Early the next morning, Fan Ning and Zhu Yuanfeng went to Chenliu County, Kaifeng Prefecture, where Zhu Yuanfeng opened a textile machine research institute and invited dozens of old craftsmen to study how to improve textile machines.

At present, the textile of the Great Song Dynasty is mainly hemp spinning and silk spinning, but after the Great Song Dynasty began to import a large amount of cotton cloth from Dashi, it attracted great attention from the major textile workshops.

Cotton cloth is obviously more comfortable than fine linen, warm, good breathability, many large families have begun to wear clothes made of cotton, many textile workshop owners are aware that once cotton cloth is imported in large quantities, they will encounter an existential crisis, no need for government organization, since last year, textile workshop owners have begun to study cotton spinning technology.

More than ten years ago, the Great Song Dynasty introduced cotton from Gaochang, but it was not promoted, and gradually disappeared, at present, only a few areas of Xiangzhou and Kaifeng Prefecture are planted, and the planting area is about thousands of acres, these cotton have all been snatched up, and many workshop owners have to import cotton from overseas for research.

In the study of textile machines, the Zhu family has not fallen behind, the Zhu family has imported thousands of quintals of cotton from Tianzhu in recent years, in fact, since three years ago, the Zhu family began to secretly develop cotton spinning machines.

On the way to Chenliu County, Zhu Yuanfeng said to Fan Ning: "We originally wanted to use cotton to spin, but the wool of cotton is too short, it is difficult to spin with a loom, and we can only use our hands to knead into threads to make cotton cloth, especially it is too difficult to peel cotton seeds, but then I heard that Lingnan Danzhou can use machines to spin cotton, I sent people to Lingnan to learn their textile technology the year before last, and got a lot of inspiration, and now we can also use the machine to remove seeds, and use the machine to spin cotton cloth, which is light and soft, and even more comfortable than imported cotton cloth." ”

Fanning smiled and said: "Cotton is one thing, cotton should also be studied, after all, the number of cotton is not too much, and the north is not suitable for planting cotton, but suitable for planting cotton, once cotton planting is promoted, in the end, cotton cloth is the mainstay, cotton cloth can be used as a slightly high-end cloth." ”

"I understand that you can spin cotton, in fact, you can spin cotton, the key is to improve the spinning technology, spinning hemp thread warp to achieve three spindles, you can completely transform the spinning hemp shaker into a spinning cotton wheel, spinning cotton wheel can also do three spindles, or even more."

"What about other textile workshops?" Fanning asked again.

Zhu Yuanfeng sighed softly, "Almost every big textile workshop has craftsmen who develop machines, and the technology has improved very rapidly in recent years.

I'll give you an example, the number of spindles of the general fine linen spinning wheel is two to three, up to five, the year before last Baode Textile Workshop invented a hand crank machine, the spindle is erected, driven by a spinning wheel, ten spindles can be shaken at a time, but this is not the most powerful, in March this year, the Chai family Chai's textile workshop created a large textile machine, driven by water power, can shake dozens of spindles at a time, ordinary hemp spinning machine a day to spin three catties of twine, but the large textile machine can spin one hundred and fifty catties of yarn a day. ”

Fanning was amazed that he was able to use a hydroelectric drive, which was a huge improvement!

"Can a water-powered spinning machine be used on cotton spinning?"

"Of course, I also plan to build a large spinning machine and use a hydraulic drive to spin cotton yarn."

"What about weaving? Are there any new technologies? ”

"Weaving has always been the use of pedal looms, but also the most labor-intensive place, each female worker on a pedal loom, each hour can weave a zhang of cloth, it is said that many workshops are developing the use of water propulsion, so that the loom can be automatically pedaled, so that a female worker can take care of three to five looms."

"If it is successful, how much does a fine hemp cost?"

"Two hundred wen!"

Zhu Yuanfeng stretched out his bright finger and said: "The current capital is 400 Wen, if it can be successful, the cost of a fine hemp will be reduced by half, 200 Wen is enough, the price of fine hemp in the capital market has been reduced from 1,200 Wen in four years to 800 Wen, I am afraid it will be reduced to 500 Wen, this is the power of the big workshop, the small workshop of a dozen looms can only go out of business, their capital is 700 Wen." ”

Fanning was silent, although the emergence of large workshops in the Great Song Dynasty countless small workshops have gone bankrupt and closed, but there is no way, this is the inevitability of social progress, only the big workshops will desperately improve their technology, thinking of the large spinning wheels and large looms driven by water power, will make a large number of goods flood the market, promote the increase of population, and promote merchants to compete for the market overseas.

.........

The carriage drove into Chenliu County, and the main reason why Zhu Yuanfeng established a textile machinery research institute in Chenliu County was that there was the largest machine workshop in Chenliu County, that is, a workshop for manufacturing textile machines, manufacturing cars, spinning machines, jacquard machines, bias looms, pedal looms and so on.

