The Ming Dynasty started with saving the eldest grandson

Chapter 367 Are You Ready with the Money?
Chen Jingke had not forgotten what he had told Zhu Xiongying before, that he wanted to create a tool to calculate time.

After returning home, I first drew the general structure of the clock that I remembered, and also wrote down the general principles.

Why is it roughly? Because he has never built this thing and really doesn't know the specific situation.

One can only deduce based on impressions and explain based on one's own knowledge of physics.

As for whether it is right or not...it all depends on luck.

However, although I have never made a clock, I have learned about the general history of its development.

The event that had the greatest impact on modern clocks occurred during the Northern Song Dynasty.

Astronomer Su Song and others built a water-powered astronomical observatory.

The instrument made use of the escapement, the heart of a clock, for the first time.

In short, after being designed by Su Song and others, the device can accurately record time.

A time-telling structure was also made, which strikes the time every quarter of an hour.

Western clocks were improved based on this thing.

Unfortunately, the device was destroyed in the war and has never been copied since.

However, its structural diagram must have been passed down, otherwise how would Westerners know about the escapement and imitate clocks?
If we can find the structural diagram, things will be much simpler.

So, where can we find the structural diagram of the Water-powered Astronomical Observatory?

Without a doubt, the Imperial Observatory.

Astronomy and astrology involve prophecies and divinations, which are generally not allowed to be taught privately by the public.

In certain special periods, hiding related books may result in a criminal sentence.

But the Imperial Observatory can study this thing openly.

For an astronomical instrument as important as the Water-powered Astronomical Observatory, there must be records of it there.

He immediately went to the Imperial Observatory to find Wu Bingrang.

The director of the Imperial Astronomical Observatory lived a very comfortable life thanks to his tight-lippedness, good cooperation during that astronomical event, and his low profile.

Since Chen Jingke asked him for help, he naturally did not dare to neglect it.

What? Astronomical knowledge is confidential and cannot be given to anyone?
Ah……

He immediately took out the information about the water-powered astronomical observatory, a thick stack of it.

There are structural diagrams and text descriptions, which are very detailed.

He also hinted that he wanted to ask the emperor to build a replica of this machine.
Chen Jingke did not agree directly, but said he would decide after further research.

Wu Bingrang was a little disappointed, but he didn't dare to say much, so he explained the whole structure to Chen Jingke.

The more Chen Jingke listened, the more shocked he was, and he finally understood why no later dynasties imitated it.

The main structure of this thing is twelve meters high. With other supporting parts, it is about fifteen meters high, which is a little higher than a five-story building.

If you study the specific details further, it really feels like black technology.

For example, the structure also connects one hundred and sixty-two wooden figures.

These wooden figures are painted in different colors and have different characters carved on them.

Different wooden men appear at different times.

As long as everyone looks at the color and words on the wooden man, they can know the exact time.

Chen Jingke was so amazed by what he saw that he couldn't help but curse in his heart:
Is this something made in the Northern Song Dynasty?
So many things have been lost from our ancestors.

No, we must make a copy of this thing.

It is not only to inherit and carry forward the ancestral skills, but also to leave more treasures for future generations.

But don’t be in a hurry, study the clock first.

After the clock was developed, some modifications were made to the water-powered astronomical observatory, and the dial was installed while retaining the original structure.

Thinking of this, he told Wu Bingrang about his plan.

When Wu Bingrang heard that he was going to make improvements based on the water-powered astronomical observatory, he was shocked, and then excited.

If someone else said this, he would definitely not believe it and would think that the other person was wishful thinking.

But he believed what Chen Jingke said without a doubt.

And he immediately said that he also wanted to get involved.

Finally, the two sides agreed that the Imperial Observatory and Luoxia Academy would conduct research together.

After the research was completed, the clock was returned to the academy, and Chen Jingke was responsible for persuading the emperor to let the Imperial Observatory build a new astronomical observatory.

It's a matter of everyone taking what they need.

As for the academy, I have been laying the foundation for the past two years.

The teacher was okay, but some students were indeed disappointed.

We are here to study the legendary science, so why haven’t we seen any progress for so long?

Could it be that Chen Bandu doesn’t want to teach?
Chen Jingke suddenly announced that he would lead teachers and students to make a mechanical tool to calculate time so that everyone could experience the beauty of science.

At the same time, it also solved the funding problem of Luoxia Academy.

You can imagine how excited everyone is.

Let me explain here that Luoxia Academy was Chen Jingke’s private academy, not run by the imperial court.

The reason is simple: the court’s money cannot be spent casually.

It is also possible to invest money to set up a school, and the imperial court will send academic officials to manage it, and classes must be taught according to the subjects set by the Imperial Academy.

