People in the Three Kingdoms: Starting from Preaching

Chapter 104 Standardization!
At a place beside the Yuyang River, a papermaking workshop has finally taken shape after more than half a month of construction. From the outside, it looks like just a huge yard separated by earthen walls, but if you walk in, you can see the process structures built specifically for papermaking.

At this time, Xu Chen, surrounded by many nervous craftsmen, began to inspect the effectiveness of this workshop.

The papermaking process itself is not very complicated. In essence, it is to continuously stir and crush raw materials such as hemp heads, tree barks, rags, etc., and finally mix them into a pool of water to form paper pulp. The paper pulp is then scooped up again and again with a wooden spoon and dried in the sun, and then a piece of paper can be obtained.

However, the output efficiency of the original process was very low, which was also an important factor restricting the popularization of paper.

Previously, the craftsmen were asked to optimize the process as much as possible and improve output efficiency. This was a test given by Xu Chen to the craftsmen to see what kind of effect they could achieve by exerting their subjective initiative.

It can be seen that every time Xu Chen took a step, the craftsmen's expressions became tense, until they saw Xu Chen walk around and nod a few times, then they all breathed a sigh of relief at the same time.

They were afraid that Xu Chen would not be satisfied. The trouble of rework was secondary. It would be bad if they disappointed Xu Chen, the great master.

As he walked along, Xu Chen saw that the earthen kilns, pulp pools, water channels, pottery jars, and wooden shovels were all there, so there was naturally nothing to blame. What he had to see next was how much the craftsmen could improve on this basis.

"The workshop is now completed. Can we actually put it into operation so that I can see the results?" Xu Chen glanced at everyone and said with a smile.

Everyone responded quickly and prepared to start working. Some people immediately prepared raw materials such as tree bark and hemp heads, some people brought water into the ditch from the top, some people started the kiln and started the fire, and some people hammered and crushed the raw materials.

Seeing everyone's skillful movements, Xu Chen couldn't help but nod.

Regardless of whether the finished products made by the craftsmen are excellent, at least their attitude towards work is worthy of recognition.

These craftsmen were not familiar with the papermaking process originally, but they are now so skilled, which shows that they have spent a lot of effort in studying and practicing.

However, the process is very time-consuming, and Xu Chen waited for half a day.

He saw the broken and beaten raw materials being sent into the vat for steaming, and then constantly stirred until the original bark and hemp were completely transformed into fibers, and then poured into the pulp pool. When a craftsman estimated that the concentration was about right, he would use a wooden spoon to make the pulp, and then dry or air it.

While the craftsmen were working, Xu Chen was observing from the side and indeed saw quite a few highlights.

For example, the method of crushing and pounding the raw materials adopts the mortar commonly used by farmers, and many of them are made at the same time. Several craftsmen operate this process at the same time, which greatly improves the efficiency of a process that originally slowed down the efficiency and can now meet the requirements of subsequent processes.

Obviously, the efficiency of hammering and crushing has been optimized by the craftsmen based on the overall process.

Looking further, it was the last process that surprised Xu Chen. That was that the craftsmen changed the original drying process into oven drying, which increased the overall output by an unknown amount.

Right next to the kiln used to steam the raw materials, craftsmen built several drying rooms on the left and right.

The inside is divided into layers using a wooden structure. Although the space is not very large, it is utilized to the fullest extent and can accommodate dozens of papers for drying at the same time.

By utilizing the excess heat from the kiln, the craftsmen changed the drying process, which originally took half an hour or longer, to a drying process, which only takes a few minutes to obtain a dry sheet of paper, and it is not affected by weather factors.

"Who came up with the idea of ​​this drying room?" Xu Chen looked at the craftsmen.

The craftsmen looked at each other, and finally their eyes focused on a man who was less than 30 years old, who was the person Xu Chen was asking about.

Being asked by Xu Chen, the man looked a little nervous. He came to Xu Chen and bowed quickly: "My humble servant Hu Tao is a carpenter. Nice to meet you, Master!"

"What big or small? We Yellow Turbans don't care about size. So please speak nicely in the future and don't belittle yourself." Xu Chen frowned and gave a reminder before looking at the other person seriously.

Hu Tao looks like just an ordinary man with an honest face, but there is a spirit in his eyes, perhaps that is the so-called craftsmanship.

"Did you make these wooden pieces in the drying room?" Xu Chen pointed to the wooden racks inside.

Hu Tao nodded quickly and answered carefully: "Yes."

Xu Chen then smiled and patted him on the shoulder: "Very good ideas and skills, I will remember you, study hard in the future, if you can pass the assessment of the Institute of Engineering, your future will not be bad."

The wooden racks in this drying room are mostly rail-style, which can be interlocked with the disassembled components of the wooden shovel.

From a craftsmanship perspective, this is not a very complicated skill, but it excels in making full use of space to increase output. Compared with other craftsmen, this person obviously understands his requirements best.

