The next day, the sky cleared, and although it was still cloudy, there was occasional sunshine, and even the wind was much more refreshing.

Xie Mulin stood in the abandoned courtyard in the northeast corner of his old house, staring at the several cement ingredients that had just been collected on the ground in front of him, muttering in his heart the soil method cement formula mentioned in his father's information.

When her father was still a lecturer in the School of Architecture, he wrote a lot of papers in order to evaluate the title, and also collected some materials in order to prepare lesson plans, including how to solve various building materials in rural areas in the past when materials were scarce. Her father collected the soil cement formula in several places, and even the specific ratio. But considering that the raw materials are different from region to region, and there may be a need to use techniques that she is not qualified to use, many recipes cannot come in handy.

For example, the formula of burning loess instead of cement in Shaanxi uses loess, slaked lime and gypsum, and it has to be calcined at a high temperature of 700 degrees in a kiln. Not to mention whether she can find a kiln that can meet the standard, the loess alone is very troublesome. Can the loess in Shaanxi be the same thing as the loess in the area around Taihu Lake in the south of the Yangtze River? I'm afraid this recipe can only be scrapped. Unless she goes to Shaanxi one day, it can still be used.

For example, limestone and clay are ground into powder, and after calcination, they are ground together with the slag left over after ironmaking, which is cement. This recipe was easier to implement than the previous one, provided she had to find the slag left over from the ironwork, which required an iron mine or ironmaking workshop nearby. But no. She only knows that there is a blacksmith shop in Qianwan Village, which is estimated to be a tool for farming, kitchen knives and the like, where does she need to make serious iron ore? The blacksmith had to buy raw materials, and the pieces of pig iron that had been smelted were also returned.

However, there are several recipes for homemade cement, which are relatively more practical.

Lime slag cement is made of coal burnt residue ash, quicklime, and a little gypsum. The ingredients for this recipe are relatively easy to obtain. Xie Mulin asked people to ask the blacksmith shop in Qianwan Village, and it was not difficult to find cinders. The brick kilns on the Xie side of the Kok are currently run by several poorer members of the Xie clan, and bricks and tiles are produced from time to time, and it is said that most of the fuel used is firewood, but charcoal is also used to burn some high-priced bricks. Coal is coal, which means that there is also a lot of cinder in the brick kiln.

Brick and tile powder cement is to replace the cinder ash in the above recipe with crushed clay bricks. The clay which can be used to burn pottery is the best. Xie Mulin didn't know where to find clay, but isn't it easy to get bricks? The brick kiln in the Shang clan is pulled, how many are needed, not to mention that this is not a ready-made brick, but a broken brick, which saves money and trouble.

There is also a kind of bauxite cement, which uses porcelain fragments or porcelain clay, which is expensive and does not need to be considered for the time being. Let's wait until she finds a place to produce porcelain clay.

These three cement formulas, the cement produced, the water resistance is good, but it is not resistant to low temperature, the solidification speed is slow, and the maintenance needs to be strengthened. But is this a problem for Shimlin? In this day and age, it's good to have cement!

She asked her servants to collect cinder ashes, broken bricks, gypsum, and limestone, and planned to have them experiment to see which recipe was more convenient and easy to use, or use one of each, and see the results in a few months.

The courtyard where she is now is located in the northeast corner of the old house. In the past, when the old lady Xie Zehu was not rich, it was used to open a small family textile workshop. At that time, in order to facilitate the female relatives of the clan to come to work, a small side door was also opened. When Mrs. Xie made a fortune, this small workshop expanded and moved out, and it became the study yard where Mrs. Xie and his subordinates discussed matters. The small side door was repaired into a large side door, and when Old Lady Xie didn't want to go out through the front yard gate, he would go out through the side door.

Today, this side door is still usable, but the door panel has decayed a lot, and the lower half is still shortened. When there was a flood in those years, there was muddy water flowing down the mountain, and a lot of it entered the courtyard, soaking the good ground into mud. Fortunately, the walls of this courtyard are high and thick, and there is a stone slab wall foundation under the wall, and only one front door is connected to the rest of the old house, and stone steps are built in front of the door, so that the muddy water did not flood to the main courtyard.

The floor of the yard is still muddy, and it has softened after the rain. Previously, when Xie Mulin asked people to repair the house, he asked him to find some broken stone slabs and old bricks and put them on the ground of the yard to make it easier to walk. Now I can take advantage of the sun to evaporate the water from the mud. Once the mud is dry, and then the cement is laid on top, it will be easy to do.

This yard has a side door for transporting raw materials, close to the well in the kitchen yard, a high wall to block odors, good ventilation, and a spacious place that can accept large areas of sunlight...... It is used for experiments, and even if it fails, there is nothing to lose. But if it succeeds...... Xie Mulin thought about the situation, and his heart was quite beautiful. If Wen's expenditure on repairing the old house can be cut down even further, she will naturally have a greater say in family finances in the future.

Ma Lu Yao asked a few powerful male servants to smash and grind the dried broken bricks, and turned around and asked Xie Mulin: "Second girl, do you see this brick broken like this, can it be used?" ”

Xie Mulin took a look: "It's almost, just grind it into powder for a while." ”

Ma Lu Yao answered, and asked again: "The plaster is all according to the girl's instructions, and the plaster is made into cooked gypsum, is it also to be ground into powder?" ”

Xie Mulin nodded, and was about to instruct the next step of the process, when he heard Cuijiao calling himself at the gate of the courtyard.

She turned her head to ask what was going on, but Cuijiao began to winkle her eyebrows, as if hinting at her past to speak. She wondered in her heart, and explained what Ma Luyao and they were going to do next, so she stepped on the broken stone slab step by step and walked to the steps at the gate of the courtyard: "What's wrong?" ”

Cuijiao whispered in her ear, "Doctor Du is here." The wife invited her to sit down in the back stairs, and as soon as the tea was served, the old lady began to curse, scolding the wife and the young master and girls! ”

Xie Mulin sighed, when will this old woman stop? I'm starting to be a demon again!

However, when Doctor Du came, the Wen family didn't send anyone to tell her, and led the person to Mrs. Xie alone, and there was no one to share the scolding, what did she think?

Xie Mulin looked down at himself, dressed up in a homely manner, and it was not rude, but the skirt and upper were a little dirty, so it was not easy for outsiders to see. She thought about it, and simply walked back to Meilu through the main courtyard, changed into clean clothes, and then brushed her slightly disheveled hair before going to the back building.

In the back building, Mrs. Xie had already scolded Wen for a round, and was facing Du Fengchun to say how her daughter-in-law and grandchildren were unfilial, she was so sick that she refused to serve the sick in front of her, and she was not allowed to eat well, and she was only allowed to eat porridge and water that was so thin that she could see people all day long, and she also pointed at her and scolded Huai, and wanted to make her angry to death......

Du Fengchun was listening to her scolding, taking her pulse for a moment in one hand, and twisting his beard in the other hand, he was silent and didn't say anything.

Xie Mulin walked in the door and saluted Mrs. Xie and Du Fengchun respectively: "Say hello to the old lady." Old man Du is fine. ”

Mrs. Xie scolded coldly, but she was interrupted by her words, and turned her head to see that Xie Mulin, who was the most difficult to deal with, was here, and was immediately choked by saliva, and coughed again and again.

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