Chapter 429 My Hands Have Grow Bigger (Please vote and subscribe)

"Open the lid and add a spoonful of alkali." Luo Chong said to Da Zui, watching the crystal sand in the crucible gradually turn red.

"Yes, chief."

Da Zui also hurriedly took out a ceramic jar, scooped a spoonful of white powder from it with a wooden spoon and put it into the crucible, and then stirred it with a ceramic stick.

With the addition of the catalyst, coupled with the wheezing sound of the wooden bellows, the crystal sand in the crucible began to gradually soften, stick together, and then melt into a viscous bright red liquid.

Wait for this state to maintain for a while, and when you feel that the fluidity of the glass liquid is gradually increasing, it is almost ready for casting.

"Preheat the mold, bake it on the fire first, then take out the crucible, and you can cast it." Luo Chong observed the state of the glass liquid and ordered again.

"Yes, chief."

The assistant who was helping nearby quickly picked up the two bronze molds and put them on the stove to bake. Da Zui also used a pottery stick to stir the glass liquid in the crucible to make them heat evenly.

This thing is not metal after all. Even if it is burned red and becomes soft, its fluidity is still very poor. It feels like a piece of hot molten syrup when picked up.

After waiting for a while, the assistant also took the two red-hot molds and placed them flat on the anvil beside for use.

"Okay, take the pot and cast." Luo Chong instructed again.

Da Zui stopped talking nonsense, picked up an iron special crucible clamp from the side, clamped the red-hot crucible, and lifted the entire crucible out of the furnace alone.

To be honest, there is nothing to be surprised about. Glass is not as dense as metal. Even if it is filled with a whole pot, it is much lighter than the same volume of metal, not to mention that it is only half a pot.

"Chief, how do we pour this? There's only half a mold. Will it flow out by itself? Don't burn anyone." Da Zui was stunned for a moment when he looked at the copper plate on the anvil. He didn't play like this when casting metal before. If he wanted to cast an instrument, he had to buckle the two halves of the mold together and lock them firmly.

"No, just pour it like this. The glass liquid is very sticky and won't flow around. Just pour it up." Luo Chong instructed again.

Da Zui was skeptical, but since the chief had said so, he couldn't refute it. He had to signal everyone else to stand further away, and then he started to cast.

The viscous glass liquid poured out of the crucible, flowing very slowly, which stunned Da Zui. Luo Chong was also a little anxious. If it flowed so slowly, it might be cold in a while, so he took the pottery stick and pulled it out of the crucible. Now the glass liquid entered the mold smoothly.

Because the bronze mold had been preheated in advance, the moment the glass liquid touched the mold, it did not solidify and change color quickly due to loss of temperature, but continued to flow slowly, so Luo Chong's goal was achieved.

More and more glass liquid was poured out, until it piled up in the mold. Luo Chong observed it with his naked eyes and felt that the volume should be slightly more, so he stopped the casting.

Then he asked the apprentice assistant who had been watching for a long time to buckle the other half of the mold, pin the holes at the four corners with four small copper sticks, fix the vertical position of the two halves of the mold, and then let two people use a large wooden stick to press down the upper half of the mold.

The two apprentices were obedient. They grabbed the wooden stick at one end and hung it up, exerting their whole body weight on the wooden stick. The glass liquid that had not yet solidified was squeezed out by the mold that was pressed down.

But it didn't matter. If the excess glass liquid could be squeezed out, it meant that the glass inside had been filled, and then the lens that Luo Chong wanted should have been completed.

"Big Mouth, use a knife to scrape off the extra glass on the outside. It will be too cold to scrape it off." Luo Chong instructed again.

"Oh, I'll do it right away."

Big Mouth was also very curious. It was their first time to burn glass, and they were all looking forward to what they could make this time.

The extra glass slime on the outside of the mold was quickly scraped off, and the temperature of the entire mold gradually cooled down.

After a while, when it felt that it should have cooled down enough, Luo Chong asked Big Mouth to wipe the outside of the mold with a wet cloth soaked in cold water to further cool the mold temperature.

Just when Big Mouth wiped it three times, there was a sudden snapping sound from inside the mold, which scared Luo Chong. Damn, it didn't break in two! ?

"Quick, open it and take a look." Luo Chong urged anxiously.

The two assistants immediately lifted up the upper half of the mold, revealing a transparent ice-like object in the shape of a plate, which had already separated from the mold. It seemed that the temperature had gradually dropped, causing the glass to become a little smaller due to thermal expansion and contraction after solidification, so it completely fell off the mold.

"Fortunately, fortunately,"

Luo Chong secretly exclaimed in his heart. Fortunately, the wet cloth was used to wipe the outer mold, and the cooling process was relatively slow. If the glass was directly wiped to cool it down, it would probably crack immediately.

After opening the mold, it was left to air for a while. This time, it felt that the temperature had dropped to a certain level. Luo Chong touched it through a layer of dry cloth and felt that it was no longer hot. He asked Da Zui to pour some clean water on it to cool it down again.

After cooling down, the finished product taken out of the mold was a glass product that looked like a poached egg. Well, this was mainly because of the extrusion mold. After the middle mold cavity was filled, the excess glass liquid overflowed from all sides. Although Da Zui scraped off some, a lot was still left.

Around the thick lens in the middle, it was like a layer of transparent candy on a candied haws, but there was no need to worry about this. Although the Han tribe did not have a glass cutter, the rough edges of the thin glass like a light bulb could be knocked off with a copper stick. It would not affect the lens in the middle at all because the lens in the middle was thick enough.

Luo Chong personally put on a leather glove and picked up the lens. He then used a small copper stick to break the rough edges around it, and then used the sandstone from the blacksmith's workshop to grind along the edge of the lens twice, and finally rinsed it with clean water. This super-large convex lens with a diameter of 18 cm and a central thickness of two centimeters was completed.

"Big Mouth, stretch out your hand and look at what this is."

Luo Chong said, and asked Big Mouth to stretch out his hand, and then held the magnifying glass flat on his palm. As a result, when Big Mouth saw his palm through the magnifying glass, he immediately screamed in surprise.

"Wow! This is my hand? How did it become so big? It's so clear that I can even see the carbon dust in the palm lines! Chief, is this tool used to make things bigger? What should it be called?"

Big Mouth looked at the palm in the lens in disbelief. He felt that his whole hand had become bigger, but his body didn't feel anything special. He quickly pulled his hand out from under the magnifying glass, but the palm he saw was still the same, which stunned him again.

Then this guy seemed to have discovered some incredible treasure, and like a child who got a magnifying glass for the first time, he put his hand under the lens again to look at it, and then pulled it out, put it under, pulled it out, put it under, and had a lot of fun. It took him a long time to figure out the purpose of the magnifying glass.

"Chief, this tool is too magical!"

(End of this chapter)