Zhu Yuanfeng pointed to a large compound surrounded by a wall and covering a vast area in the distance: "There is the Baode Machinery Workshop, the largest workshop in the Great Song Dynasty to manufacture textile machinery, the proprietor is called Li Baode, is a famous businessman, very good at speculation, in the early years and Lu Yijian had a close relationship, and later hugged Zhang Yaozuo's thigh, and now he is fighting with the Han family, he also opened a textile workshop with 3,000 looms, and he made it out of a spinning wheel to spin ten threads at the same time, but it is still not as good as the hydraulic spinning wheel of the Chai family." ”

"The third grandfather's research institute is the craftsman who dug it from it?"

"The craftsmen who can't talk about digging are the old and frail inside, and the old craftsmen who can't do the work, although they can't do high-intensity labor, but they have rich experience and are just suitable for research, and the cotton gin and churn are made by them by absorbing the experience of Danzhou."

They came to a large courtyard in the south of the city, this courtyard covers an area of at least ten acres, usually the gate is closed, it seems more mysterious, here is the textile machinery research institute established by Zhu Yuanfeng.

They entered the compound through the back door, only to see that there were more than a dozen small courtyards in the large courtyard, and there were people busy in each small courtyard, and it was estimated that there were more than 100 people in the entire compound.

A chief steward came to greet the arrival of the proprietor and greeted Fanning again, Fanning smiled and said, "Let's take a look at your cotton spinning machine first." ”

"Please come with me!"

The chief steward led them to a slightly larger courtyard, and Fanning saw the cotton mill at a glance, the cotton gin was mainly a tool for stripping the cotton seeds and cotton wool, that is, two round wooden sticks rotated at the same time, the cotton was squeezed through the gap, and the cotton wool went down, and the cotton seeds were left on top and carried away by the groove on the wooden stick.

Cotton and cotton, have a cotton core, it is difficult to peel off, from the Ryukyu Province and Luzon Province to send a million quintals of cotton are all with a core, need to be manually peeled, the labor intensity is very large, a large number of labor costs are included in it, so that the price of cotton can not come down, and the wool wool fiber is relatively short, it is difficult to shake into a twist with a coarse hemp machine, it can only be kneaded into a twist by hand, and then shaken into fine yarn step by step.

This requires stirring the car to loosen the cotton cake pressed when peeling cotton, but this is not enough, Fanning saw the big killer that survives the posterity: the cotton bow, which pops the fibers by playing cotton, so that the fibers become longer, and it is easy to continue to make long cotton strips, and it is also cotton twists.

Then use the shaker to shake the twist into a strand of thin line, and the difference between fine linen and coarse linen lies in the fineness of the line.

The chief steward smiled and introduced: "The cotton cloth has been successfully made, but the proprietor requires more excellence, we plan to use copper sticks instead of wooden sticks to gin, and then further consider water power drive, so that rolling, stirring and elastic cotton do not need to be manual, as long as one person puts the cotton into it." ”

"Let me see where the water-powered spinning wheel is?" Fanning asked with great interest.

Although the big spinning wheel was invented by the Chai family, many workshops have successfully copied it, and Zhu Yuanfeng's research institute is no exception.

The chief steward took them to a big house in the back, and the hydraulic drive had to be against the mountain or the river, and there had to be a drop, and it happened that they were behind a small river, and they drew a stream of water from the small river, through the courtyard, and finally into Chenliu Lake.

This water flow was made into a drop by them, forming a gurgling stream, pushing a large lying waterwheel, the waterwheel turned, and the spinning machine was driven by the linkage rod to rotate, and dozens of spindles on it were rotating at the same time, and a skillful female worker was constantly wiring, and her job was only one, to connect the broken thread.

The chief steward introduced: "Rice and flour grinding with water power have been used as early as the Tang Dynasty, and the key is that the Chai family thought of using the linkage rod on the loom, so that the water power can be converted into the driving force of the large spinning wheel, and I think this is the key." ”

Fanning suddenly thought of the invention of the steam engine, in fact, it was the same, the steam kept pushing the piston to move, and then the piston pushed the linkage rod to make the wheel axle rotate, and the train and steam ship were invented.

Of course, he is not a craftsman, and he can't think of how to deal with the details, but with these extremely intelligent and skilled craftsmen, what can't he do?

Fan Ning was a little excited in his heart, he didn't care about anything else for the time being, he was now concerned about how to solve the power problem of ocean-going ships, if the steam engine was invented, there would be an industrial revolution in the Great Song Dynasty with a population of 120 million.

[Note: The large spinning wheel driven by water power was invented in the late Southern Song Dynasty, and the principle of connecting rods also appeared in the Song Dynasty. 】