Chapter 70: Edge

The manufacture of the table clock has undoubtedly become an opportunity for the Ye Workshop to raise the overall technical level to a higher level, and after the workshop got the drawings of the simple timer drawn by Ye Tao, when the simple-looking primary product was sent to the Chun Nuan Residence, the second senior brother Zhao Dazhu praised Ye Tao again. Now, as Yip's Workshop moves further and further out of the woodworking realm, more and more things need to be accurately timed, and although the grandfather clock is useful, it is not as convenient as this small, one-hour countdown timer. Moreover, the chronograph has a simple structure, making it ideal for apprentices who have just joined the watch workshop. Zhao Dazhu is not a person who is good at finding product business opportunities, but he is introverted and always considers problems from the perspective of the workshop, and constantly improves the complex and sophisticated technical system of the Ye Workshop. It is precisely because Zhao Dazhu is in charge of the headquarters of Ye's Workshop in Yicheng and constantly cultivates skilled apprentices that Ye Laogeng, Guan Haishan, and Suo Yong can leave Yicheng and go to Danyang with confidence, and they will not be able to come back for the time being after staying in Danyang.

Zhao Dazhu waited until he finished his opinion on this small timer, only to find that the atmosphere around him seemed to be a little strange. In the quiet room where the spring is warm in winter and cool in summer, there are now more than a dozen young people sitting in twos and threes. Their clothes were obviously very elegant, but perhaps for practical reasons, they were not much more gorgeous than the coarse cloth clothes on Zhao Dazhu's body. And in the window position with the best light, sitting cross-legged around a small table were Governor Peng Detian and Admiral Min Yue.

Throwing the timer to those young people to play with, Zhao Dazhu, who felt that he was a little unconscious, hurriedly came over to salute.

"Ye Tao, what are you doing with that little thing again? Except for your own use in the workshop, probably, it can't sell well, right? Peng Detian looked at the young people who were in a pile on the side, and asked with a smile.

"Your Excellency. It's a great thing to use. Zhao Dazhu thought for a while and said: "The work in the workshop is busy, and now there is some lunch break after lunch to let everyone rest." Set that little timer for half an hour, and wake yourself up at the right time, so that you won't miss the point of work. ”

Peng Detian and Min Yue laughed. Although this Zhao Dazhu is a little simpler, this is a good statement. In the yamen at all levels, there are too many people who have developed the habit of napping because of various things, which is an effective way to avoid oversleeping. After all, the table clock can't be in every room, and most of them are placed in the lobby or study where you need to support the scene, but this small timer can be carried around.

By association, while there is a need for a timer in a place like the Workshop, there are many opportunities for others to set a time for themselves at all times. Peng Detian said that he gave the person who came half a moment to explain the situation, but he was fooled and wasted a lot of time and missed other things. Timers and this kind of thing. Peng Detian wanted to get one with him.

Ye Tao said nonchalantly: "As long as it is useful, I am not afraid that it will not be sold." Now there are more things that can be sold for money, and I don't care about these one or two, at least, with this thing. There's not just a little stuff in Tissot watches. The list of grandfather clocks is already scheduled for next year, and there is always something to sell in the store. ”

Peng Detian nodded and said, "Okay, then let's talk about it." What do you think of that thing we are talking about? ”

Peng Detian and Min Yue came to find Ye Tao together, obviously not just to come to this quiet room to blow the wind and drink tea. They brought a rhapsody, a rhapsody that made Ye Tao's heart skip a beat.

After the advent of the grandfather clock, Peng Detian moved out of the entire port area to build a port yamen and three offices, all of which were placed with grandfather clocks. In addition, he was also in charge of the dock affairs with the officials who were in charge of the docks, and with the tax collector. More stringent regulations have been established for the port area. After having a specific time reference, the docking plan, loading and unloading plan and tax audit and a series of other matters have been arranged accurately to the moment, these days, Yicheng port area is becoming more and more orderly and efficient, but also more and more busy. The problem now is not only to let the subordinates of the port yamen know the time and follow the schedule to do things. There is a greater need for those shipowners from all sides. The cooperation of large merchants in time, otherwise. The current timetable cannot be pursued further.

So, Peng Detian and Min Yue came up with the idea of building a large enough grandfather clock, which should be at least six to seven floors, with the top floor open on all sides, and there are four surfaces to show the current time to the entire port area. The chime on the hour, and the time reminder that rings once every quarter of an hour, will almost immediately make the port area more efficient and orderly. And such a building will become a symbol of Yicheng Port and a symbol of Yicheng's prosperity and wealth.

This is the bell tower. Ye Tao's mind kept coming up with the Gothic buildings with towering spires that had impressed him when he traveled to Europe before, and the metal crosses erected on the spires really gave people a sense of sacredness. The bell tower can become a landmark of the place, and the melodious sound of the bell can give the entire local residents a strange sense of stability and belonging. In Shanghai, which I am most familiar with, the bell of the customs building has sounded from the 20th century to the 21st century, and it is still talked about by many people, and it is still a bright and beautiful landscape.

What Peng Detian and Min Yue put together is not only a bell tower, but also a local landmark building with considerable practical significance, and it is also a "political achievement project" for their local dignitaries. However, their political performance project seems to be worthy of Ye Tao's support. However, here's the problem. Grandfather clocks and bell towers are far from being magnified several times.