To put it bluntly, if you take money from the court, you have to be under its control.

You can seek special treatment, but you will be criticized by both the government and the public.

Chen Jingke didn't want to be treated specially, nor did he want to cause trouble for himself, so he simply paid for it himself.

Of course, although they say they pay for the school themselves, in fact most of the school funding comes from donations from the powerful and wealthy.

As for why they wanted to fund Chen Jingke, there is no need for further explanation.

But relying solely on funding from the powerful is not enough. After all, people who invest in you have to ask for something in return.

Besides, it’s not comfortable to spend other people’s money.

Chen Jingke had always wanted to find a stable source of funds for the academy, so he set his sights on clocks.

Closer to home.

Teachers and students were very happy to learn that Chen Bandu was going to demonstrate his science knowledge again and wanted everyone to participate.

The news spread quickly.

The first people to get the news were naturally the powerful and influential people, and they were all very excited.

Has Chen Bandu finally heard our voices?

Then the news spread to the outside world, and everyone was surprised by it.

The focus of everyone's attention is that this is a tool for telling time.

Everyone knows how important time is, and people have been trying to tell time since ancient times.

The most commonly used methods are the sundial and the clepsydra.

But both of these things have defects and are very inconvenient to use. Most importantly, not everyone can afford them.

It would be great if Chen Jingke could create a lightweight tool that could accurately record time.

As for whether it can be made...

Again, no one doubts Chen Jingke's ability.

He said he wanted to make something good, and he would definitely be able to make it.

After all, something as incredible as the phonograph was invented, let alone a mere gadget for recording time.

Even Fang Xiaoru, who was competing in the martial arts arena next door, had his limelight overshadowed.

In fact, the real force in clock research is Wu Bingrang's team, and the teachers and students of the academy can only help.

It is precisely because of them that the research progress is so fast.

With Chen Jingke's reminder, and combining the structure of the water-powered astronomical observatory, the prototype was built in just over a month.

However, this prototype is not perfect. First, there is no pointer, and second, the operating frequency is wrong.

A full circle doesn’t take one day, it’s either fast or slow.

Without a reference, getting the frequency right takes a lot of time to debug.

After more than four months of improvement and debugging, we finally produced the first mature product at the end of June.

Chen Jingke returned to the academy as soon as possible, and Zhu Xiongying followed.

This was the little gadget that Chen Jingke had promised him, so naturally he had to come and take a look.

When I arrived at the academy, what appeared before my eyes was a wooden box painted in maroon.

The box is five feet high, one and a half feet wide, and one foot thick.

There is a disc in the upper part with a circle of scales evenly engraved on it, and there is a number every few scales.

There are needles of different lengths and sizes on the disc, and the longest red pointer is jumping one by one.

Every time it beats, it makes a slight "click" sound.

There was a long object under the box, which kept swinging back and forth. Seeing this familiar appearance, Chen Jingke was very excited.

Zhu Xiongying walked around several times, then held his chin with one hand and asked:
"How do you see this thing?"

Chen Jingke took a deep breath, calmed himself down, and began to introduce him.

One circle on the dial is exactly twelve hours.

The concept of hour has existed since ancient times, but it has different meanings in different contexts.

Sometimes it refers to childhood, sometimes it refers to time.

When Chen Jingke was making the clock, he determined it to be half of an hour.

As for why we don’t just use the time, but also make a special hour…

Firstly, on a clock, the hour can be identified more clearly and accurately.

Secondly, one hour can make people feel the urgency of time.

The third is naturally that as a time traveler, Chen Jingke is used to being small.

The three hands represent hours, minutes and seconds.

The introduction of hours is not much of an improvement.

The real improvement comes from two other areas.

One is that there was a change in "ke". The clepsydra timekeeping system divided each day into one hundred ke.

But it won’t work if you put it on a clock.

As we all know, one hundred cannot be divided evenly by twenty-four.

Chen Jingke reduced the one hundred ke per day to ninety-six ke, dividing each hour into four ke, which was exactly even.

The second is the introduction of the sexagesimal system, with sixty seconds making up one minute and sixty minutes making up one hour.

For him, it was naturally something he was used to in his previous life.

But to convince others, you need a suitable reason.

After all, time units are not a trivial matter, and it is unacceptable without a suitable reason.

The reason he gave was that the human heart beats at least 86,000 times a day.

Take eighty-six thousand four hundred seconds per day.

Divided equally into twenty-four hours, each hour is 3,600 seconds, and each moment is 900 seconds.

One quarter of a second is nine hundred seconds. This number is too large to be easily calculated, so it needs to be broken down.

Anyway, if we break it down to its basic form, sixty seconds make up a minute, sixty minutes make up an hour, and twenty-four hours make up a day.

