Chapter 437 Unknown Neighbors (Please vote and subscribe)
"Chief, Chief, I think it should be possible," Sancho said immediately after he came to his senses.
"Well, I thought so too. There is not much difference between weaving silk and wool and linen. It's just a different spinning method. One is dry spinning and the other is wet spinning. I have some ideas about the specific operation method.
Otherwise, there are still a few days before the rice harvest. Why don't I let Shu Da take you to the chestnut forest to collect some wild chestnut silkworm cocoons? It will take about four days to go back and forth. It's just right for me to make a silk spinning machine during these few days. When you come back, you can try it." Chestnut Silkworm suggested to Sancho.
"Ah?! The chief can make a machine for spinning silk so quickly?!" Sancho said in disbelief.
"This thing is not that complicated. We have a pedal spinning machine that we replaced before. It's almost the same as taking one and modifying it." Luo Chong spread his hands and said.
"In that case, we are willing to go to the forest the leader mentioned to collect silk cocoons. If we can really turn silk cocoons into cloth like this, it must be the most beautiful cloth in the world." Sancho said excitedly.
After seeing the weaving workshop of the Han tribe, she couldn't wait to turn the familiar silk into cloth. In this way, they can be regarded as useful people to the tribe. If there are any benefits in the future, it will be better for the tribesmen of the same clan that she brought with her.
In addition, she can also gain more voice for herself. Maybe she can be on an equal footing with Shang in the future. Do you have to fight for everything? There are so many clans in the Han tribe. If you don't take the initiative, when will it be your turn?
"Well, then you can choose some tribesmen to accompany you. I will send Shu Da to be your guide and be responsible for the safety of the team. You should also speed up and don't delay the grain harvest in a few days." Luo Chong nodded and explained.
"Yes, don't worry, chief." Sancho accepted the task, and then immediately said goodbye to Luo Chong. The remaining Luo Chong did not stay here for long, but asked someone to move a discarded pedal spinning machine to the woodworking workshop to implement his transformation plan.
The process of spinning silk is not very difficult or complicated. The only difference from wool and linen fibers is that it requires water, hot water.
Raising silkworms, reeling silk and weaving brocade has a very long history in China. There are also many idioms about silk. "To make a cocoon for oneself" and "to untie the silkworm" are all well-known and commonly used idioms. The most important process in silk spinning is actually in the four words "untie the silkworm".
The cocoon contains silkworm pupae, which are the dormant bodies of silkworms before metamorphosis. Once the silkworms wrap themselves up and become pupae, they will grow into mature bodies in a few days, turn into moths, bite through the cocoons and get out, but in order to obtain complete cocoons, they need to kill the silkworm pupae inside before they complete their metamorphosis.
There are two commonly used methods to kill silkworm pupae. One is to boil the cocoons in a pot and use boiling water to kill the silkworm pupae inside so that they will no longer metamorphose. The other method is very suitable for large-scale processing, which is to use a high-temperature drying room to dry and roast the silkworm pupae in the cocoons to death, which can also prevent them from metamorphosing.
After this step, the complete cocoon is obtained. The next step is to reel out the silk. This process is also called reeling. First, put the cocoon in a pot and add clean water to boil. It does not need to be boiled. The water temperature should be comfortable for people to handle, which is basically the temperature of a hot bath.
The purpose of this process is mainly to dissolve the sericin in the cocoon with hot water. Silk is different from spider silk. It is not sticky. Therefore, when the silkworms spin silk and make cocoons, a layer of sericin will be attached to it. The cocoon formed by this bonding will be very strong and hard. However, after soaking in hot water, the sericin will dissolve, and then the silk can be pulled out of the cocoon.
When the silkworm is spinning a cocoon, it will first crawl to the predetermined position for making the cocoon, and then use silk to weave a base for placing the cocoon, which is similar to the shape of a hammock. After that, the silkworm will crawl onto the hammock, coil its body into a U shape, and then spin silk to wrap itself up. Therefore, outside the cocoon, there is a layer of messy silk connected together, which is the hammock. Therefore, before reeling out the silk, this layer of hammock that cannot be used must be torn off.
After this step, basically only a bare cocoon is left. This cocoon is completely composed of a 500 to 1500-meter-long silk thread, with only two thread ends, one inside the cocoon and one outside the cocoon. Therefore, there is another important step at this time, which is to sort out the threads, also known as sorting out the threads, which is actually to find the thread end outside the cocoon.
This step is not difficult, because silk is only one-tenth the thickness of a hair, so when spinning, basically seven or eight cocoons are grouped together, and eight silk threads are combined into a strand of silk yarn for weaving. Therefore, when sorting out the threads, just pile the eight cocoons together in a basin of water, and then stir them quickly with chopsticks, so that the thread ends of each cocoon can automatically wrap around the chopsticks. In this way, just pinch the eight thread ends together and put them on the spinning machine, and you can use them for spinning.
In summary, the process of reeling silk is not complicated, and a large number of manual steps cannot be replaced by machines. What can really be done with machines is nothing more than tying a few thread ends to the spindle after sorting out the threads, and then using a pedal flywheel to provide power to roll up the silk.
Therefore, this reeling machine can directly dismantle the front half of the original pedal spinning machine, leaving only the flywheel and power pedal, as well as the crankshaft connecting rod, and then add a few crossbar brackets for guiding the silk, and finally add a hot water basin in front to place the cocoons.
In addition, in order to improve work efficiency and enable this machine to spin multiple silk threads at the same time, the machine must be wide enough. Luo Chong's initial idea is to spin four silk threads at the same time. In this way, a basin that is not very wide but long enough is needed. In addition, in order to prevent each group of cocoons from affecting each other, the basin can be made into a built-in partition similar to a mandarin duck hot pot, and each group of cocoons can be separated in a separate area, which can also prevent several groups of cocoons from accidentally tangling together.
After Luo Chong wrote down these requirements and dimensions, he immediately taught them to the deputy of the woodworking workshop, Mutun, to handle. Mutun is more taciturn and suitable for studying technology. The guy Mutong is suitable for management, arranging tasks and distributing work to other carpenters, and has strong organizational skills. These two people, one in charge of the inside and the other in charge of the outside, manage the woodworking workshop in Hanyang City in an orderly manner, which also makes Luo Chong, the leader, very comfortable.
It is estimated that it will be transformed in less than two days, Luo Chong thought so.
The design and transformation of the silk reeling machine went smoothly, but the Sang clan, who were preparing to collect chestnut silkworm cocoons, and the Shuda clan, who were preparing to select a site in Ruyang County, were not so smooth.
After the original Li tribe was annexed by the Han tribe, the Li tribe's settlement had long been abandoned. The Han tribe rarely went there except for sending people there to collect chestnuts once a year. But during this half-year gap, no one knew when another tribe came to this place, occupied the abandoned Li tribe's settlement under the noses of the Han tribe, and lived there.
(End of this chapter)
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