It was not only Chen Jian who returned to Mincheng, but also several of Chen Jian's brothers and sisters, craftsmen who went to learn cement firing, Wang Zhe and his deputies who surveyed and mapped, and gunsmiths in the military, and so on. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Before returning to Mincheng, Chen Jian sent out a bunch of invitations.

The invitation sent out this time was very important, because the invitation was not signed by Chen Jian, a disciple of the Xue Palace, but Chen Jian, a teacher of the Xue Palace.

Mr. Pingjun naturally wanted to support it, and those disciples had no choice but to support such a gentleman who was about the same age as them for no reason.

Those who are invited are all those who study natural science and arithmetic, or who will go to Mincheng next spring to discuss some new concepts, new sciences, and new technologies.

Think of the most famous photograph of the Solvay Trade Union Fund-backed physics conference, which claims to be a 50-year stagnation of humanity by dropping a bomb and nuclear weapons during a photoshoot. Chen Jian also used the invitation sent in the name of the scientific seminar of the Nan'an Soda Plant, although the methods of making soda are completely different, but it is good to say that they are all soda making.

In more than half a year, it is not difficult to get silver iodide, silver chloride, and sodium thiosulfate by laboratory methods.

Of course, the people on the ship didn't know about Jian Chen's bad taste, and these bad tastes were not bad tastes if they were not supported by history.

Less historical, at best, quirky.

After getting off the boat, the opinion on Chen Jian's strange temperament penetrated into the hearts of these people who set foot in Fujian City for the first time.

There were many people who greeted Chen Jian on the dock, because of the previous beating of gongs and drums, red flowers and green cloth flowing water mats, everyone in Mincheng knew that Chen Jian had become a disciple of the school palace and left his name on the sage temple.

Coupled with the outstanding charity, it can be regarded as one of the best benevolent people in Fujian.

Li Yun was not surprised when he saw it, but those senior brothers and sisters were surprised. Wang Zhe is still the same as before, there is not much expression on his face, and he occasionally mutters a few words to himself, and the people next to him are used to it.

When they came to the original charity trading house, everyone's eyes suddenly lit up.

A large five-storey brick and stone building stands out like a flock in the neighborhood of Mincheng.

The red bricks and white boulders are inlaid with large pieces of glass, and the quaint geometric shapes make the building shine.

The dragon flag and the black and white bear yin and yang fish flags were hoisted high, and several hired men were hanging ropes to paint the walls above, and the bottom had been basically cleared.

It is in strong contrast with the wooden or brick houses next to it, it is not beautiful but it is very shocking, and I am used to seeing a one- or two-story loft house, and I always look up in the face of this five-story building.

The heavy brick and stone walls of the ground floor have a new-age thickness, and the wide, concrete-smoothed plaza in front of the door makes this feeling even stronger.

There were many children playing in the square, and there was no one to hinder them, and a few children drew small grids on the concrete floor with bricks, and discarded tiles were bouncing around there.

Several special horse-drawn carriages with glass windows are parked in the square. In order to prevent thermal expansion and contraction, the cement square has been cut out one after another, and it looks like a big chessboard, and the chic and somewhat strange building is like a handsome on the chessboard, sitting firmly in the center.

A lot of flowers and plants were transplanted into the small flower beds, and several gates were also made of glass as much as possible to show off the magnificence, and such a large piece of glass was also a symbol of wealth at this time.

There was also a huge pergola on the concrete floor next to it, and under the pergola was a kind of movement that these people had never seen before. A large tabletop, with piles of porcelain balls covered with cashmere, was poked by a few people with poles, occasionally cheering.

Nearby, there are several huge blackboards, on which are written some words or arithmetic that can only be learned after enlightenment, and some are drawn with some things that are not easy to understand, which seem to be some kind of manual mechanical use. There was no one there for the time being, but the handwriting on it hadn't been erased.

The most bizarre thing is that several huge plaques or curtains are hung above the building.

"Nan'an Glass Factory Liaison Office"

"The Central Party Department of the Mexican Party, the Branch of the Mexican Party in Fujian"

"Nanan Chemical Plant Liaison Office"

"Charity Trading Company"

"Charity Trading Company Foundation" "Charity Trading Company Foundation Donation Office"

"Small Low-Interest Relief Loan Application Office"

"Friends of the Miners Safety Light"

"Mincheng Youth Home, Night Club"

"Employee Quitting Alcohol and Gambling, Learning Techniques Night School"

Strange names are hung high, and according to tradition, a large papier-mâché red lantern is hung in front of the door.

In front of the plaque of the "Central Party Department of Mexico", there are two people with red armbands wrapped around their arms, except for the "Small Low-Interest Relief Loan Application Office", there are people standing in front of the door, and other places are free to enter and exit.

It's a bit like a rich man standing in front of his house, but it's not the same. On the side of small low-interest loans, there are often people who come to make trouble, because people are cut off from money, and fights are common, so they naturally need someone to watch.

A dry person is a little dizzy to look at, saying that it is strange, but any point alone feels common; It's not surprising that the combination of these things is a bit confusing, and it looks like a new landscape suddenly appears in an old city.

Even if this scenery is not beautiful, it accounts for a strange word.

Walking past a four-wheeled carriage, Wang Zhe raised his head and stared at the wheel, and Jian Chen's senior brother also quietly stabbed Li Yun, but Li Yun also shook his head.

The wheels of the carriage could be turned, and it was very comfortable on the concrete floor, which had never been seen before. Look at the other carriages parked in front of the square, but they are still the same, no difference.

