Chapter 134 Pedal Thresher

"Let's draw it and discuss it together!" Wang Yannian said enthusiastically. It was worth the trip!

"Sister!" Diexiu pulled Su Ying's arm. This sister could actually come up with such a magical thing!

"Let's draw on the blackboard!" Su Ying suggested.

Paper is too expensive, I don't have a special drawing pen, and it's just a simple schematic diagram with a lot of changes to make, so drawing with chalk is the easiest way.

The group hurried back to the vermicelli factory. The officials and locals who had just finished their visit were gathered in front of the blackboard, discussing something heatedly.

There were two groups of people, one group surrounded Su Lao Er and the other group surrounded Su Lao San.

What was drawn on Su Laoer's blackboard was a diagram of a lime kiln. The Su family had discussed and finalized the draft, and construction would begin soon, so they drew it up to explain to the villagers.

As a result, some knowledgeable officials questioned this design.

The ancient lime kiln was built on the hillside. Relying on the mountain terrain, it hollowed out the mountain more than ten meters inward. It is similar to a stove. Firewood is burned underneath and a raw material pool is built on top. The excavated limestone is piled inside and covered. It is calcined for ten days to half a month. After cooling, the limestone in the raw material pool turns into quicklime.

Such lime kilns take a long time to calcine, not only wasting fuel but also having low output. Too much raw material cannot be piled in the raw material pool at one time, otherwise it will not burn through.

When designing the new design, Su Ying thought of the blast furnaces used for iron smelting in later generations and was inspired to design a vertical lime kiln with a charging port and charging device on the top, and a large blower added to the stove mouth below.

These still need to be built halfway up the mountain, relying on the terrain, which saves time, effort and is safe.

The raw materials are pushed into the feeding port through the feeding device and fed into the calcining pool from the feeding port.

The calcination pool is several meters deep. During the falling process, air is blown in, causing the temperature to rise rapidly. The hot air is in full contact with the raw materials, and the calcination is complete, which greatly shortens the calcination time and saves fuel.

First, experts raised doubts that this furnace was too high and could not be built without special refractory materials.

Secondly, such a high furnace has never been seen before and it is impossible to build it.

Then there is the blower used in the lime kiln for calcining. It’s so funny that people who don’t know would think it is used for iron smelting.

It's just iron smelting, it's not that exaggerated.

In short, this lime kiln is too outrageous, completely imaginary and unrealistic.

Traditional calcination methods are mostly static, but this strange blast furnace method is mainly dynamic. The raw materials enter the raw material pool from the top, and strong air is blown from the bottom to deliver heat.

Experts feel that this challenges their own cognition and cannot accept it.

Su Laoer was not angry, but explained one by one.

Because this was his understanding at the beginning. There were many iron smelting furnaces in the General Works Bureau, and the process was similar to lime calcination.

The smelted iron contained many impurities and was time-consuming and labor-intensive. Despite the use of a blower, the iron-smelting temperature could never reach the ideal high temperature.

This is also the main reason why the iron-making technology in the Tang Dynasty was stuck and could not be broken through.

That day, his niece suddenly exposed the truth, and Su Laoer was completely stunned. The reason was so simple.

By adding materials from the top and allowing the raw materials to be fully mixed and contacted with hot air and oxygen during the falling process, the problem of excessive impurities in iron smelting can be effectively improved, and iron production can be increased.

At the same time, the blower has also been improved, and the inlet and exhaust valves have been changed to larger inlet and smaller outlet, squeezing the air to form air flow and pressure.

The newly improved blower is not much different from the ordinary blower, except for some changes in details, so that the air intake is increased and the air out is faster.

When sufficient air is blown into the furnace, the temperature will naturally reach the expected high temperature quickly. The iron produced in this way will naturally have high purity and reduce fuel consumption.

Su Laoer regretted that he did not learn this technology in Chang'an, otherwise he would have modified the iron smelting furnace, which would have been an absolute technological innovation.

After listening to Su Laoer's explanation, the expert had nothing to say, but he also disagreed.

Because this was only Su Laoer's one-sided statement and had not been verified, neither side could convince the other.

"If we build according to this design, we can verify them one by one!" Su Laoer said firmly. He thought what his niece said made sense.

Su Laosan was laughed at by everyone because he used bamboo to divert water.

"Mr. Su, your drawing reminds me that I should set up a bamboo pipe for my home. It's so troublesome to carry water every day!" A villager joked.

"That's right. We've been worried for twenty years, but we didn't think of this simple solution!" The other villagers laughed.

As a result, digging a pond turned into a discussion about connecting bamboo pipes to each household.

Su Laosan simply added more lines, cut more bamboos and spent a few more days to complete the task, which made everyone feel a lot more relaxed.

"Aying, is there something wrong?" Seeing Su Ying coming with the recorder and military officer, and his brothers walking behind, Su Lao San asked tactfully.

"Well, when I was discussing with Lord Wang just now, I thought of a foot-operated thresher. Let's discuss it together." Su Ying erased the blackboard and drew the imaginary foot-operated thresher.

Those who were originally having a heated discussion with Su Laoer were quickly attracted and crowded to Su Ying's side.

"Hey, what is this? It looks familiar!" someone asked.

"Hush, it is said that the pedal thresher was invented by Aying!" a villager introduced.

"What? A foot-operated thresher? There's even this thing!" So everyone, visible and invisible, surrounded Su Ying.

Su Ying first drew a square bucket, a roller with spikes inside the bucket, a foot pedal on the lower outside, and then a transmission connecting the foot pedal and the roller.

The transmission system is drawn in a general and vague way, and this is the main part discussed.

"Hey, Aying, what do you mean here? Why don't you draw it clearly?" asked Su Laosan.

"Well, this part is the transmission system. It connects the pedals and the rollers. It is the most critical component. Does anyone have a way to connect them?" Su Ying asked the people present.

"Aying, how do you want to connect?" Wang Sanlang and Zheng Silang were in the crowd.

"I step on the pedal to make the drum in the bucket rotate!" Su Ying pointed to the inner and outer parts of the painting, and made an action of stepping on the pedal while holding rice in her hands and threshing it on the drum.

"Oh, so that's how it is!" The onlookers suddenly realized, "Oh my god, if this thing really existed, I would wake up laughing even in my sleep!"

When threshing, it is tiring to harvest the rice and thresh it as well. The workers lift the rice and throw it hard against the inner wall of the bin.

It requires the strength of the waist and arms, and after a while, the strength becomes useless. At the end of the day, I feel exhausted.

Not to mention the sharp awns on the rice grains, which are very prickly and can get all over your face and neck, making you very itchy at night.

If such a machine were really invented, it would save a lot of life.

"Aying, what connection do you want to use?" Wang Sanlang asked again.

"Uncle Wang, what can you use to connect?" Su Ying asked back.

"How about wooden gears?" Wang Sanlang walked in, picked up the chalk and started drawing awkwardly.

One end of the small gear is connected to the foot pedal, one end of the large gear is connected to the roller in the bucket, and the other ends of the large and small gears are directly connected.

Just press the pedal and the whole system will start working.

"Uncle Wang is awesome!" Su Ying gave Wang Sanlang a thumbs up.

"Haha, a carpenter will figure it out once they see it!" Wang Sanlang said modestly, "But the whole set will be very heavy."

“Can it be made disassembled and assembled in the field?”

"Well, it should be possible if we disassemble and reassemble it, but we need to work on the details!" Wang Sanlang didn't think it was too difficult.