"General Zheng, Major General. "Fun,www.biquge.info" Fabio said suddenly, "Mr. Lawrence, I am afraid I forgot to tell you. That is, this drying method has never been used to dry such large wood before. As far as I know, the expedition team found very good timber in the forest, and the thickness of the fine oak may be more than a cubit. In the past, the drying kiln could only be used to dry no more than one palm of wood, and it can indeed greatly improve the efficiency of drying, but in the process of drying, the proportion of wood cracking and bending is still much higher than that of natural drying. The person Mr. Lawrence mentioned just now who opposed the construction of such a large drying kiln was me. I'm not against the use of drying kiln technology, when we build ships, we also need a lot of wood that is no more than a palm thick, and drying kilns can really improve efficiency when processing such wood. But Mr. Lawrence insisted on making the kiln so large, not just because it could dry the lumber that was only a palm thick in large quantities, but because he was trying to use it in this way to deal with the huge timber that would be used in the future for the most critical parts, such as keels, such as masts. General Zheng, Major General, you all know that such wood is a gift from God, and it takes hundreds or even thousands of years for a tree to grow to such a size, and such wood is a priceless treasure that must not be wasted like this.

General Zheng, Major General, Mr. Lawrence might defend himself, he would say that he had a so-called secret recipe, a so-called unique secret that would allow him to dry those giant pieces of wood using a drying kiln. But General Zheng, Major General, you may think of the Gryll's cypress that we have found in the forests of the Central Mountains, and where we may be able to get fine timber more than thirty paces long and more than one step thick, enough to make the keel of one of the world's largest warships, and you may not find much such great timber in the whole world. Mr. Lawrence may have some so-called secret recipes, but has his secret recipe really been used on wood of this scale? Lawrence, do you dare to say to God, to your conscience, that you, or any of those so-called secret recipes of yours, have ever used this secret recipe to handle such wood? ”

Zheng Zhifeng and Zheng Sen both set their eyes on Lawrence, but Lawrence couldn't say anything. For it was evident that his secret recipe could not have been tested on such wood, which had never been found in the whole of Europe.

After a long while, Lawrence slowly opened his mouth, and defended in a deep voice:

"General Zheng, Major General. As Mr. Fabio said, I really have no experience in handling such a huge amount of wood in a drying kiln, and in fact no one can have such experience, not even St. Joseph's. (St. Joseph, the secular adoptive father of Jesus, St. Joseph is the Protestant translation, and the Catholic Church calls St. Joseph.) He is a carpenter) However, General Zheng, the Major General, the proportion of natural drying that bursts and bends is also very high, and the larger the wood, the higher the proportion of such a thing. Because the situation in nature is unpredictable, changes in temperature and humidity will make the wood in the drying process crack and bend, and a big tree like this will take more than ten years or even decades to dry naturally, and the longer the time, the more susceptible it is to these effects, resulting in cracking and deformation. On the contrary, in the drying room, at least these factors are completely controllable. We can keep the wood at constant temperature and humidity at any time of the year, which theoretically only reduces the likelihood of cracking and bending.

Mr. Lawrence also mentions that the proportion of wood cracking and bending in the drying kiln is higher than that of natural drying, which is naturally true, but he does not tell the whole truth. That is, the reason for this phenomenon is that the thickness of a palm of wood is not valuable, and in order to pursue a higher drying speed, people are willing to bear more wood losses. Therefore, people will make the temperature in the drying kiln very high, which will naturally have such a result. If we slow down and control the temperature in the drying kiln within a more reasonable range, the drying kiln can completely increase the drying speed while reducing the chance of cracking and deformation. ”

At this point, he turned sharply to Fabio, looked at Fabio with both eyes and said, "Mr. Fabio, we can take a gamble." Do you see these oaks here? These timbers are more than a palm thick, and oak wood is one of the most susceptible to cracking and deformation when drying. I haven't had time to deal with them yet, so you can take half of them and do whatever you want. Then let's compare and see who is working with the wood that cracks and deforms less! I'm willing to bet two hundred guilders for this, and if you lose, I'll only need you to pay one hundred and fifty guilders. Do you dare to bet with me? ”

This time it was Fabio's turn to be dumbfounded. He had no idea that Lawrence would come with him so suddenly. Although he was not sure that Lawrence would actually reduce the chance of cracking and deformation by slowing down the drying rate, it was very possible in principle. And two hundred guilders, no, even if it's just a hundred guilders, that's a lot of silver coins, a lot of money.

