Chapter 13 Quick Project (Part 3)
The morning sun shone in the yard, and the new mud outside the stove finally dried. The smooth mud surface looked very comfortable.
Huo Chong stood in the yard facing the morning sun, and everyone in the workshop immediately stepped away. Huo Chong was wearing a shirt, trousers, and shiny leather shoes. The material of this outfit was not rare in the 21st century, but in early April of 1717, it made the group of people wearing coarse cloth clothes look much better.
Huo Chong imitated Uncle Ying in the Taoist movie, pinched his left hand and made simple and clear gestures. He chanted the English spell "a big strong gragon, holy long life earth god..." and cast a spell around the furnace burning glass. If possible, Huo Chong really wanted to shout out loudly "Great Dragon, World Honored Ksitigarbha, Prajna Buddhas, Prajna Paramita!"
It's just that Tianli Sect is not a sect that evolved from Buddhism, but is similar to Taoism. But chanting "Ji Ji Ru Lv Ling" doesn't seem to be appropriate. After all, Huo Chong's teacher Liu Shu said that Shandong Taoism has its own heritage and should not be easily provoked.
Huo Chong performed his rituals in a Taoist way, and if Taoist people heard it, there was no telling what kind of conflict might arise.
The process did not take long, as Huo Chong himself had not practiced it for too long. After reciting a few incantations, Huo Chong rotated his palms in front of his chest like a wheel, and placed one palm on the stove. After a pause, Huo Chong retracted his palms, stepped back a few steps, closed his eyes and said nothing.
Seeing that Huo Chong didn't know whether to end the exercise or prepare for another one, Li Tongshan, who was waiting anxiously, whispered: "Brother Huo, what's going on?"
Huo Chong shook his head slightly. After a while, he let out a long breath and returned to his normal position. He looked up and said to Li Tongshan, "That's about it. Brother Li, turn on the furnace and give it a try."
Li Tongshan quickly ordered his men to connect the bellows to the iron pipes that Huo Chong had "invited" with his magic. Huo Chong didn't even look at it and went out to get some fresh air.
Xu Youlin followed him out and whispered to Huo Chong, "Brother Huo, do you know magic?"
Huo Chong did not explain, but smiled and said: "I have to learn something, otherwise how can I deal with various things. But I don't have patience, and I haven't studied for too long."
Xu Youlin squinted his already narrow eyes and looked like he was asleep. After a while, Xu Youlin asked in a low voice: "Didn't you learn this from your master?"
"Humph!" Huo Chong laughed in an unfathomable way. It was good that Xu Youlin had such insight. If Huo Chong said that he learned all this from Uncle Liu, it would make Huo Chong look inferior.
I thought that even if Xu Youlin would not bow down, he would at least be in awe. Unexpectedly, Xu Youlin continued to lower his voice and said, "Brother Huo, this is the sixth day. You said it was seven days..."
Huo Chong immediately interrupted Xu Youlin, "I said within ten days."
"I can't wait that long." Xu Youlin was obviously anxious.
Huo Chong didn't indulge Xu Youlin. Since they were all on the same boat, it was no longer Xu Youlin's turn to give orders. "Then you have to go back first."
Xu Youlin sighed and stopped talking.
By noon, Li Tongshan's expression was already full of excitement. Looking at the green flames in the furnace, Li Tongshan gave Huo Chong a thumbs up and said, "Brother Huo, this feng shui change is really different!"
Huo Chong smiled calmly, "Brother Li, your brothers need to put in more effort when burning the colored glaze. If the gold wind is uneven and the fire is too strong, the fire will overcome the gold, and the colored glaze will inevitably be damaged."
Li Tongshan nodded repeatedly and answered convincedly: "Of course!"
At this time, the guys wore cotton jackets, covered with linen clothes sprayed with water, and put on gloves, stirring the molten glass in the big furnace with iron rods with wooden handles.
Huo Chong was looking forward to it, but the stove was too hot and he didn't dare to get too close.
At this time, the only thing we can trust is science and technology. Huo Chong sighed inwardly. Li Tongshan's furnace is a furnace with some technical content in this era. It uses coal as fuel and is also equipped with a blast furnace. The blast furnace is used to increase the amount of fire entering the combustion furnace and increase the furnace temperature.