Xu Chen asked again: "According to this process, how much paper can a papermaking workshop produce in a day?"

Hu Tao replied: "If we work hard, we can produce more than a thousand sheets of paper a day."

More than a thousand.
The area of ​​the dried paper is actually not small, and it can be cut into at least six pages of paper. If calculated in this way, the actual daily output of paper is 6,000 pages.

This efficiency is naturally not worth mentioning in the eyes of Xu Chen, a later generation. It is probably not comparable to the dynasties with mature papermaking industry in the future, but it is definitely much higher than the papermaking workshops of the Han Dynasty. After all, it was a workshop built by more than a hundred craftsmen who worked hard together. Every link has their wisdom, even the potholes and patterns in the stone trough of a mortar, which are the results of the stonemasons' experience, which can speed up the efficiency of hammering and crushing raw materials.

As details accumulate one by one, the overall efficiency will naturally be greatly accumulated. A simple manual workshop really cannot achieve this.

This efficiency is more than enough to meet the current needs of the Yellow Turbans.

Soon, someone delivered the finished paper, but Xu Chen found problems as soon as he took a look. The texture of these papers was actually very poor, and there were great differences between them. It was even questionable whether many of them could be used for writing.

"The paper I need is mostly for writing books, which requires it to be flexible and strong, and the surface should be smooth. If I ask you to develop this kind of high-quality paper and produce it stably, can you do it?"

Xu Chen put down the paper in his hand, turned around and made higher demands on them.

This made the craftsmen present afraid to answer. No one dared to make the final decision on such matters. It would be embarrassing if they couldn't do it in the future.

After all, paper is a rare thing for Han craftsmen, and they don't have much experience to draw on.

Finally, Hu Tao gritted her teeth and said, "As long as you give us some time and let us accumulate experience, we will definitely give you a satisfactory result!"

Xu Chen glanced at him and a hint of satisfaction flashed across his face. He was courageous and hardworking. It seemed that Hu Tao was indeed more determined than other craftsmen.

However, Xu Chen disagreed with the experience Hu Tao mentioned.

"You may be able to do it by relying on experience, but the efficiency is too low. Moreover, your experience alone is not enough for me. I need you to use more standardized and precise methods to study the production process!"

After Xu Chen finished speaking, everyone was stunned. They didn't quite understand what the so-called standards and precision meant.

It was not until Xu Chen's subsequent explanation that they gradually realized that the Great Master seemed to be giving them a lesson.

The craftsmen would not think that the Great Master was a layman guiding experts. They would only think that the Great Master was a god-like figure, and it was natural for him to be omniscient and omnipotent.

“I don’t need your experience, but I need you to digitize all the processes.

To make good paper, what is the ratio of the raw materials, what state does it need to be crushed and beaten to, how long and at what heat it needs to be steamed, and what is the ratio of pulp to water.

All these links should not rely on your experience, only numbers can accurately express them. Only by expressing these processes with parameter data can the product quality be stable, the differences will be infinitely narrowed, and the standardized products that I need can be obtained! "

Xu Chen paused, and everyone seemed to be thinking about something.

Craftsmen work all year round. Although they are in different industries, manual production has its commonalities. No matter what is produced, a process is required. They understand Xu Chen's expression of the process with parameter data without being told, but they also feel some of the beauty of it.

It is really hard to explain experience. One person has one feeling when doing something and another has another feeling when doing something else. They have been apprentices before, so they naturally understand the problem.

"Today I am going to talk to you about papermaking, but it is not just papermaking. This thing does not require so many of you. Now that the papermaking workshop is completed, I also want you to do research on iron smelting, pottery, glass, salt, breeding, and food.

No matter what you ultimately do, I require standardization and dataization.

One of your important tasks from now on is to unify the measurements. No matter the weight, length, strength, cold or heat, volume, area, density, pressure, etc., everything must be quantified for me.

Of course, there are many things that you won’t understand right away, so this is the part that needs to be learned.”

After Xu Chen finished his call, everyone's eyes were dizzy. Few of them understood what he said, but they also knew the importance of learning.

The Engineering Court is a good place, but it is not easy to stay there.

Xu Chen also stopped there. Today's so-called teaching was just preliminary education to let the craftsmen know what they were learning for.

If we can gradually achieve unified standards, there is actually no need to make any advanced inventions ourselves. The productivity brought about by technological upgrades and increased diffusion efficiency will be enough to crush contemporaries.

"Select the best paper that has been produced and make books through woodblock printing. Do this immediately. I want to see mass production as soon as possible!"

Everything that needed to be said had been said, and after Xu Chen gave his final instructions, he had accepted the workshop.

It’s just that the workshop acceptance is simple, but I don’t know when the acceptance date of the engineer I requested will come.

(End of this chapter)