Chapter 84: Mechanization
A look of disappointment appeared on Jiao's face, but she heard Su Shengsheng continue, "But the fabric for this dress was provided by a private embroidery workshop."
Upon hearing this, Jiao and Zhong couldn't help but look at Su Shengsheng.
Su Ruilin hesitated for a moment and said, "Our embroidery studio is still small. Since we can't compete in quantity, how can we dare to compete on price?"
He meant that whether in terms of the number of embroiderers or the prices, it was difficult to compete with those cloth shops that had cooperated with the government for many years.
Su Shengsheng chuckled, "That may not be the case."
When Mrs. Li heard this, she knew that her daughter had come up with another clever idea, and she hurriedly urged her to stop keeping it a secret and tell the story quickly.
"Sheng'er recently discovered a powder while firing ceramics. When combined with clothing, it can actually make the clothing heat itself."
Su Shengsheng explained it by changing the concept.
In fact, among far-infrared thermal insulation materials, graphene has the best performance, but the process is complicated and the price is expensive.
Even if she could make it, the court might not be willing to spend huge sums of money to purchase such clothes for the soldiers.
However, there are abundant volcanic rock resources in this area. By simply mixing them with other natural minerals in proportion and then firing them at high temperatures, ceramics with far-infrared thermal energy can be obtained.
The fabrics used here are all natural fibers. Although they can be used for ordinary clothing, they are inevitably not resistant to wear and tear when worn by soldiers.
However, there is one type of fiber that is artificially synthesized - acrylic.
It is not only wear-resistant, but also extremely suitable for making military uniforms, has a long service life, and can even be used to make parachutes.
Most importantly, it has excellent thermal insulation performance.
At first, the Su family just thought it was just family gossip and listened to it casually. But now, when they heard about such a magical thing, they couldn't help but have an idea in their hearts.
You know, it is difficult for soldiers at the border to even get winter clothes, let alone this kind of clothes that can generate heat on their own.
If it can really be produced, the ordinary fabrics used in embroidery rooms will definitely not be able to compete with it.
"But..." Su Ruilin still had concerns. "Although some troops have been reduced at the border, there are still hundreds of thousands of soldiers at the thirteen border checkpoints combined."
He paused for a moment and said, "With our limited manpower, I'm afraid we can't even reach the threshold."
Su Shengsheng smiled and said, "Nothing is difficult in the world. As long as we can make it, why worry about not being able to sell it? Besides, with such a difficult situation, why worry about not being able to find an embroiderer? We can just recruit another one."
Jiao Shi was not carried away by her words. "The newly hired embroiderers need to be trained for a period of time. Even the existing embroiderers' embroidery skills are far from perfect."
The implication is that even if pie falls from the sky, they don't have the ability to catch it.
Su Shengsheng knew very well that it was not that she wanted to force the situation, but that the war situation was changing rapidly.
They either had to leave it to fate or sacrifice everything to save themselves, and the embroidery room came to a complete standstill.
But now she has natural gas, and machines can do what human power cannot!
As soon as the war in the north ends, the south will be ready to move.
If a war really breaks out, it will take at least three to five years to stop.
The Su family can now run away but the temple cannot. What else can they do if they don’t move forward?
When the women were wavering, Su Shengsheng said, "I'll provide you with a loom and teach you how to weave. How about it? Do you want to learn?"
After hearing her say this, what objections could the female members have?
Cen couldn't help but tease her, "Sixth sister's embroidery work is something we've admired before."
Su Shengsheng laughed along, "When a man has been away for three days, he should be looked at with new eyes. It's been four months since we last met."
Yes, it has been four months since I left the imperial capital...
From that day on, Su Shengsheng and the other women of the Su family stayed in the factory on the mountain.
Five days later, they were all stunned when they saw that the spinning machines, stentering machines and other machines could continue to operate without manual operation.
Of course, each process still requires manual conversion.
But that’s all!
"What's wrong with Sheng's brain? She can come up with such an extraordinary thing." Jiao was amazed.
Su Shengsheng didn't want them to pay too much attention to her. "I used to read a lot of miscellaneous books. I saw this in a book called 'Lu Ban's Notes'."