"Don't look at it, it's just such a car, it's a craftsman from my smelting and forging workshop, knocked out little by little. I'm trying, by the way, running around the city every day and making an advertisement. But the bump is still a bump, and it can be a little more comfortable. ”

The simple four-wheel steering mechanism is not very practical for horse-drawn carriages, but it can be built for fun, and Chen Jian's smelting and forging workshop is making some strange things in addition to making a few sample guns, and the materials used are expensive, which are used to practice hands.

Li Yun sighed with emotion: "Senior brother, you have to change your appearance every year." I'm afraid I won't recognize it when I come back later. ”

"That's hard to say. You're all tired, this is not a place to rest, and there's no place to rest. Let's go to the inn and rest. ”

A few hired workers came to help put the things on the carriage, Chen Jian looked back at a few acquaintances, asked a few words, and asked someone to send these people to rest first.

Before he came back, someone had already come back half a month earlier and sent a message for Jian Chen.

Although I don't know exactly when Jian Chen will come back, the days are only in these days, and a few people invited by Jian Chen are already inside.

The first floor was a semi-underground arch that had to bear the pressure of the upper floor, and the one that was really wide was actually the second floor.

When it was built, Chen Jian was still in the capital, and it was the first time he came in, and the place was still a little cramped, and it was too much to say that it was a high-rise building.

Walk through the hall being decorated and go up to a small room on the third floor.

The room is not high, some low, the windows are not very large, and there is no translucent and heavy feeling from the outside. There was a large pile of books and a pile of unopened letters.

After sitting down, there was a knock on the door and someone came in.

Several were blacksmiths, and one was Huang De, the owner of the Nan'an Wood Factory, who was also a joiner who helped Chen Jian complete the small ball bevel experiment.

After greetings, they sat down one after another.

"Master Huang, how many masters are there, what I asked you to make can be made?"

"It's made, it's outside, you can bring it in, it's not big anyway."

After a while, a wooden box containing something not too heavy was carried in.

When the door was closed and opened, there was a machine made of iron and wood, very rough and rudimentary, exactly the level of the handicraft era.

Inside is a dense row of jagged wheels, and on the other side is a fine wire-like grate, and a wooden handle is attached to the outside.

There are also some cotton crumbs in it and some cottonseed husks at the bottom.

In addition to this machine, there is another, smaller machine in the wooden box. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is a machine, but there are too few parts, two pieces of cast iron and a crank, which add up to less than a foot long and wide.

Huang De excitedly pointed to the first small machine and said: "This thing is very simple to make, we have also tried it, and it is really easy to use for cotton ginning." Although there are still broken cottonseed husks mixed in it, it does not affect the spinning thread. It's not troublesome to do, blacksmiths can do it, but the iron grate needs a hydraulic wire drawing machine, and this sawtooth requires a hydraulic workshop. ”

Obviously, the first machine was a hand-cranked cotton gin, simple in construction and rudimentary in principle, but extremely efficient.

When cotton is picked, it has cottonseeds. The cotton fibers must be stripped from the cotton seeds before they can be spinned, which is the most important set of processes for spinning after the cotton is harvested, without which there is no way to spin.

Nowadays, it is still generally hand-picked, or simple machinery is used, but the efficiency is not high, and the existing machinery is only suitable for some long-staple cotton in the north, and the effect is not too good.

Hand-selected, the seed cotton should be spread on the pallet, and the pressure roller should be rubbed and rolled, so that the fiber is pressed between the pressure roller and the pallet and left in front of the two mouth lines by friction. The cottonseed is blocked behind the contact line between the roller and the pallet, and moves backward with the rolling motion of the roller.

A skilled ginning worker can pick one to two catties of cotton a day. This is a really labour-intensive and repetitive job, which means that it is done at the lowest level of the textile industry, similar to the carders in the wool-producing areas of the north.

If you are a human being, you will naturally be paid a meager salary, but if you don't do anything, you will starve to death.

In addition, because of the difference between seed cotton and lint, many yeoman farmers will not plant cotton, and those middlemen who buy cotton and select seed cotton often keep the price of seed cotton very low, and yeoman farmers cannot spend time every day to gin.

Large farmers would hire apprentices or the least skilled hires to do this, so it was profitable.

The simple ginning machine in front of Chen Jian, which can be hammered out by blacksmiths relying on the raw materials provided by the hydraulic workshop, can process forty or fifty catties of cotton per day, and the efficiency is fifty times that of manual labor.

Again, the efficiency is increased fifty times, but only one person's salary is paid, and of course the salary of these forty-nine people is earned.

Once the efficiency is improved and ginning is simple, the problems brought about are not simply the problems of the ginners, but a series of problems such as the competition of grain and cotton, the amount of grain output and planting, the desire of the agrarian faction to restrict the freedom of hired workers to plant and pick cotton, and the desire of the industrial and commercial faction to maintain the free flow of personnel in order to vigorously develop the textile industry and open up the Qi market for dumping, and so on.

With the new multi-spindle spinning machine, spindle worsted spinning machine, spring shuttle loom, hosiery loom, woolen fleece hand-crank machine, etc., these carpenters and blacksmiths can build but are suppressed by the guilds; At the same time, it is difficult to compete in the handicraft industry, unemployment is unemployed, and the skills learned after years of apprenticeship have become as cheap as a new apprentice, and other seemingly simple but important events related to the life of the family.

Coupled with the chaos caused by Jian Chen's preparation to burst the bubble of the orchid craze......

Mincheng will soon be able to make a big headline.