Chapter 342 Glass Industry
Mbeya, South Salzburg Province.
"The kiln is open!" followed by a shout.
The workers who had been waiting beside the kiln used iron fibers to pry open the kiln mouth, and then a stream of hot air gushed out from the kiln mouth.
"How about taking a quick look?"
At the urging of the factory director, fully armed workers entered the kiln and began to move the freshly fired porcelain. The temperature in Mbeya is around 17 degrees, so it is not too hot even if you wear cotton clothes and stay outside, but you can feel the surging heat as soon as you enter the kiln.
After hesitating for a while, the workers carefully took out the kiln. As everyone was expecting, the master craftsman began to open the kiln.
"Alas! What a pity! The bottom of this is connected to the sagger. Next!"
It was a bad start, so the next sagger was opened.
"This glaze is not up to standard, next one!"
In the end, all the kilns were opened, and the results were disappointing. The yield rate was only 15%, and the quality of the finished products was also poor. They were roughly made, with no glaze on the inner bottom and poor aesthetics. However, this result was in line with everyone's expectations.
"It's the first time! It's great to have this result. Don't be discouraged. Keep improving the technology. I believe that our Mbeya Ceramic Factory will lead the kingdom's ceramic manufacturing industry in the future." The mayor of Mbeya comforted.
The porcelain produced by the Mbeya Ceramic Factory is coarse porcelain, which is porcelain for civilians. The porcelain in the Palace of Constantine, for example, was imported from the Far East.
There are rich kaolin resources near the city of Mbeya. The East African government's preliminary survey has estimated that there are about three million tons of kaolin resources. This is a by-product of the search for coal mines. This is also the reason why the first porcelain factory in East Africa was located in Mbeya.
Currently, civilian utensils in East Africa are mainly made of wood or pottery, and porcelain is extremely rare.
Excluding porcelain used in the palace, East African porcelain is mainly distributed in the coastal areas of East Africa, from Mogadishu to Mtwara, and even in the hinterland of Zimbabwe.
However, these porcelains are almost all products of the Far East and only drifted to East Africa along the trade routes. Therefore, the porcelains fired in the Mbeya Ceramic Factory can be regarded as the first batch of African porcelains.
East African porcelain technology mainly originated from Yi County, Yanzhou in the Far East. Every batch of immigrants to East Africa has a basic file, so special attention will be paid to professional talents.
In fact, porcelain firing was no longer a secret in Europe, and there were many porcelain factories. However, the initial immigrants from East Africa were mainly rural people from Germany and the Far East.
European porcelain is not for ordinary people and its popularity is far lower than that of the Far East, so the technical workers at the Mbeya Ceramic Factory are mainly from the Far East.
Among them, Qi Village in Yi County is the most prominent. Qi Village has a long history of pottery making. The pottery industry flourished in the Tang Dynasty and reached its peak in the Yuan Dynasty. There was a prosperous scene in which every family had a kiln and made pottery, which has continued to this day.
That is to say, many local people make a living from this, and many people from Qi Village have also gone to East Africa by riding on the coattails of East African immigrants. Currently, about 30% of the people from Qi Village are working in the Mbeya Ceramic Factory.
Although Qi Village has a long history of ceramic firing, it is not very famous as it is mainly a folk product.
If there are technical requirements, East Africa can send people to Jingdezhen to learn from others, or obtain technology from Europe, but there is no need.
The establishment of the Mbeya Ceramic Factory was already a special authorization from Ernst. After all, the needs of East African residents could be met with wooden and ceramic utensils. It would be enough to fire some coarse porcelain to enrich the products in East African specialty stores. As for mid-to-high-end porcelain products, they could be imported directly. There was no need to develop the porcelain industry in East Africa at the moment.
Of course, the main reason is that who will buy the porcelain after it is produced? Not to mention competing with the Far East, it is unlikely to compete with European countries. If you can't make money after producing it, there is naturally no motivation to promote it.
At present, East Africa is mainly promoting the glass manufacturing industry, because a large number of Venetians have entered East Africa, which has provided convenience for the development of the glass manufacturing industry in East Africa.
The level of glass manufacturing in Venice is world-renowned. Just imagine, if there were many immigrants from Jingdezhen in East Africa, then East Africa would definitely promote the development of the porcelain industry.
Of course, Jingdezhen is only a representative porcelain production area in the Far East, and Ernst does not need to focus only on Jingdezhen. There is also a huge demand for glass to win, that is, East Africa does have a huge demand.
First of all, glass can also be used to make utensils and porcelain, which has overlapping functions, but the windows used in East African buildings must be made of glass. When the Vittorio Emanuele Palace was built, a large amount of glass was imported from Europe for decoration.
It is a bit unreasonable that even the glass for the royal palace has to be imported, not to mention that there is also a huge demand for building glass for many government agencies in East Africa, as well as for civilian housing.
Although the houses in East Africa have been unified into the German architectural style, there is basically no lighting. The windows are basically whole wooden boards. They are opened during the day to let the sun in and closed at night to prevent mosquitoes from entering. It may be a bit of a luxury to equip East African residents with glass windows, but small pieces of glazed tiles can still be arranged.
In addition to the demand for glass windows, East Africa also considers the future needs of scientific research in East Africa. Although East Africa currently does not have scientific research capabilities, it will take this step sooner or later, and experimental equipment such as test tubes and lenses all require glass.
The East African glass industry is mainly located in Dar es Salaam, Nairobi and Songea. In addition to the professional workers in Venice, the Hechingen Daily Necessities Company under the Hechingen Consortium was instructed by Ernst to set up a special technical team to study the large-scale production of glass.
The most important of these is to master the flat glass production process. For this purpose, the Hechingen Daily Necessities Company has reached cooperation agreements with several German universities.
This is also a layout for the future of the automobile industry. The earliest cars did not have windshields. In order to protect against bad weather, insects, leaves and dust flying on the road, drivers and passengers usually use goggles.
Although it is not necessarily the case that flat glass will be used in cars first after it is developed, after all, glass is a dangerous and fragile item, and it is very dangerous to use it in cars rashly, but it will always be used.
As for when to install glass on cars, it depends on market demand. When people are no longer satisfied with cars without any obstructions, the Heixingen Group can take the lead in launching car glass. Technology is like squeezing toothpaste, draining other people's wallets bit by bit.
Of course, this is fantasy time. The Heixingen Group has neither flat glass nor cars. If it wants to achieve these two things, it will need to continue its efforts.
By the way, Benz is still improving the engine, working hard to make it smaller and increase its power.
Under Ernst's instruction, the frame had a rough design, but how it would operate and the mechanical structure design were still a long way off. It was optimistically estimated that it would take several years for the Hechingen Consortium to launch its first practical car.
As for why it takes so long, it is to ensure that the car is perfect when it is launched. More complex technology and lower production costs will keep copycats from coming to market, and the car structure will not be too simple for ordinary people to copy by hand.
In addition, there is another reason, which is to wait for a few years in East Africa. The automobile industry must start in East Africa. If this flagship product is first produced in East Africa, it will be of great help in enhancing East Africa's international influence in the future. At the same time, it can also lay the foundation for the East African Kingdom's first-mover advantage in the automobile industry.
(End of this chapter)
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