, China used clay movable type, but now that movable type printing is already being done, why not do it simply? However, it was not until modern times that movable type printing was eliminated.

Bi Sheng's use of clay movable type more than 400 years ago has a material basis. The Chinese are good at handling mud. From pottery to porcelain, it has long been known that burning clay can save the world. Therefore, Bi Sheng adopted the clay type that the craftsmen were good at at that time.

And for Qin Cang's craftsmen, how to make lead movable type is a test.

In the beginning, everyone thought that they should use the model. However, after the clay fan is burned, it is found that it is always deformed. Then he decided to switch to Tiefan, but Tiefan and lead were directly screwed together, and the fire was big....... After a long round of experiments, I found that copper is still good.

But copper is expensive! At present, domestic copper is relatively scarce, and the main copper needs to be purchased from all over the world. Unless Qin Cang now crosses hundreds of miles and goes to the copper mine in Volyn Oblast, north of Vladimir Volynsky City, to dig it.

Obviously, Qin Cang couldn't now, so he had to accept this fact. Use more expensive copper to make copper fans.

I have to say that the craftsmanship of the craftsmen is very good. They first made clay models, then poured them with copper, and finally got the standard copper models. Oh yes, this bronze fan was written by Li Jingpo of the Inspection Department and a group of people in the newly established Guozi Prison. Accept a prize and one silver coin. A total of four or five thousand words were hired.

Now Li Jingpo is also squatting here every day, afraid that there will be problems with the printing supervisor. He even wrote a standard bibliography in print. Who wrote the words in it, and who wrote the most. The book is now hanging in the Guozi Prison, and it is read every day, and it doesn't take long for it to be turned to the edge.

The current papermaking technology in Europe is still the kind of paper that was made by cutting work and materials after the Battle of Hengross. This paper is not uniform enough, the particles are large, and the quality is low, but it is still much better than the papyrus produced in Egypt for thousands of years. By the way, because this kind of paper is imported a lot, Qin Cang is also preparing to develop papermaking technology together with lead movable type printing in the near future.

The first movable lead type was made. The word is a book. Dip the lead movable type in ink and press it on the paper, and a calligraphy is vividly visible.

"Excellent! Go on! Remember what I say, from left to right, top to bottom! In order to better spread our language and knowledge, we have to give up! ”

In ancient China, it was from top to bottom, from right to left. This way of reading is simply ******. But this is a habit left over from the era of bamboo slips, and you have to continue. It's not the same in the new era. Dahan's school has been taught in simplified Chinese from the beginning and from left to right, so there is basically no problem of resistance for students. And those teachers at the top are all aware of current affairs, and not doing things is the first thing to do under Qin Cang.

The craftsmen later made a large number of movable type impressions. Then I started to make the same amount of different layouts. In the end, a typesetting about the size of an ancient Chinese book was chosen. And the other typography has not been thrown away, and the books are different from each other.

In fact, the functional principle of the printing press is very simple. And it's artificially operated. It's just a matter of filling in the impressions and pressing them down row by row.

What was printed in the first edition?

Some people propose to print the Shangshu, some propose to print the Analects, and some propose to print the Zhou Yi.

In the end, this question was kicked in front of Qin Cang.

Facing everyone present, Qin Cang waved his hand, his grandmother's, give me a historical mark first!

"The first article, give me the preface of the history of the Printing Pacific! From this day on, all prefaces must be displayed at the beginning of the book to praise the author's merits! ”

When it comes to educational significance, there are too many stories about Ma Qian of Taishi Company. And what Qin Cang values the most is Taishi Gong's indomitable writing history. And Qin Cang thinks that printing books first prints the correct history! The history of the Indian orthodoxy represents a kind of inheritance of history, as well as the inheritance of Chinese orthodoxy.

After the completion of the historical records, the wooden supervisor and the big iron supervisor began to divide a group of people to join the printing supervisor to produce lead movable type. A large number of movable lead type, as well as simple printing presses, were also being produced on a large scale.

So the work of the Copyright Office was busy again. Printing and the printing press entered the ranks of national copyright. Anyone who wants to get printing technology and print books must accept the dispatch of the state, and of course the state will buy the books you print at a reasonable price.

As soon as the printing technology came out, it can be called Luoyang paper expensive! All the printed paper on the market is sold out!

While Qin Cang dispatched the resources of Sofia Port, he hurriedly collected grass, bark, and quicklime. Next to the soap mill on the southernmost side, a paper mill was built at the far end of the saltpeter mill.

The craft of making blank paper has been learned by a few people. So these people crowded into the paper mill every day.

Chop the bamboo and float the pond, boil the fire, lick the mortar, swing the material into the curtain, cover the curtain and press the paper and dry it through the fire. To make bamboo paper suitable for printing books and account books, the first link takes 100 days, the second link takes 56 days or even 78 days, the third link needs to spend a lot of labor, and the fourth link to the sixth link needs to control the heat, which is a technical work. The time, manpower and technical work of these six links add up to a very time-consuming force.

Fortunately, there is no bamboo here, and it is also necessary to use some broken things to make paper that can still be used, otherwise this traditional craft alone can crush Qin Cang.

It's a time of great paper popularity! Chijing's paper actually fried a stack of paper and two silver coins! It's so expensive that some people are scrambling to buy it! It's really speechless. No, the 1,000 volumes of historical records that have just been listed have a guide price of two founding silver coins, which is still because of the high price of paper, but it was sold out as soon as it was listed! And on the black market, you can directly fry four or five founding gold coins!