Sitting in Wickham's carriage, Bert leaned back with laughter, and almost rolled around with his stomach in his arms: "George, I'm laughing to death...... Have you seen the iron-clad faces of the Count of Krone, and it is estimated that Henry Sario has been listed as the least persona non grata by the Count of Kron...... I think that tomorrow will be the end of the day, and there will be a rumor of Henry Sario's scandal at the ball in the upper class circles of London, and any well-bred family will disdain to associate with the Sario family. ”

Recalling the scene at today's ball, Wickham felt so enjoyable and hateful! At the beginning, you Henry Sario could kill yourself because of a woman, and you couldn't save yourself when you died, and you repeatedly found your own fault in public. Now Wickham wants to see what kind of face Colonel Henry Sario has in the upper circles of London, to be so troubled by those two low-level courtesans!

"This is just the beginning, and I will double down on everything he did to me and Colonel Brandon in India in the first place!" Wickham is a person who will be revenged, and with Daisy in it, he will pull Henry Saario off the horse no matter what, and then step on it hard!

"George, what is your relationship with Madame Sario?" Thinking of Daisy's reluctant expression towards Wickham when he left, Bert knew that the relationship between the two was not simple, no matter how stupid he was. Bert knew that Barnett Burke had been in love with Daisy, and he didn't want his two best friends to get into trouble because of a woman.

Wickham knew what Bert was worried about, and to be honest, he was just as worried. But even with a hint of guilt towards Barnett, Wickham won't back down on Daisy's issue, because Daisy is already his woman! As a man, you can compromise on everything, but you can't compromise on face and dignity.

Wickham met Bert's pleading eyes, did not back down in the slightest, and said in a deep voice: "Bert, my relationship with Daisy is what you imagined. As for Barnett, he doesn't even have the guts to propose to Daisy, are you sure he will be able to protect Daisy in the future? Don't meddle in this matter, I'll take care of it myself. Since Daisy likes herself, and he likes Daisy, Wickham will naturally not make concessions to Barnett.

By this time, the carriage had come to a halt outside the Chelsea family's mansion. Bert didn't say anything more, but patted Wickham on the shoulder as he got out of the carriage and said, "I don't want to interfere in your affairs, but it's not easy for the three of us to go through ups and downs together for two years, and I hope you two don't hurt the friendship between friends because of this incident." At this point, what you do is up to you. With that, Bert picked up his hat and stepped out of the carriage.

Wickham looked at Bert's back in the distance, and then sighed leisurely. What else can he do now, he can only take one step at a time.

"Young Master, do you want to go back to Wickham Mansion?" The coachman asked in a voice when he saw that there had been no movement in the carriage for a long time.

Wickham turned his head and said nonchalantly, "Well, let's go." ”

…………

The cotton mill that Sir Wood sold to Wickham sits right next to the River Thames on the outskirts of London. As in the pre-steam-powered spinning mills, the proximity to the river bank was designed to facilitate the installation of a water-powered spinning machine, the mule. Now the plant has switched to a more stable and powerful steam power, no longer using hydraulics, and its proximity to the River Thames makes it extremely easy to transport. From this point of view, Wickham made a lot of money by buying the factory for 50,000 pounds.

Although Sir Wood did not know much about the operation and equipment of the cotton mill, in order to show his sincerity, Sir Wood accompanied Wickham on the whole tour of the factory with a senior mechanic of the factory.

The factory building is made of red brick, and the walls are lined with glass windows up to 21 feet high, which gives the factory plenty of light, in stark contrast to many of the low, cluttered factories of the day, and it can be seen that Sir Wood did put a lot of thought into the establishment of this factory.

Because of the installation of steam engines, there are also several tall brick chimneys on the factory to prevent the smoke from burning coal from spreading into the factory area. From the outside, this factory already has a bit of a modern factory feel.

Wooden floors have been laid in the factory, but because the factory has been closed for several months, there is a thick layer of dust on the floor. The machines and equipment were covered with a layer of cloth, and for a while it was impossible to see what the equipment was inside.

Sir Wood leaned on his silver cane and said to Wickham, "Mr. Wickham, I usually leave the day-to-day affairs of the factory to Mr. Black here, and he knows a few nails in this factory, so let Mr. Black give you a brief introduction." ”

Although Sir Wood is the owner of this factory, his main business is, after all, the woolen textile industry in Lancashire, so this factory, which is the Wood family's test of the cotton textile industry, is basically set up and managed by Blake, a technician he hired from other factories with high salaries.

The technician named Blake stepped forward and lifted the cloth of one of the machines, revealing the polished machine inside: "Look, Mr. Wickham, this is the mule machine in our factory. These mule machines are the latest products from Lancashire, and one can drive up to 400 spindles at the same time, which is ten times more efficient than Jenny's spinning machines! With these machines, the farmers who use Jenny's spinning machines in the countryside are no match for our new factories. It is foreseeable that in the near future, the inferior cloth produced in the local workshops in the countryside will be completely extinct in England! ”

Wickham doesn't know much about the machinery and equipment of the textile industry, and the mule machine in front of him looks a little rudimentary, the whole structure is a wooden structure, only in some key places from the use of metal castings, in the appearance of the later generations of metallic machinery and equipment, it is simply simple. But this seemingly rudimentary mechanical equipment is already the most advanced spinning machine in the world's textile industry.

It's just that Wickham doesn't understand why in Blake's mouth, even the "Jenny spinning machine" recorded in high school history textbooks, is a backward equipment that farmers use?

When it comes to the textile industry during the Industrial Revolution, the most familiar one in later generations is the Jenny spinning machine, because the emergence of the Jenny spinning machine caused a series of technological innovations in the light industry sector, which indirectly promoted the vigorous development of the first industrial revolution. What Wickham didn't know, however, was that, while the Jenny spinning machine was historically significant, it was technically inadequate at the end of the eighteenth century.

