Princess Consort of Tang Dynasty

Chapter 283 Improving Papermaking Technology

In the small Shangfang Bureau, craftsmen perform their duties and complete every step of papermaking.

The first step is to get the raw materials. The palace servants took Shen Sanwen to the bamboo forest in person.

Cutting bamboo and wood, breaking it into sections that can fit the pool, splitting it into six pieces, sinking it into the pool with lime water, soaking it fully, this is also the most time-consuming part of the whole process, after three months to be taken out.

The taken out bamboo wood has initially removed the dross with black pigment in the bamboo wood, and most of the parts of the wood that cannot be made into paper.

At this time, the bamboo is initially softened and the epidermis is separated. It is necessary to manually remove the green skin and some bamboo pieces that cannot be softened during soaking.

Get new and soft bamboo, put it into a closed pot containing lime water, and cook it for eight days and nights without stopping until the bamboo is soft and soft, like the fiber of clothes.

Soak and wash the obtained product in clean water again. This step is considered to have completely removed the melanin in the bamboo, and initially turned the hard bamboo into a paper-making material.

The second step is pulping.Divide the bamboo fiber into thin noodle-like by hand, and then put it into a pounding trough to mash, and the noodle-like bamboo fiber becomes batter-like pulp.

Bamboo fiber noodles need to be turned and turned manually during the smashing process, so that each bamboo fiber is evenly stressed, so that qualified pulp can be produced.

The principle of leverage is also used here. Although people in Dazhou don’t understand what the principle of leverage is, it does not affect the hammer machine they make pedals. The side of the hammer pedal is far from the fulcrum, and the pulp hammer is close to the fulcrum. If you step on it hard, you can make the hammer smash the bamboo fiber vigorously.

The pulp produced at this time is the same as the flocculent pulp formed by putting it into water in later generations, and it is qualified pulp.

The third step is pulping and papermaking.

At this time, after de-blackening, softening, and beating, what is obtained is just a layer of light yellow paper cake. It needs to be made into white pulp, and it needs to be washed, and then bleaching agent or staining agent is added.

Put the paper cake into the bamboo basket, and wash the dust and scum that fell during beating in clean water.

The whitening agent used at this time is also lime water. The higher the concentration of lime water, the whiter the pulp produced. The pulp circulates in a simple circular slope filled with lime water. When the paper pool, it is pure white pulp.

However, when the pulp is put into clean water, it cannot coagulate together, nor can it float evenly on the upper layer. At this time, the ancient oriental civilization also gave an excellent solution.

Adding a small amount of mung bean, cassava, and wheat powder can produce a large amount of qualified pulp. Shen Sanwen understands that this is the effect of starch paste.It can increase the viscosity and make the pulp float on the surface of the pool.

Under Shen Sanwen's comment, the workers added the starch agent and started to stir. It was visible to the naked eye that the pulp had all floated in the end, with a slight viscosity, just like lotus root flour.

Pushing the bamboo paper machine, a thin layer of small bamboo mat, also called bamboo mat, is placed on the bamboo board. After being immersed in water, the worker keeps shaking the bamboo board in his hand, so that the paper pulp on the bamboo mat is evenly pasted. A thin layer.

Leave the bamboo board out of the water, take out the bamboo mat, turn it over and put the wet paper in the designated place easily.

The wet paper is squeezed, dehydrated, separated, stacked together to dry, peeled off, and separated again. The last pieces of paper that are seen are as thin as cicada's wings and white as snowflakes.

What a magical process.

Shen Sanwen had a half-knowledge when he saw it in books before, but now he knows the mystery.

First of all, only materials that can be made into fibers can be made into paper. For example, the bark of a mulberry tree that can be completely peeled off can also be substituted. Bamboo is even a fiber that can be used to make clothes.Although paper is different from silk and cotton, the process of making paper is obviously borrowed from the process of making clothes.

Secondly, after a series of processing, the flexible bamboo has been turned into a thin pulp, and then fixed again. The series of changes in the middle can be called uncanny workmanship. In the era when there was no chemistry and no understanding of elements, people actually To be able to make such a fetish is really amazing.

In the end, it takes hundreds of days of work to have a finished product now, and countless people have dedicated themselves to it.Generations of people have improved step by step, and these craftsmen are also worthy of admiration.Without them, there would be no paper, let alone the long history of China, the cultural inheritance from generation to generation, and the progress of civilization.