Every time the second hand ticks, it means the heart beats once and the life span is reduced by one second.

This reminds people to cherish time.

Considering his status as a miracle doctor, this statement makes perfect sense.

So this setting was adopted.

After listening to the introduction, Zhu Xiongying looked at the dial, calculated silently for a moment and said:

"It's eleven twenty-five, isn't it?"

Chen Jingke nodded and said, "Yes, if converted into hours, it would be about 15:30 noon."

Zhu Xiongying said happily: "This... the timekeeping of the clock is indeed more precise and accurate. With it, we can grasp the time more accurately."

"Wu Jianzheng, and the teachers and students of the academy, you have all worked hard."

The teachers and students waiting at the scene immediately shouted and jumped excitedly when they heard these words.

Unlike the previous phonograph and temperature difference engine, this time they participated personally.

No matter how much you participate, you are involved anyway.

This sense of accomplishment is enormous and has aroused their interest in science.

Those who originally suspected that Chen Jingke was hiding something were completely relieved.

It’s not that he is unwilling to teach, but that everyone’s foundation has not been laid.

This study of clocks is proof of that.

The relevant principles were explained many times, but they just couldn't understand them and ended up having to follow instructions.

However, taking the opportunity to study clocks, Chen Jingke also revealed some basic science knowledge to the students.

I found that everyone could accept it.

Especially those who are older, such as Xu Zengshou, Tang Yu and others, they understood about 70% to 80%.

They are also the students who have the most thorough understanding of the principles of clocks.

Because of this incident, Chen Jingke planned to divide the students into classes again.

Students with a solid foundation are selected and begin to formally learn the basic knowledge of science.

If you don’t have a solid foundation, continue to learn from everyone.

These students can be considered the first batch of test subjects.

It can help teachers accumulate more teaching experience.

After the watch is made, the natural next step is to organize people to produce it.

There is really no technical barrier to this thing and it can be easily made.

So if you want to make a lot of money from it, there is only one chance.

That is to ship as many products as possible before others imitate them.

While Chen Jingke set up a workshop in school, he also found Zhu Biao and cooperated with the court.

I will provide the technology, the court will provide the materials and craftsmen, and we will work together.

The profit was 19%, with the academy getting 1% and the court getting 9%.

Don’t think it’s unreasonable. The opportunity to cooperate with the court is something that others can’t even ask for.

And, as I said before, there are no technological barriers to watches.

In this era, the only one that had the power to distribute large quantities of goods at one time was the imperial court.

Small profits but quick turnover, a 10% profit is still more profitable than making a 100% profit on your own.

Zhu Biao naturally would not object, as he knew very well the value of this thing.

The imperial court could also make a lot of money.

Therefore, the Ministry of Industry specially selected hundreds of craftsmen and thousands of skilled workers to set up a watch workshop.

Producing watches day and night.

Taking into account the differences and diversity of the products, Chen Jingke designed many different styles.

Some are big, some are small, some are simple, some are luxurious.

The simplest one is a small square box that can be hung on the wall or placed on the table.

The most luxurious one is naturally the table clock, whose shell is made of the most precious wood and whose hands are made of gold and silver.

It is inlaid with many precious gems.

The most important thing is that the front is covered with two large pieces of transparent glass - ordinary watches have no glass covering the front, and the dial is exposed.

There's no way, glass is a luxury these days.

This kind of watch was sold for as much as 88,888 strings of cash.

Of course, this is top luxury.

There are also ordinary ones, those worth 18,000 strings of cash, and those worth 1,800 strings of cash.

The cheapest one costs at least 100 strings of cash.

To put it bluntly, the first batch of watches were not intended to be sold to ordinary people.

The goal is very clear, which is to reap the benefits of the rich.

The regular version will be launched only after the leeks have been almost harvested.

It's the kind that consists of a wooden frame and a dial, and can be bought for a few coins or ten strings of cash.

It really can't be any cheaper. The productivity is so high, and if it's any cheaper we'll lose money.

Therefore, if you want to buy high-quality and cheap goods, you can only develop productivity.

Chen Bandu developed a timekeeping tool called a clock.

It is very accurate, and was produced in cooperation with the imperial court, and will soon be on the market.

The news quickly spread throughout Luoyang, and then from Luoyang to the entire Ming Dynasty.

Then merchants from all walks of life flocked to Luoyang City just to get a piece of the pie.

There is no way, Chen Jingke is a golden signboard.

Which of the things he created didn't make him a lot of money?
First come, first served, first come first served.

A month later, the imperial court finally announced that the watch had been completed and would be on the market soon.

What this means is, are you ready with the money?

(End of this chapter)