Chapter 94: Making Barrels from Wood
The output of metal directly determines the development of the Han tribe. Due to the low copper reserves before, Luo Chong did not implement many things. However, this time, enough ore was transported, and many plans could be restarted.
The most important things are saddles, four-wheeled carriages, and oak barrels.
Saddles and four-wheeled carriages are prepared for giant deer and bison. The body shape of giant deer is similar to that of horses, which is very suitable for riding. However, because there are no stirrups and saddles, Luo Chong dare not try it easily, in case he falls and gets injured.
The production of saddles and stirrups is very simple. Stirrups are actually two semicircular bronze rings. Saddles are made of wood and rabbit skin. There are copper handles on the front and back of the saddle. Make a few small copper rings as copper buckles, and use cowhide to weave a set of bits and bridles, and a set of saddles is ready.
And because giant deer are even-toed ungulates, they have two toes on their hooves, so horseshoes are saved directly. Such hooves cannot be equipped with iron shoes.
Looking at the saddle, Luo Chong could not wait to bring a male elk in his prime, put on the saddle, and rode the elk in circles on the grassland west of the tribe.
"Gee, gee,"
Luo Chong stepped on the stirrup, holding the reins in his left hand and a vine in his right hand as a whip, waving the whip non-stop. This elk was ridden for the first time and was very uncooperative, so he could only use the whip to tame it.
"The chief is so awesome, I also want to ride that deer, if I ride that deer, I can run very fast, right?" A new man who had just come back from catching chickens looked at Luo Chong and said.
"Of course the chief is the most awesome, many things in the tribe were invented by the chief, such as firing pottery, burning stones to smelt copper, raising animals, and planting peanuts. I heard yesterday that the chief was going to open up the mountain," a companion beside him whispered.
"Open up the mountain, what mountain, can the mountain be opened?" the man just now asked in surprise.
"Hush, keep your voice down. I heard that they are going to dig salt from the mountains, which is the salty thing we eat these days. I don't know if it's true. Maybe the chief is lying. Don't tell anyone else."
"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone. I also want to see how he digs the mountains and why a child like him can be the chief."
"Why, do you still want to be the chief? Have you seen the bows and arrows used by those old people? Those bows and arrows are very powerful. They can shoot people to death from a long distance. They were invented by the chief. I also want one. I heard that the carpenters are making one."
"Okay, let's send this black chicken back quickly. Without the chicken feathers, you can't use the longbow even if you have arrows."
While chatting, several people walked towards the chicken coop of the tribe. They wanted to send all the chickens they caught to the chicken coop.
Luo Chong rode for a while and then got off. He led the deer back to the animal pen to rest and started to do other things.
The Han tribe is now in great need of a water storage container that is easy to transport. Currently, pottery can be used, but it is very inconvenient to transport pottery. First, it is fragile, and second, it cannot be sealed. Even if the lid is closed, water can still easily spill out, so Luo Chong decided to make a wooden barrel.
Luo Chong actually had the idea of making a wooden barrel a long time ago, but because the wooden barrel needs copper hoops to fix it, and the Han tribe does not have much copper and tin reserves, it has been delayed.
Many people may have misunderstandings about the production of wooden barrels, thinking that a circle of wooden boards surrounds a barrel, and if you want it to be watertight, you can only use glue. In fact, it is not. There is no mysterious technology in the method of sealing wooden barrels. It is all squeezed together by force. Each wooden board is squeezed tightly together so that there is no gap in the middle to achieve a sealing effect.
The bucket made by Luo Chong is a standard 100-liter wooden barrel. It is 67 cm high, 53 cm in diameter at both ends, 59 cm in diameter at the waist, and 2.5 cm thick. The materials used are the leftovers from shipbuilding at that time, that is, the core material of fir.
These wooden boards are the ones that were not long enough when the ship was built, but they are enough to make wooden barrels. Now we just need to slightly modify the shape, cut all these wooden boards into the same length, and then cut them into thin wooden boards with narrow ends and wide in the middle.
"Chief, will it really not leak when it is made like this? When we built the boat, we used glue to fill the seams. This one doesn't even need to fill the seams?" Mutun asked puzzledly.
"Of course not, do you see any seams? There are no gaps, so what are you filling?" Luo Chong asked back.
Mutun held a newly cast bronze hoop in his hand. Luo Chong took the wooden boards and arranged them in the copper hoop one by one. He knocked the last piece hard with a wooden hammer, so that these wooden pieces became a trumpet shape with one end tightened and the other end open.
"Come, brush the inside with water, put it on the brazier and roast it to set it." Luo Chong instructed.
"Oh, what about the other end?" asked the wooden barrel.
"Remember how I taught you to make a wheel? Use a rope to tie it. Wrap the rope around twice, insert a wooden stick into the rope and tighten it. When it's tightened, put the copper hoop on this end and finally tighten it. Oh, don't forget to put the bottom and lid of the barrel into the grooves you dug." Luo Chong explained and demonstrated to them.
"Ah? If both ends are sealed, then it's sealed. How can we pour water into it?" asked the wooden pig in confusion.
"You are stupid. Why don't you make a hole in the lid, cut a wooden plug to plug it, and then pull it out when you need it."
"Wouldn't it be too troublesome to use it? The mouth is so small that it is not convenient to pour water."
"I am just teaching you how to make a wooden barrel. This one is specially used for transportation. If the mouth is too big, what is the difference between it and a pottery jar? If you just use it for daily water collection, you can make a barrel with only one bottom, and you can also add a handle on it to make it convenient to carry the bucket and water. And this large wooden barrel used for transportation is very heavy when filled with water. If you can't lift it, you can just roll it away. You should use your brain more when making things in the future." Luo Chong explained and gave them some tips.
"Oh, yes, you can also not install a lid, hehe, I didn't think of it just now."
In this way, wooden barrels appeared in the Han tribe one by one. Transportation-type, daily-use-type, with handles, wooden barrels of various specifications appeared in the Han tribe, but they were all designed by Luo Chong. Mutun and his men still didn't know how to calculate pi, so they could only ask Luo Chong to give a fixed size first, and then they would make it according to that size.
"Chief, why do we make so many wooden barrels?" the elder asked in confusion.
"Of course we use them. If we can't use them all, we can sell them. We can trade them to other tribes. This thing is more practical than pottery in terms of holding water. Someone will definitely want it." Luo Chong explained.
"But there is copper on it. Didn't you say that copper can't be traded?" the elder reminded Luo Chong.
"Well, I know, so those copper hoops contain very little tin and are very soft. They can be used to hoop barrels, but they can't be used to make weapons and tools. In addition, our barrels are very expensive. I won't exchange them without ten boys. If someone comes to exchange barrels with so many people just to remove the copper hoops on them, I will sell them to him. No matter how we calculate it, we won't suffer any loss." Luo Chong explained confidently.
(End of this chapter)
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