Everyone can understand the role of paper in human life and technological progress. In particular, Shen Sanwen, who is in urgent need of paper, feels the trouble that this kind of productivity restricts development.

After watching the whole process, he really didn't think of a way to improve it except for understanding his previous doubts.

After all, he majored in law, not chemistry, and the lines were separated like mountains.

Shen Sanwen went home with a heavy heart.

The first step, bamboo softening needs to use lime water.

Although the second step of beating is also time-consuming, it does not require three months of soaking, and a few days is very acceptable. After all, artificially produced fine products require a lot of manpower to maintain, as long as it is not needed by nature. A lot of time, this step does not require too much intervention and improvement.

The third step is to add stickiness and scooping paper. Nowadays, carpentry craftsmanship can reach the point of automatic scooping paper, but correspondingly, the accuracy and quality may not be as high as today's handmade paper products.

The first step took nine tenths of the time, and it is also the most important reason for the low efficiency of papermaking today. Shen San asked, three months is the shortest time required to remove bamboo residue and produce white paper, otherwise the paper will The dross and black spots will ruin the mentality of the paper user.

How to improve lime blister bamboo, shortening the time is the key to improving efficiency.

The space is limited, and the bamboo can only be soaked four times a year, and the paper made in summer is the best.

Shen Sanwen listed these points on paper.

At the same time, add a sentence at the end, starchy thickeners such as rice paste can be replaced by viscous plant juices, and using food to make paper is not suitable for very large-scale expanded production.This one doesn't matter, it's just a small improvement.

Shen Sanwen, who has a high school knowledge of physics, only knows that during the soaking process, the fibers in the bamboo remain, but the woody components disappear, but is it a combination of acidity or alkalinity, or a series of reactions? Why? It takes so long, he, knows nothing.

Although lime water is an alkaline substance, it is really hard to say what happens when it is placed in water.

If you don't know anything, you can only improve it through continuous experiments, soak it with the simplest acid and alkali, and get the answer.

The simplest kind of acid is hydrochloric acid.

The most readily available alkaline water is baking soda.

His experiment was also very simple. He took the smallest and most tender piece of bamboo and soaked it in two kinds of water. The one that could produce the fastest softening reaction was the material he needed.

During the period, Shen Sanwen conveyed the good news to Cui Xuan, once they succeeded in the first step of improvement, improving the papermaking technique, all subsequent actions would be accelerated, and their dreams would be realized as soon as possible.

Cui Xuan's response to this is: Hehe.

From the Han Dynasty to the Great Zhou Dynasty, how many improvements have been made in the millennium, and finally fell silent at this time. He thought that the son-in-law would have a better alternative to paper, such as a small blackboard for each person, or other solutions Get free paper, who knows, this person is so unreliable to want to improve papermaking!
If he had been a paper-making worker since he was a child, Cui Xuan would have believed that he had the ability. You, a pampered son-in-law, figured out how to do it yourself, it would be better for the court to reward you for improvement.

Cui Xuan felt that this hope was getting slimmer and slimmer.

Shen Sanwen didn't realize it. This is chemistry. It is the most perfect method to remove wood, get fiber, and then make paper smoothly.

These small blackboards can indeed make people learn to write and read, but there is absolutely no black and white writing down one stroke at a time, and then it is convenient to check for mistakes and fill in the gaps. After all, it will be erased, and the memory will not be deep enough.

Only writing in black and white is the way out of education and can lay the best foundation for the first step.

Fifteen days later, the weak acid water and the weak alkaline water were the winner.

The guard who checked the bamboo on one side every day reported excitedly to Shen Sanwen, "The bamboo in the acid water has become soft!"

Shen Sanwen also excitedly ran to the water bowl containing two pieces of bamboo wood, took it out and looked at it repeatedly, the degree of softening was really insignificant compared to the flexibility of bamboo.Not a person who checks every day, it's really hard to touch it.

Relying on this kind of water, three months, [-]% is not as effective as lime water.

It seems that a heavy hand is still needed. Since acid is useful, it is better to use strong acid.

Yes, use sulfuric acid!

Fortunately, Zhang Yang has put coal refining on the agenda. Although he has been working on it for more than half a year without any great results, the Turkic people are lucky enough to extract the most important product in the detoxification process of smelting coal-sulfuric acid. .

So, at critical times, we still have to rely on our brothers.

