The great hero of the Silk Road, starting from a farm farmer

Chapter 28 Do You Know How to Forge Iron?
Standing on the original site of the Guo family's mill at Xingyue Gorge, Song Yingkui held a sample of the mill and discussed the upcoming mill project with Carpenter Qin and Guo Kaifeng, the shopkeeper of the Guo family.

"Guo shopkeeper, there are two plans now. Either rebuild one here according to the shape of several mills in our fifth battalion. The completed mill will not be much different from your previous mill. Or I will rebuild a new type of mill based on the current terrain. This kind of mill should be more useful than your previous mill." Song Yingkui told the master of the Guo family his thoughts.In fact, what he said was a little conservative. From the bottom of his heart, he wanted to build a brand new water mill.

"Carpenter Song, is it true that the new mill you said will be more useful than the previous one?" Guo Kaifeng saw that the carpenter in front of him was too young, and it was hard for him to believe that this carpenter would make a better mill.

"How about this? Let's take out the ditches for water diversion first. Taking advantage of this time, Carpenter Song made the wooden samples of the two mills. Shopkeeper Guo, you can check the samples before confirming. How about this arrangement?" Carpenter Qin saw that the Guo family was very suspicious of Song Yingkui's ability, so he quickly spoke out to smooth things over.Originally, to do large-scale carpentry work in this era, it is necessary to produce wooden samples first, then enlarge the samples on the wooden boards, and finally carry out the formal construction.

"It's okay to arrange it like this. Let's ask Carpenter Song to make the wooden sample first, and then we'll make the shape."

"Yes, I'll make wooden samples first!" It's understandable for the owner to have concerns. To repair a mill requires an investment of more than a hundred taels of silver, which is not a small amount for any family, and it is right to be cautious.Make them a wooden sample first, it will be easier to convince them to build the mill according to their own ideas.

Next, Ying Kui took his third uncle to make a wooden sample, and Carpenter Qin led others to dig the aqueduct and tidy up the foundation.No matter who builds the water mill, they can't do it in the middle of the river. This is a rule and a safety standard, and you can't do anything.

It took four days for Song Yingkui to make two samples of water mills out of random wood.

"Shopkeeper Guo should have seen this appearance before. It is a normal water mill. The other is the water mill that I am going to make. Compared with the common water mill, the biggest difference is that the upper and lower discs of this water mill are rotating, or in different directions. In this way, the speed of coming out will be much faster." After presenting the finished sample to Guo's shopkeeper, Song Yingkui introduced the shape and structure of the new water mill he was going to make.

The traditional water mill is driven by a vertical water wheel, with a connecting shaft on the upper part of the water mill and a connecting rod to drive the grinding disc.Song Yingkui's new style is to have two driving water wheels, one is a horizontal water wheel, which directly leads from the bottom of the water channel to the bottom grinding plate of the water mill, allowing it to rotate with the chassis.Another water wheel is basically the same as the traditional grinding disc drive.Frankly speaking, from his point of view, the change in shape is not too big, and it is not a completely revolutionary innovation.But in terms of efficiency, no matter what, it is higher than a millstone.

"Carpenter Song, can the sample of the second type of mill you made turn in water? How about we take a look." Looking at the two samples of water-milled wood in front of him, Guo Kaifeng was a little uncertain.

Judging from the wood samples, the young carpenter brought by Carpenter Qin is indeed good at making water mills.The traditional water mill wood samples he made are the same as the water mills in his house before, and you can tell that they can be used at a glance.It is precisely because others can make traditional water mills that Guo Kaifeng became interested in new-style water mills.If it is true as said, grinding noodles is faster than water grinding in the past, so if you don’t choose, wouldn’t it be a loss?

"I can turn it around. I'll find a water channel. I'll press it first and you'll have a look." Song Yingkui's ability to make a new water mill is also a good thing, and his reputation as a craftsman will be fully revealed through this water mill.Unlike now, if Carpenter Qin didn't miss him, he wouldn't be able to find a job.

Lift the wooden sample to the waterway, and after tossing for a long time to install it, the water starts to rotate with the wooden sample.

"It is true that both millstones are turning. Can Carpenter Song's mill really work better than the old one?" Seeing the two wooden millstones turning in opposite directions driven by the water flow, Guo Kaifeng's heart was aroused, and he became even more hesitant.

"Shopkeeper Guo, think about it. It is actually the same principle to turn with one millstone and two millstones in opposite directions! The biggest difference is that the speed is faster. If the millstone spins faster, won't the grinding be faster?"

"It seems to be like this. How can we make it out of this new type of mill that you made? It won't work well, so we can just use the rotor at the bottom?" After thinking about it, Guo Kaifeng thought of a workaround.This new water mill has the same structure as the old water mill.Since this is the case, if it is not easy to use, it should be able to return to the appearance of the old mill. This decision is not very risky.

After finally convincing the client to adopt his own plan, Song Yingkui hurriedly responded and started the construction of the water mill in earnest.

Making water mills requires not only carpenters and stonemasons, but also blacksmiths and iron tools to cooperate.When communicating with Carpenter Qin how to solve the iron parts, Carpenter Qin meant to draw a big sample and go to the blacksmith shop in the county to order it.

"I'm afraid that there will be differences in the size of the custom-made iron parts from the blacksmith shop. It will be troublesome when it is actually used. Uncle Qin, do you think this is okay? Let's build a blacksmith's furnace and sell some blacksmithing tools and iron materials. How can we make it here directly?" Since he wanted to make iron parts, Song Yingkui felt that it might be more reliable to do it himself.In the era when there is no standardized production of mechanical products, no matter how careful the blacksmith is, the error will not be small.

"Do it here? Hire a blacksmith, the wages are not low! It's more cost-effective than going to a blacksmith's shop to order." Carpenter Qin thought that Song Yingkui meant to find a blacksmith from outside to do it on the spot.

"You don't need to ask a blacksmith to come over, just buy the blacksmithing tools and start the stove and do it yourself." In this era, ordinary blacksmiths don't have many processing tools, and the cost of buying tools is not too much for such a large project!
"Do it yourself? Song Jiawa, do you know how to blacksmith?" A carpenter said that he wanted to work as a blacksmith, and Carpenter Qin was shocked.

"Uncle, I'm not bragging for you. My blacksmithing ability is higher than that of a carpenter! It's no problem to make some random iron parts." As a mechanical engineer, I must be better at being a blacksmith than a carpenter.For Song Yingkui, the most troublesome thing about forging iron is that it takes a lot of effort.

"Really? Your baby can work as a carpenter and a blacksmith. I want to know, what other jobs in the world can't you do?"

"There are many jobs that I don't know how to do. For example, I can't do the stonemason work of making a millstone!"

"Still thinking about being a stonemason? I think it's better for you to leave food for other craftsmen. You can't do all the work in the world by yourself. Since you said you can do blacksmith's work, I really want to tell the Guo family to send people to the city to buy blacksmiths and iron materials."

(End of this chapter)