Although the traditional Chinese-style wooden buildings have been pushed to a peak height by Ye Tao and Dai Yuege, to be honest, they are not suitable for building such a considerable height. This is not a pagoda-style building, and the structural load-bearing is limited, especially for the top few floors, and the maximum load-bearing is the material weight of the building itself. At the top of the bell tower, however, it is necessary to install the movement of a large bell with an extremely complex structure and considerable weight. To let the entire port area see, the weight of the huge dial and hands alone is enough, although Ye Tao has a good foundation in architecture and has a lot of experience in architectural design, but he is not sure that he can use wooden buildings to carry such a heavy burden. After all, he is interested in the study of Chinese wooden architecture. Just at the applied level, not at the academic level. Naturally, he could have made the timber building able to carry that weight, but that was not economical in any way.

Thinking of the bell tower, Ye Tao's mind also had another classic image: Big Ben. This example is so classic that Ye Tao actually has a rough drawing of the entire building in his mind. Big Ben on the banks of the Thames has been in operation since 1859, and with the occasional breakdown, it was still running healthily until Ye Tao was blasted out of the world he knew. Ye Tao thinks, maybe. The ninety-eight-meter-tall building, with slight modifications, would have been very much in line with the needs of Peng Detian and Min Yue. This has to be modified, naturally including some details in the design, and the appearance of the building. A complete copy of the appearance of Big Ben, so that the spire of Gothic architecture was first born in Yicheng, that ...... It's a little too spoofed, isn't it?

As for the structure of the bell room in the bell tower, Ye Tao thinks. There is also no need to copy the designs of the nineteenth century. It is possible to improve the timekeeping accuracy of the clock chamber to a higher level, and the power of the hands on the outer clock face is separated from the power system of the bell chamber. It will be much better both in terms of the ease of maintenance and the tolerance of the entire bell tower and bell chamber to withstand changes in the external environment.

Ye Tao asked Lu Dan, who was leaning against the pillar and scribbling a little wine there, to fetch him a pen and paper. He quickly sketched out the most intuitive image of the Big Ben bell tower in his mind on paper. After dropping the pen, a question came to his mind and he shook his head. He said, "My lord, it is not difficult to say that this bell tower is difficult, and it is not easy to say that it is simple. ”

Min Yue glanced at the sketch and immediately felt that something was wrong. He had never seen a Western-style building, and he felt that the building that looked like a spear standing on the ground was a little too sharp, and although the appearance of the building was a little strange, it was still very harmonious. However, he sensed something in the size of the windows and the proportions of the entire building. After carefully looking at the sketch, Min Yue asked, "Virtuous nephew, how high are you trying to build this bell tower?" Min Yue and Peng Detian originally estimated that the bell tower should have at least five to six floors, which was already due to the fact that the wooden buildings were not high, but to be able to see the bell tower as many people as possible, these five to six floors were already the minimum. If they can make a higher ground, they will naturally not refuse. However, what Ye Tao drew on the drawings. Is it really possible?

Ye Tao calculated in his heart. He said, "It's about two hundred and eighty feet tall." The figures he reported not only shocked Min Yue and Peng Detian, but also dumbfounded the midshipmen who were interested in what they were discussing in the quiet room. Two hundred and eighty feet. How tall must that be? If such a tall building can be built, how high should you look up to see the top?

Peng Detian thought about it carefully and said, "What is such a tall building made of?" I'm afraid it's not reliable to make it out of wood, right? ”

"No, not wood." Ye Tao picked up the pen again, brushed the frame structure of the building on the paper, and explained the structure and function of the building to Peng Detian and Min Yue in as simple language as possible, explaining how to use cast iron to create a structural framework for this bell tower, how to fire special bricks to meet the needs of the outer wall of the bell tower, how the relationship between the bell room and the clock face, what is the scale of the big clock used to tell the time, how to install it, and in addition to the bell chamber, pendulum, clock face, and clock, Why do you need a set of equipment for timing and maintenance in the clock tower...... At this moment, although Peng Detian and Min Yue didn't know much about this knowledge, they also understood, and in that instant, Ye Tao actually fully understood what they meant, and still had a rough framework for the plan of the entire bell tower in his mind, and even had a certain construction plan. How can such talent be extraordinary? In ancient times, there were anecdotes of literati who wrote poems within a few steps, but after all, they were only anecdotes, and it was not difficult for literati to make up crooked poems casually without being picky about quality. But to be able to have such a grand idea in an instant, and how to realize the idea, look at the world, maybe only Ye Tao can.

The towering spire of the bell tower could no longer compete with the light of Ye Tao's scorching talent.

After listening to this, Peng Detian asked, "...... Since you already have a belly case, what is the difficulty of this bell tower? ”

Ye Tao said bluntly: "Money! The budget for this bell tower is so great that I don't have any bottom at all. ”

Ye Tao, who has supervised many gardens, is now an expert in engineering management, and since he said that there is no bottom, there must be a big problem. Sure enough, Ye Tao continued: "Although cast iron is not a very expensive thing, it is not easy to use cast iron to build so many large frame structures. There is no large-scale smelting workshop in Yicheng, and it is processed in other places, and it is not safe to worry about accuracy and quality, and transportation is a big problem. The same goes for specially made bricks. So what should be done with the foundation of a tall building? All piling machines had to be redesigned. Taken together, it will take a lot of energy and time to create something from scratch in all aspects, and if these problems are solved. I'll let the elder brother take care of the construction of the bell tower, and then I'll be in charge of the installation and commissioning of the bell chamber and the striking clock. …… And the key is money. If I had to build this thing from scratch, I wouldn't be able to calculate the exact cost. I'd better think about it and think of a solution that is easier to implement. ”

"No!" Peng Detian said resolutely: "That's it." The question of money, I'll figure it out. There are so many wealthy people in Yicheng who don't know how to spend it, and it is also a place where sea merchants live, I think that if this plan is implemented, I can connect myself with such a magnificent bell tower, and someone must be willing to pay for it. …… Since you can build a 280-foot tall building, then build it so high and low, Yicheng doesn't want it! ”