The most obvious gap is that after two generations of improvement, the Jenny spinning machine can only spin a maximum of 80 spindles at a time, which is already the limit of the Jenny spinning machine. However, the mule machine that appeared in 1779 could spin more than 400 spindles at a time, and the efficiency of the two was no longer a heavyweight at all!

And because the power of the Jenny machine is manpower, the coherence of the cotton yarn spun by the Jenny textile machine is not very good and it is easy to break. However, the mule machine powered by water power does not have this problem, and the cotton yarn spun is not easy to break, and the cloth woven with its cotton yarn will be thinner and better quality.

Although the technology is relatively backward, Jenny looms have the advantage that they are relatively cheap, and you can buy a brand new machine for only ten pounds! Therefore, many spinning workshops in rural England basically use high-quality and inexpensive Jenny looms. However, since the successful use of the steam engine in the cotton textile industry, the production efficiency of the mule machine has become even more terrifying. It is foreseeable that the price of cotton yarn produced by the steam-powered mule machine will be lower, and those rural workshops that still insist on using the Jenny machine will soon be unlucky, this is the power of the great industrial age!

Ruhr carefully inspected these machines that had been maintained as bright as new, returned to Wickham's side and whispered: "These mule machines are usually well maintained, and they look very new, and they will not be used for more than two years, young master, you can rest assured." ”

In fact, the cotton textile industry in this era can be roughly divided into two procedures: spinning and weaving, and the spinning factory and the weaving factory are also very separate. But Sir Wood, in order to reduce the cost of purchasing raw materials, combined the two functions of spinning and weaving, and those mule machines were procured specifically for the purpose of providing cotton yarn for the loom.

The three of them walked to the weaving workshop across the wall, where five power looms were placed, which were also well maintained, and it could be seen that the technician named Blake was a very responsible person.

Blake went on to introduce Wickham: "These are new steam-powered looms that are more than 40 times more efficient than handlooms. Ten years ago, Mr. Edmund Cartwright invented the water-powered loom, although the speed of weaving cloth was greatly accelerated, but limited by the instability of water power, the cotton cloth spun was somewhat rough, and there were more threads. The looms in our factory, after the transformation of Mr. James Watt, their transmission rods are connected to the steam engine with stable power, which not only makes the production of cotton cloth not limited by the change of seasonal water flow, but also spins the cotton cloth with a more delicate texture and fewer broken threads. ”

After the advent of Jenny machines and mule machines, the British spinning industry developed rapidly, but the weaving industry, which was still mainly handmade, was somewhat backward and could not digest the output of cotton yarn at all. This dilemma was solved in 1785 when a priest named Cartwright invented a water-powered loom, which made weaving forty times more efficient.

Once Watt's Coupling steam engine was ready for use in the textile industry, the technicians made a series of modifications to the hydraulic loom to make it work with the Coupling steam engine. Clearly, the power looms in Sir Wood's factory were this modified version of the looms.

Wickham went up to inspect the power loom and found that although the appearance of the machine was still relatively rough, the components of the machine were basically metal castings, and it did look much more advanced than the wooden machine. Wickham himself was a liberal arts student, and he couldn't see anything about it, so he asked aloud, "Ruhr, what do you think of these machines?" ”

Ruhl smiled bitterly and replied, "Young master, it turns out that our textile factory does not have such an advanced machine at all, and this is the first time I have seen this kind of power loom." ”

When Sir Wood heard what Ruhr said, he was afraid that Wickham would discourage him from buying the factory, so he hurriedly said: "Mr. Wickham, please rest assured, I have purchased these machines from Birmingham single-handedly, and they cost a lot of money, and you can send someone to Birmingham to inquire about them." ”

Wickham waved his hand and said, "Sir Wood, don't worry, although I don't know anything about machinery, these power looms are really good from the outside. The intention we set last night remains the same, and when we have inspected the equipment, if most of the equipment is not damaged, we can start closing. ”

After listening to Wickham's assurance, Sir Wood was relieved that if the good buyer in front of him did not do it, then he really could not find a buyer willing to pay 50,000 pounds to buy the factory.

Then, Blake also took Wickham and Ruhr to visit several steam engines in the factory, all of which were the latest "universal steam engines" developed by James Watt, which can be regarded as the most cutting-edge equipment in Britain.

Blake stroked the "stupid big black and thick" steam engine in front of him with both hands, and said: "This is Mr. James Watt's latest joint steam engine, nicknamed 'universal steam engine', this universal steam engine is different from the previous ones in that it closes the steam intake valve in the middle of the cold working stroke, so that the steam expands to improve thermal efficiency; Causes the steam to work on both sides of the piston to increase the output power. To coincide with this new change, Mr. Watt also invented the parallelogram structure of the tie rod, with an overall output of up to twenty horsepower! However, such a steam engine is relatively expensive, in the past, the steam engine used in the mine only cost 200 pounds, but a universal steam engine cost 800 pounds, which is the most expensive equipment in the factory. ”

After getting Blake's assurance, Wickham did not inspect these steam engines, and he probably didn't understand anything by himself and Ruhl's two knives. Anyway, after the completion of the acquisition of the factory, this Black technician will stay and continue to work, but there is no need to worry that he will cheat himself, after all, this factory was established by him, and there is a special feeling.

Wickham called his solicitor and notary who had been prepared a long time ago, signed the purchase agreement with Sir Wood, and paid the money on the spot. Sir Wood also called his own lawyer and handed over a series of ownership documents to Wickham.

At this point, the land and equipment of this textile mill, plus a small pier outside near the River Thames, belonged to Wickham from now on!