Chapter 171 The First Generation of Looms (Seeking votes and subscriptions)
The days passed like this, ordinary but fulfilling. The Han tribe was like a machine that had begun to take shape, running in an orderly and efficient manner. All the tribesmen performed their duties and worked hard to contribute to this new home.
Another week passed, and the rice in the paddy field had grown to the height of Luo Chong's chest. From a distance, it looked like a large green area, which made people feel happy, because it was hope.
The peanuts and peppers not far away were also growing very fast. Luo Chong didn't know how the peanuts were doing underground, but the part on the ground was growing very vigorously. The peppers were no exception. They were already covered with a layer of small white flowers. When these blooming flowers withered, the peppers would also bear fruit.
In this week, the big tree far away in Babaoshan sent two ships of limestone minerals to the Han tribe, as well as dozens of rabbits of all sizes, all of which were brought over with their nests. There were also some little ones who were still in the lactation period. It seemed that wild rabbits were also breeding crazily.
The new lime kiln has also been built, and the first batch of calcined limestone was produced two days ago. After calcining limestone, it becomes quicklime. If water is added to react, it becomes slaked lime.
After mixing these limes into mud, they are given to the construction team to apply to the brick joints of the house to waterproof the mud in the brick joints. From the outside, the blue bricks, blue tiles, and white brick joints also have a unique charm.
Luo Chong even thought that when there are more of these limes, they can also be used for interior decoration of the house, such as painting the interior walls white, which can increase the brightness of the room.
The Li tribe on the east bank of the stream has traded tung trees and tung seeds with the Han tribe twice in the past few days. Because Luo Chong asked them to cut off the tree crowns last time, the tung seedlings they brought in these two times were more than before, about four or five each time, but this time they did not exchange more white salt, but chose more pottery, pottery pots and bowls, and even water tanks.
Mao Li, the leader of the Li tribe, also tasted the convenience and efficiency brought by bronze tools. He proposed to Luo Chong the idea of ​​exchanging bronze tools again, but Luo Chong did not agree.
It is impossible to give tools, especially woodworking tools. It is no exaggeration to say that as long as you have these woodworking tools, you basically have everything, because these tools can be used to make more tools, and this is the means for the Han tribe to maintain its leading position among many similar tribes.
Tung oil has not been processed yet, because oil pressing is too troublesome. All vegetable oils basically have to be fried first, and then physically pressed, or even multi-stage pressed to produce vegetable oil.
Whether it is peanuts or tung seeds, they need to be fried first if they want to be used for oil pressing, that is, the oil in the fruit is decomposed by high temperature. The Han tribe does not have such a large pot now, so they can only wait for a while until a batch of copper pots are cast.
And Luo Chong doesn't have time to fix those things now. He has been studying the first generation loom for a week. Luo Chong, Mutun, and the apprentice, a research and development team of three people, have been working on it for a week.
It's not because the loom is so complicated, but mainly because the processing method is too difficult.
For example, to process a cylindrical scroll, it needs to be polished very smooth and flat, and it must be a round shape. Without a lathe, it is undoubtedly very difficult to make it by hand. Fortunately,
there is always a way out. Finally, Luo Chong came up with a way to solve it with polygons.
First, saw a rectangular wooden square into an octagonal prism, and then plane the extra edges with a plane.
From the octagonal prism to the 16-prism, and then to the 16-prism to the 32-prism, the wooden square of such a rectangular block gradually approaches the cylindrical shape. The surface of the prism is increasing, and these tiny line segments are used to form a circle. After all, when the arc is magnified enough times, it becomes a line segment.
This is the dumbest and most primitive method, of course, the effect is also very good. At least Luo Chong is very satisfied with the finished product.
The frame structure of the entire first-generation loom has been assembled, and the remaining details have entered the final debugging stage.
The top warp shaft is not a solid cylinder, but a hollow drum that looks similar to the drum of the combing machine. The surface of the drum is composed of strips of wood, and there is a gap between each thin wood, which is used to double-tie the warp threads on it.
Two sets of lifting rods for separating the warp threads use two long thin wooden strips and a thin linen thread set. There are two traction ropes on the lifting rods, which go around the top beam of the machine and then connect to the two pedals at the bottom. By stepping on the two pedals, the lifting rods are controlled to rise and fall, thereby controlling the up and down exchange and layering of the two sets of warp threads.
The wooden shuttle used to place the weft threads is made of pine wood. The wooden shuttle is about one foot long, about 33 centimeters, with two pointed ends slightly upturned, but not very sharp, and looks relatively round.
In the middle is a deep groove carved out, like the cabin of a boat, which is specially used to place the weft threads. The bottom of the wooden shuttle is polished very smoothly, and Luo Chong even waxed the wooden shuttle specially, because it will be used by his wife in the future.
On the right side of the reel used to roll the finished cloth, there is a wheel like the steering wheel on a ship, which can be used to manually roll up the woven finished cloth.
The weft-beating knife is hung on two long wooden poles above the machine. It can swing back and forth like a pendulum. In actual work, it relies on its swinging back and forth to tighten the warp and weft threads woven together, making the cloth smoother and denser.
It took three people a week to make the entire first-generation loom. Except for not brushing tung oil, it was basically completed.
Luo Chong called a few people to carry the new machine and moved it to the pavilion where Xiaodie was working, attracting the surrounding children and women working to watch curiously. Even Xiaodie couldn't sit still. After waiting for seven days, finally made a machine for weaving?
"Luo Chong, this is the loom you mentioned. It looks really big. It's much taller than me. Teach me how to use it. You always say that this machine is better than the cloth I weave. I want to see if you are lying to me, hehe." Xiaodie hummed proudly.
"When did I lie to you? I said that the spinning machine can spin the thread without using hands. Is it true?" Luo Chong retorted.
"Well, it seems so. Okay, okay, that's it. Then teach me how to use it."
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