However, Fabio quickly came up with an excuse: "I won't be fooled, Mr. Lawrence, you can use this drying kiln as a natural drying room." Isn't it? You're so cunning! ”

"Well, I'll add one more condition, if my wood takes more than two-thirds of the time you spend drying up, no matter what else it takes, I'm losing. How, dare you bet on this? Lawrence saw that Fabio was a little weak, and became more and more reluctant.

"Gambling is a vice, I am a devout Catholic, and the Bible teaches us not to covet another man's house, nor to covet another man's wife, or to his slave or to his or her daughter, or to his ox or his donkey, or anything that belongs to another'. So gambling is never something that a devout believer should do. Of course, you morally corrupt Protestants will not understand this. Fabio was cornered by Lawrence, so he had to use such a crooked technique.

Lawrence was fooled, and began to accuse the Holy See of hypocrisy and evil, and only used scientists as a barbecue. Fabio, on the other hand, turned to accuse the Protestants of burning Servette as well, and earlier than the Holy See burned Bruno.

"Alright, you two don't quarrel like this anymore, what are you like!" Zheng Zhifeng didn't understand what was going on at first, because the interpreter next to him was completely stupid and didn't translate anymore. But after a while, looking at the expressions and tones of the two, he figured out that the two Yiren actually quarreled. So he shouted angrily.

So the two of them immediately stopped. To say that before Zheng Zhifeng stopped them, their mouth cannons had already reached the point of choosing muskets or sword duels. Now Zheng Zhifeng came out to stop their quarrel, which made both of them breathe a sigh of relief in their hearts. Don't look at what both of them say, but in essence, they are all cowards. It's just that many times, the more cowardice they have, the more they have to pretend on the surface, so the two of them haven't forgotten to widen their eyes and then look at each other angrily.

"You don't have to quarrel over this little disagreement. I believe that although they have different views, they are both out of public interest. Zheng Sen quietly reached out and pulled Zheng Zhifeng's clothes, who were about to continue to get angry, and opened his mouth to define the argument first.

"I'm interested in Mr. Lawrence's drying kiln." Zheng Sen continued, in his previous life, he had a classmate who was engaged in wood trading at home, so he also had a vague impression of the drying of wood. Naturally, I know that the drying kiln is more in line with the direction of historical development, "I want to do a comparative experiment, we randomly select half of these oak wood to dry naturally, and half of it is treated with a drying kiln to see how the effect is." In addition, I have some ideas that I would like to discuss with you, Mr. Lawrence. ”

"Major General, I don't know what you command." Lawrence smugly said he knew he had the upper hand in the round.

"I've seen people handle rattan," Zheng Sen said, recalling some of the steps he had told him about the drying of wood, and he vaguely remembered that the classmate had said that the wood would be preheated before it began to dry, so that the humidity of the whole piece of wood would be consistent inside and out. "It seems that they will first boil the rattan with water, and according to them, the rattan will dry faster. And it's not easy to grow mold. One of the reasons I've heard you mention that wood is prone to cracking when it's dry, and it's more humid on the inside and drier on the outside. I think that we can first boil the whole wood in water, or steam it for a while, to kill the insects and eggs in the trees, and to make the inside and outside of the wood as dry and wet as possible. In addition, we can also choose a piece of wood as a sample, every dry period of time, drill a hole in it, to see the dryness and wetness of the surface and the inner layer, if the outer layer dries too fast, the difference between the inside and outside is too big, we water the wood or steam it to make the outer layer of wood moisten a little more. After a little more exploration, you should be able to get the most reasonable treatment mode for various woods. At that time, we will be able to use it to process those precious woods. ”

"It's worth a try. Major General, what you said is worth trying! Lawrence was very happy to respond.

"Ah, Mr. Lawrence, and Mr. Fabio, we actually have an important matter here." Zheng Sen continued, "We wanted to know if the original two docks could be used to build whaling ships. I think it would make sense to build some whaling ships before building warships, so that our craftsmen can practice their skills and get some profits. I don't know what you two think? ”

"Major General, I agree with this idea." Fabio, who had fallen behind, hurriedly said.

"I am also in favour, Major General, that our Dutch whaling ships are unparalleled in the world." Lawrence also hurriedly said, "The whaling ship doesn't need to be too big, those two docks can be used completely." General Zheng, Major General, I can hand over to you the model of the whaling ship tomorrow. ”