Zhang Yang sent Shen Sanwen three small bottles of sulfuric acid filled with precious glass. The commercial road to the Turkic north is about to be completed, and the transportation in the future will be much more convenient. Shen Sanwen really hasn’t done much in the past few years since he came to Dazhou. useless thing.

Although, largely unintentionally, there is always reward for good people.

Doing good deeds without asking for reward.

The road ahead is smooth.

This time the test was much simpler and faster.

The sulfuric acid at the beginning could burn the whole piece of bamboo to nothing. Shen Sanwen continuously poured different amounts of sulfuric acid into the water to dilute it. Finally, he added some salt by accident, roughly determined the proportion, and it could be Created in just minutes, softened bamboo.

Seeing such a powerful potion, everyone in the Princess Mansion was stunned.

If this thing touches a person's body, it will kill him every minute. Shen Sanwen also ordered people to block the news. In case someone with evil intentions uses this to assassinate, as the only one with the power to provide this powerful ability Shen San asked the person who used the medicine, and it was hard to argue.

None of this matters.

The most important thing is that the produced raw materials were fully soaked, cleaned and filtered, and then sent to Shangfang Bureau. The answer was affirmative, that sulfate can be used to make pulp raw materials, shortening the time of papermaking by three full months!

Therefore, now Shen Sanwen is a little worried. Should he directly disclose the method to the public, or should he keep it by himself? It is more troublesome to make it by himself, and it is more troublesome to make it public. Sulfuric acid is too lethal in Dazhou. , or death, and it is impossible to guard against, it is too dangerous.

Probably cannot be made public.

Shen Sanwen naturally wanted to discuss with the princess. Although this weapon can be used at a short distance, its lethality is not weaker than that of a musket. The princess's first reaction was naturally that General Zhang has such a powerful weapon, and then she just took it out. up.

It is obviously very loyal and has no selfishness. It was extracted and collected secretly, but neither she nor her majesty knew about it. Only Shen Sanwen knew it, and knew what it was from the beginning to the end. .
Are young people nowadays so knowledgeable, or does she know too little.

Shen San asked: "."

This is simply the difference of the times. If you ask him what many famous sayings of Confucius mean, he doesn’t know. Each era has specific common sense. This is the difference between technology and culture, and there is no question of whether culture is good or bad. .

In short, it was finally decided that sulfuric acid was the secret weapon of the brave army, and the Ministry of Culture and Culture set up another branch to provide finished pulp raw materials to paper manufacturers across the country without the need for a three-month restocking period.

The proceeds remain state-owned.

Therefore, there is no need to worry about anyone's coveting.

Shen Sanwen prepared for himself three months to complete this work. All those who obtained raw materials from the Shanggong Branch of the Ministry of Education had to give priority to supplying them to the Ministry of Education at [-]% off the market price, followed by supplying the whole country.Even so, most of the paper merchants who heard the news immediately signed a contract with Shen Sanwen.

With more raw materials, there will be more time for other steps. Dazhou’s current paper is expensive and profitable. More importantly, the supply of paper will always be in short supply, but the speed of papermaking cannot meet the requirements.

The cost of workers is only a small part of the expenditure, and having raw materials means having money.A paper businessman needs at least several generations of accumulation to become a first-class paper businessman. Among them, the long-term vision and the mentality of calculating gains and losses are naturally not comparable to ordinary people.

Even if Shen Sanwen had stated in advance that the price of paper would decrease, it did not affect the conclusion of the contract at all.

Shen Sanwen also considered whether the supply of bamboo would be in short supply. On the one hand, a large amount of land suitable for bamboo growth was prepared in the sparsely populated southern areas, and various kinds of bamboo resources that could grow quickly were collected. On the other hand, the craftsmen made Said fiber bark capable of making paper has also been paid attention to and prepared as an alternative.

Everything is ready, and the first reform of Dazhou has kicked off.

This time, the process of education for all is unstoppable!
　Note: Quick removal of wood by sulfate needs to be carried out at a high temperature of 170 degrees Celsius. Since the process is too complicated and involves too many elements, reasonable deletions are made.

　　Another: The papermaking process is what I found out after checking a lot of information. It is very real. The general process should be explained clearly. After all, everyone should have learned it and can imagine it.It is only a description of some time aspects, and where to dry is relatively easy to understand, so it is omitted.Those who are interested can Baidu keywords, handmade paper making video.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)