Cen, also from a family of scholars, had naturally heard of this person. "But is he the ancestor who invented the Bagua lock and the wooden magpie?"
Su Shengsheng nodded.
What this ancestor was best at was inventing war killing machines, such as ladders and siege weapons.
Sure enough, after Su Shengsheng brought up this person, the Cen family members stopped asking questions.
She had a special fondness for books since she was young, and read all kinds of miscellaneous notes and travelogues. She asked Su Hengji to exchange most of her monthly allowance for books.
Therefore, none of the female members of the Su family questioned the authenticity of the scroll.
Their attention was quickly drawn to the automatically operating loom, and they keenly grasped the key points.
"Sheng girl, what is hidden inside this machine?"
This is much more complicated to explain.
Su Shengsheng just smiled lightly and tactfully brushed it off with the words "This is a trade secret." "If I tell you elders and you learn it, why would you come to me to buy it again?"
The female members of the family then realized that what Su Shengsheng said about only selling equipment was not a lie.
After witnessing how quickly and evenly the loom wove cloth, they ordered five without hesitation.
Su Shengsheng was not polite. "Just give me some deposit, and I'll send someone to the embroidery room for my aunt and the second aunt, and I'll take care of the maintenance."
After several days of study, and with the operating manual and precautions provided by Su Shengsheng, the three ladies couldn't wait to try it themselves, so they immediately agreed.
After decomposition, combustible ice can produce methane, also known as natural gas, which can be burned directly.
This gaseous natural gas can be easily released by simply reducing the pressure or heating the combustible ice in the permafrost zone.
In economically underdeveloped areas, especially those countries where natural gas pipelines cannot be laid, a five-meter-long plastic bag is enough to bottle natural gas, and only a few valves need to be added.
This low-cost, gas-light mode of transportation is undoubtedly the most suitable option for current zero-cost transportation.
But for safety reasons, Su Shengsheng chose to use ceramics as transport containers.
Although ceramics are corrosion-resistant, they are brittle. The forging technology of this dynasty cannot keep up, and the mineral resources are not widely used for civilian purposes. She had no choice but to choose iron as the protective cover.
Although iron is prone to rust, ceramics can avoid this problem.
The ceramic inner tank is rust-proof, and the iron outer cover is not easy to break. The combination of the two, although costly, can greatly extend the service life.
What's more, what Su Shengsheng sells is not just equipment, but natural gas itself.
Today, combustible ice has been successfully mined from the permafrost on the barren mountain. Not only can it supply a small embroidery room, but it is more than enough to meet the daily combustion needs of the entire Tianqian Pass.
The initial investment in the embroidery room was huge, and Su Shengsheng did not charge for this part of the natural gas fee, but only asked Bao Da to deliver gas regularly.
Now, Bao Da has become the manager of Huangshan. He skillfully manages a group of difficult-to-control soldiers and relieves a lot of pressure for Su Shengsheng.
In fact, if natural gas generators can be used for power conversion, the effect will undoubtedly be better.
But unfortunately, the chip technology cannot be realized in a short time, so she can only rely on mechanical kinetic energy for conversion.
This loom is not powered by electricity, but by burning natural gas.
Simply by running natural gas through a complex mechanical device and connecting its output shaft to the loom drive shaft, continuous and stable production can be achieved.
Soon after, the Su family embroidery studio successfully produced a batch of fabrics that were both strong, warm and exquisitely crafted.
They adopted Su Shengsheng's suggestion and abandoned the traditional embroidery model of a full set of embroidery, and instead adopted an assembly line operation method.
Each person only needs to focus on learning one part of the textile process.
With practice, the quality of the fabric has been significantly improved.
In addition, all operations have been mechanized, and the quality of the fabrics produced is even comparable to those made by veterans.
The first batch of cloth was soon delivered to the Consulate General.
After all, the beginning of winter is approaching. If we delay any longer, it may be too late to make winter clothes.
What they didn't expect was that this batch of fabrics was actually favored by the government.
Officials from the Consulate General even made a request to meet Su Shengsheng in person, who produced this batch of fabrics.
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