Chapter 128 Improved Loom
Now that things have come to this, she can't change the past and can only cherish the future she has with them.
The next day, Zhao Yuanxi waited for the two little ones to come for breakfast.
Because he had just woken up, Ziying rubbed his eyes and yawned. Seeing his favorite bean buns on the table, he immediately became energetic, stood on tiptoe to grab a bean bun, and then climbed up to his seat with his butt sticking out.
Seeing him like this, Zhao Yuanxi felt helpless and amused, but he still breathed a sigh of relief. No matter what, Ziying was still the same Ziying.
…
The cotton seeds have been handed over to the people sent by Ying Zheng, and the specific planting methods have also been sent to Chen He and Tu.
Nanjun was once the territory of Chu, and the border between Qin and Chu is located within the scope of Nanjun. Zhao Yuanxi has few people he can use. Now there are only Chen He and Tu in Nanjun, so he can only let them be responsible for this matter.
Ying Zheng acted very quickly indeed. In less than half a month, Zhao Yuanxi learned from Chen He's letter that the prefect of Nanjun had taken over the matter.
Trial planting is already underway in Yiling, Jiangling, Anlu and other places, and the area is much larger than Zhao Yuanxi imagined.
Zhao Yuanxi made a rough estimate and found that based on the current cotton planting area, making not only 520,000 new clothes, but even a million pieces would not be a problem.
There is no need to worry about raw materials. What Zhao Yuanxi is worried about now is how to improve the current weaving technology.
When it comes to farming, she can confidently say that no one in the world is better than her, but when it comes to weaving, she has been working with the Mo family on research for a long time, but there has not been much progress.
Her philosophy on clothes is that as long as they are comfortable to wear, she will continue to wear the same set of clothes as long as they are not torn. If they are torn, she will buy another set of the same ones.
So much so that her wardrobe only has a few sets of clothes.
Once, her mentor saw that she wore the same clothes almost every day and thought she was too poor to buy new clothes, so she dragged her to the mall and bought her several different sets of clothes.
It was then that Zhao Yuanxi realized that an ordinary piece of clothing could have so many details to pay attention to.
She didn't even understand clothes well, let alone how to make them.
Zhao Yuanxi could only use his almost zero knowledge of modern textiles to direct the Mo family to improve the current looms.
She felt like she was going to have a headache. Every day before going to bed, she could still hear the creaking sound of the loom, and after waking up, she could still hear the same sound all around her.
The most common loom today is the sling loom, which is made up of only four wooden sticks. Two horizontal sticks serve as the cloth winding shaft and the warp shaft, and two warp-splitting sticks separate the warp yarns. There is no fixed loom frame. The weaver manually picks up the weft, passes the shuttle through the warp, and then presses it down. This operation must be repeated to produce the cloth.
This method of weaving was inefficient and produced coarse cloth, but it was the cheapest way for common people to make cloth.
The production of fine silk and satin used by the nobles was more sophisticated. Usually, a twill loom was used, which had a fixed body and could control the layering of the warp threads with the feet. The hands only needed to guide the shuttle and beat the weft to complete the weaving process, which indeed improved efficiency.
At first, Zhao Yuanxi wanted to build 180 oblique looms directly, but after seeing the weaving method of the oblique looms, she felt that the efficiency was still too low.
A mature weaver can only produce three feet of cloth a day, and this is the result of their continuous work.
During the weaving process, people's legs and hands are under high load, and ordinary people cannot withstand such high-intensity work for a long time.
Li disassembled the newly made loom, and the wood he had planed was everywhere around it.
"Your Majesty, this is the best we can do with wood. This is the best we can do."
Looking at the worn shaft, Ju really couldn't think of any other solution. The wood was under force and rubbed against each other, so wear of parts was inevitable unless other materials could be found to replace wood as components of the loom.
Li's eyes suddenly lit up, and Zhao Yuanxi seemed to sense something as well, and the two looked at each other.
Zhao Yuanxi smiled and said, "I have an idea, but I want to hear yours first!"
Li pushed aside the scattered wood and picked out the shaft and gears that drove the pedals. "If we use copper or iron instead, it will save more effort and reduce wear."
Zhao Yuanxi raised his eyebrows slightly. Great minds think alike. "If these things were replaced with copper and iron, it would indeed be much easier. Also, I have an idea. I want to add some elastic metal underneath this pedal so that it automatically returns to its original position when stepped on. What do you think?"
The elastic materials used in daily life are usually bamboo strips, animal horns, leather and other natural materials. The elasticity of those bronze objects is not good, and the current iron-making technology is not well developed, so Ju could not have thought of this at all.
Technology determines the upper limit, and materials determine the lower limit.
Zhao Yuanxi felt that since the improvement of this inclined loom was limited, it would be better to add some other "plug-ins". No matter what, as long as she could achieve her goal, it would be fine.
"Elastic metal?" Li's face was full of confusion. He usually dealt with wood the most, and the so-called metals he knew about were only copper and iron. Copper and iron were hard in texture, and if you tried to bend them by force, they would only break. How could they be elastic?
Zhao Yuanxi smiled and said, "Don't worry about that. I'll find it for you. As for the other things, just do what you want."
Zhao Yuanxi felt that improving ironmaking technology would be easier than asking her to study the loom here.
Rather than saying that he wanted to smelt iron, it would be more accurate to say that Zhao Yuanxi planned to smelt steel. Iron with few impurities and uniform composition can be called steel.
As for how to use the steel after it is refined, she has 108 ways.
The Qin State was a major iron-producing country, and the kings of all dynasties attached great importance to the production of iron and copper. They were all controlled by the Qin government. Ordinary people could not even carry iron tools at will, let alone smelt iron.
Zhao Yuanxi considers himself a law-abiding person, so he would naturally not risk such a big crime by doing such a thing!
The iron industry was now in the hands of the Qin State's Shaofu, and Zhao Yuanxi wrote a letter to Changping Jun with ease.
Changping Jun felt that the king was in a very good mood these days, the atmosphere in the court was extremely peaceful, and the queen mother did not give him any other trouble. He was sitting leisurely in the yard, listening to music and drinking wine, feeling very comfortable.
The steward came hurriedly and saw his master squinting his eyes, looking very contented. He was a little afraid to disturb him and stood there hesitantly for a long time until Mi Qi opened his eyes and said lightly, "What's the matter?"
The steward stepped forward, bowed quickly, and handed the letter over with both hands.
When Mi Qi saw the plain piece of paper, the corners of his mouth, which had just been raised, immediately drooped. The Queen Mother came to find him, there must be something, and it might not be a good thing!
He felt that the leisurely life he had finally enjoyed these days seemed to be disappearing again.
Mi Qi sighed deeply, hoping that the Queen Mother's visit to him was not something that would cause him great difficulty.
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