Huo Chong also added an air preheater to the furnace. The iron pipes passed under the furnace, and the air was heated when it passed through the iron pipes. The air entering the furnace was no longer room temperature air, but hot air of hundreds or even hundreds of degrees.
This small technological advancement directly changed modern metallurgical technology. It increased the effective heating temperature of the furnace fire by thousands of degrees. Even though Li Tongshan's furnace only used very primitive equipment, Huo Chong believed that it could be increased by a hundred degrees.
One of the key points in making glass is "continuous stirring". According to the information, when Western Europeans spent a lot of money to buy bubble-free glass from Italian craftsmen, they spent their money in the right way and finally got the word "stirring". Since then, Western European glass manufacturing industry has soared and soon caught up with the level of Venetian profiteers.
What is fired here is colored glaze instead of glass, and Huo Chong hopes that these two technologies can have the same effect.
After spending a whole day in Li Tongshan's workshop, Li Tongshan personally took action the next morning. He scooped out a spoonful of molten glass paste with an iron spoon, and Huo Chong dipped an iron pipe into a ball of sticky hot glass paste. He blew hard and saw a bubble appear in the glass paste.
The huge bubble-like object slowly droops due to gravity, forming a very irregular bubble.
Huo Chong followed the information he had read and rolled the slurry on the iron plate while blowing it. Gradually, a hollow bottle was rolled out. However, the shape of the inside was very uneven, completely different from modern bottles.
"Good move!" Li Tongshan cheered again.
Huo Chong didn't know what to do next. He saw the red glass bottle gradually cooling down and actually solidifying to the point where it could no longer bend.
Letting go of the iron pipe, Huo Chong sighed, "Brother Li, I'm really out of luck. You've played a lot with colored glaze, so I'll have to rely on you to do it from now on."
Li Tongshan said nothing, picked up an iron pipe, dipped it in the colored glass paste and started blowing the bottle. As a master in the colored glass workshop, Li Tongshan was much more skilled than Huo Chong. Before long, a colored glass bottle was blown out.
Even when the glass was still relatively soft, Li Tongshan made a move as if he was going to smash the bottle into pieces, and managed to create a flat bottom on the bottom of the bottle.
After the bottle solidified, Li Tongshan used a knife to make a strong scratch on the mouth of the bottle. Then he raised the stick and brought it down. The bottle did not break, but broke directly from the scratch.
Huo Chong looked at the bottle from left to right. This thing certainly couldn't compare to the refined bottles of the 21st century, but it was translucent. He went out to fill it with water and looked at it against the sun. He saw the liquid in the bottle shaking inside the bottle. Even without looking at it against the sun, the glass bottle was like frosted glass, and the waterline could still be clearly seen.
Proudly handing the bottle to Xu Youlin, Huo Chong asked, "Can this be sold?"
Xu Youlin looked at the bottle from left to right, and the gloomy look he had always had disappeared. After a while, Xu Youlin's expression became gloomy again , "Brother Huo, the bottle is good. But the quality..."
Huo Chong could understand Xu Youlin's idea. The color of the glass wine bottle had a shit-yellow feel, and the bottle was not clear and transparent, which really felt very strange.
After thinking about it, Huo Chong had a solution. "Brother Xu, give me some copper coins."
Hearing Huo Chong asking for money, Xu Youlin seemed to be scalded by hot glass paste. He immediately stepped back and replied, "No!"
"I don't want money." Huo Chong advised.
Xu Youlin had a look on his face that said, "I won't be fooled." "I don't want money. Why are you asking me for money?"
"I need some money."
On the tenth day, a pile of blue-green colored glass bottles were placed in front of Xu Youlin. Xu Youlin picked them up and looked at them from left to right, and he couldn't let them go.
Huo Chong stretched lazily and yawned loudly, "Let's go and see how the wine is!"
Xu Youlin said with a gloomy face: "No, let's go back and see how my people are doing first. Mr. Huo, if your healing method harms my people..."
Huo Chong replied disdainfully: "Yes! Yes! Why are you talking so much nonsense? What good will it do me to kill them? Go back and see, once the pus is eaten up, they will be able to survive!"
