Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 151 Glass Workshop
After dismissing Tuo Huan, Guo Kang led a group of elated priests and continued to the foot of the mountain.

"A lot of our equipment is made here." Guo Kang said: "Do you still remember the reflector behind the Giant of Light?"

"Making a whole spherical mirror with regular shape at one time requires too much craftsmanship. Therefore, it is not a whole mirror, but assembled with many flat mirrors." He told the crowd: "Each mirror has only about two mirrors. The palm is big, so it's much easier."

"You said those were produced by ourselves?" Brother Dmitry asked in surprise.

"Yes." Tuo Huan nodded: "I think it is too exaggerated to import paper from the Ming Dynasty. If glass cannot be made, it will be too miserable."

"Don't underestimate paper." Guo Kang reminded: "Porcelain is something that Europeans have been pondering for three or four hundred years, and it can still be fired with cross-age technology. But that kind of light-transmitting calligraphy and painting paper must at least It will be 400 years later. If it is true, the technology gap is bigger than that of porcelain.”

"Now the sea route is impassable, and the land transportation is inconvenient. Those papers are treasures treasured by my grandfather. After a lot of effort, I got some from him and made Tianxiong animation. When I was making samples before, We can only learn from Europeans and use cow bladders as a test."

"Glass is already a rare technology, and we are more skilled than the East." He pointed out: "It can't be done well, so it's too much to say."

He introduced all the way and brought everyone to the workshop.

"Mercury is often used here, which is poisonous, so let's take a look at it from a distance." He pointed to a workshop: "Let's take a look here first. This is where flat glass is made."

He led everyone along the stairs outside the workshop to the second floor, and watched the scene inside in the corridor.

The doors and windows of the first floor were open, and near the door was a huge furnace where several glassmakers were heating the raw materials.Not far away, there was a row of pools filled with red-hot liquid. There was a huge wooden bellows beside it, surrounded by a few people wearing black cloaks and strange beak masks.

"What is this for?" Dmitry asked.

"In Roman times, flat glass was made on a workbench by rolling it with an iron rod. Later, this technique was lost, and today's flat glass is blown. I don't quite understand the specific process. Maybe the Venetians understand this now." Guo Kang said.

"This approach requires too much craftsmanship and is not easy to mass-produce, so we did not try to imitate and surpass them, but used new ideas." He pointed to the pool: "There is melted tin inside."

"The melted glass is lighter than tin, and it will float on the liquid tin and spread out by itself, so that it can form a flat surface. Then we slowly cool the pool to get solidified glass."

"My heavenly father, how did you come up with this?" Dmitry was taken aback.

"This is an idea that the ancients understood, but their heating capacity was limited, so they didn't make finished products." Guo Kang replied casually: "What we are studying here is the question of which liquid to choose—and it's not difficult."

"The liquid must be heavier than liquid glass, and neither boil nor solidify at the working temperature. Like mercury, it boils too easily; and copper liquefies at too high a temperature."

"That way, there are only a few metals to choose from. When I discuss it with other people, they also think of liquid lead first."

Dmitry nodded, not surprised by this.After all, the Romans were familiar with this thing, and it was so normal to think of it...

"The problem with lead is that it smokes a lot when heated and is poisonous. We thought about it and replaced it with tin, which is less toxic." He pointed to the furnace: "This is the current situation."

"Then how do you control this 'temperature', do you mean the degree of hot and cold?" Dmitry can only start with professional terms: "Can hot and cold also be quantified?"

"It may not be quantified specifically, but it can be roughly estimated." Guo Kang said: "We put a long copper bar and a long iron bar of the same length in the tin pool. These two metals will become longer when heated. , but the extension distance is different. We fix the metal strips together, let one end extend out of the pool, and then compare the difference in length.”

"There is a board by the side of the pool for comparison." He pointed to the side of the pool: "They have added a pointer now, which looks more convenient. It may not be accurate, but at least it can put appropriate experience Record the temperature and do the same in the future.”

"But the environment over there is very bad. Staring at the pool hurts the eyes, so everyone wears black glasses. In addition, our tin is not pure, so there will be smoke, so I suggest they use cotton as a filter to protect themselves .The robe is for blocking the splashed tin."

"Indeed, it looks very professional." Tuo Huan agreed.

"I think these are necessary protective measures." Guo Kang muttered, "Actually, I think the finished product should be factory-style. Who knew they made it like this..."

"That's what they made." He took down a headgear with glass lenses and a metal beak sewn into it from the wall: "The beak is just a piece of cotton. They're so obsessed with this shape."

"Why didn't the glassmakers bring them?" Dmitry asked.

"They are used to it, and they find it troublesome to carry it, which affects their physical work. Although it is right next to it, and people need to manually lift the glass fluid, they think it doesn't matter." Guo Kang said shaking his head.

"Our workshop management is very irregular, but there is nothing we can do now. When expanding production later, I will see if I can build a partition wall to separate the two sides and leave a special feeding port for pouring glass."

"In addition, every time you make it, you have to blow it with a special gas. After pouring, you have to cool the entire tin pool, which is wasteful and the effect is very bad. Many glasses are either deformed or directly blown. In short, this There are many areas to be improved, and it is very troublesome to produce, and it is still experimental in nature.”

"Now the main product is over there." He pointed to the opposite side of the workshop: "To put it simply, it is to blow a glass bottle first, then cut the bottle, boil it until soft, unfold it on the workbench, and then flatten it .”

"This is an improved version of the ancient Roman process. The advantage is that it is not difficult to make a bottle, and it is easier to go from a bottle to a glass plate than directly pressing a pool of liquid glass."

"Limited by the blowing technology and the size of the workbench, we still can't make particularly large glass, but it is feasible to make the kind that is half the height of a person. This is enough for now."

(End of this chapter)