Daming Crazy Emperor

Chapter 219 Silver Coins
Wang Zheng's research and development ability at the moment is already quite amazing. As soon as Taichang mentioned something, he immediately understood how the steam punch should be done.

At this moment, his more than ten students are almost trained, at least they can help him, so he can make new things very fast.

In three days, he not only made the steam press, but also ordered people to make the mold of Taichang Tongbao.

It is still the Armor Factory of the Ministry of Industry, and it is still the huge shed. A boiler has been set up next to the outermost punching machine, and a wooden disc like a water wheel has replaced the original wooden frame used for the ropes. There is not one foot pedal, but two.

After Wang Zheng accompanied Taichang here, he couldn't wait to order his disciples to unplug the coal fire and start burning steam.

Taichang walked up to this simple and remodeled punching machine and took a look, and the appearance of the punching machine of later generations could not help appearing in his mind.

The structure of this thing has to be changed, otherwise the efficiency will not improve.

Of course, function is the main thing when developing something. As long as the function can be realized, the structure modification is still very simple.

Therefore, he didn't immediately tell Wang Zheng about the structural problem. Anyway, let's look at the function of this thing first.

Soon, the steam is ready.

Wang Zheng couldn't wait to pick up a fingernail-sized copper piece, walked to the punching machine, stepped on it lightly, and the five-foot disc rotated immediately, and the hundred steel-making molds on the punching machine were immediately pulled to seven feet with a whoosh. Eight feet high.

He directly put the copper block into the lower mold, then lightly stepped on another pedal, and with a "bang", the upper mold immediately fell down.

Immediately afterwards, he lifted his foot and stepped on the original pedal, and the mold on it swished up again.

He quickly took out the copper coin inside and rubbed it on the whetstone next to it a few times, then handed it to Taichang as if offering a treasure, and said with a little pride: "Your Majesty, look, this copper coin is much more beautiful than the cast one. Moreover, the copper itself is relatively soft, so there is no need to burn it red at all, just flush it directly."

Taichang took the copper coin and looked at it, and couldn't help nodding, full of praise.

This copper coin is indeed much more beautiful than the cast one, because when the copper coin is cast, the surface is full of fine trachoma, which is very rough. Even if you use an oilstone to grind it, you can only smooth the outside. The characters inside, including the surrounding characters, are still uneven. , full of fine trachoma, so that the strokes of the characters are somewhat blurred.

The copper coins that came out were different, no matter inside or outside, they were all extremely smooth, with very clear fonts, and they looked really beautiful.

There is no problem with the copper coins, but the speed of this punching machine is obviously not fast enough.

He walked to the punch press and took a closer look, then pointed to the pedal and said, "Yangfu, there should be a stool here, so that people can sit here and work. Also, it's better to be able to sit next to the mold below." There is a board, so that the copper pieces and the punched copper coins can be placed on it, and it is much more convenient to pick up."

Yup!

When Wang Zheng heard this, he ordered his disciples to bring a stool and a table.

The height of the stool is just right, but the problem is that the height of the table is not very suitable, and no matter how you push it, you can't push it to the mold.

The table blocked the hand when it could not be pushed in front of the mold, and a person sitting behind the table could not reach the copper coins in the mold at all!

How to do?
Wang Zheng just thought about it for a while, then he couldn't wait to point to the table and said: "Saw the legs of the table a little bit shorter, and saw a hole in the front, and push the table to the mould."

When several disciples heard this, they immediately fetched the saw, and it was just a click.

Soon, the table was pushed up to the mould, and the height was just right.

Wang Zheng directly brought over a bunch of small copper blocks, and sat on a stool to operate them.

"哐嘡", a copper coin.

"哐嘡", another copper coin.

Not to mention, if you don't do this job all day long, doing it occasionally is a bit addictive.

Wang Zheng rushed more than ten copper coins in a row, and then he said: "Your Majesty, what do you think is wrong, do you still need to change it?"

Alas, further changes are just for the convenience of mass production, and the speed of making copper coins seems to never be faster.

So, how many copper coins can this kind of punching machine punch out in a day?
Taichang thought for a while, and said simply: "Liangfu, ask someone to fetch an hourglass for a quarter of an hour, and prepare some more copper pieces. Let a quicker disciple keep rushing for a quarter of an hour, and see if he can rush." How many copper coins will you pay?"

okay.

Wang Zheng immediately ordered his disciples to prepare.

There is no glass hourglass yet, but there are wooden hourglasses for a long time ago. There are quarter-hour, half-hour, and hour-hours.

More than a dozen disciples were busy, and they were ready soon.

Immediately afterwards, a rather shrewd young student solemnly sat down in front of the punching machine. As soon as the hourglass was turned upside down, he immediately started punching.

"哐嘡", "哐嘡", "哐嘡"..

The result was revealed soon, and about 150 copper coins could be produced in a quarter of an hour.

Of course, this is because the operation is not skilled enough, and there are no auxiliary tools, so the maximum efficiency has not been achieved.

Taichang estimates that the highest efficiency of this punching machine should be about 9000 for a quarter of an hour, and [-] for an hour, and more than [-] for twelve hours a day. to twenty thousand.

For the sake of simple calculation, let’s say 20 per day, ten such punches are 600 per day, only 200 million per month, and only [-] million per year!

This speed is obviously not enough!
It would take two to three years just to replace the copper coins in the capital and Jinling City, but it would take decades to replace all the copper coins in Daming!

How to do?
Do a hundred of these punches?

Alas, there is no rubber!
Wang Zheng saw that Taichang was standing there frowning and remained silent, he couldn't help asking carefully: "Your Majesty, what's the matter?"

Taichang didn't answer but asked instead: "How much copper coins do you have at home?"

Uh, this.

Wang Zheng couldn't help but said embarrassingly: "Weichen's family doesn't have a lot of copper coins, so it's only about ten coins."

My God, ten rounds is worth tens of thousands of copper coins!
Taichang asked again: "Do you know how many copper coins they have in your family including the servants?"

What is the emperor trying to do?
Wang Zheng said cautiously: "Weichen's family includes more than ten people including servants, six wives, concubines and children. They have some silver and two copper coins in their hands, but it should not be much. One or two pennies should not be a problem."

Alas, it's still less, more than ten times less!

After all, ordinary people seldom save silver these days, and basically use copper coins.

Calculated in this way, it is not enough to make a hundred steam punches!

Taichang couldn't help sighing and said: "Liangfu, the capital alone has a population of millions, how many copper coins do you think they have in their hands, if they want to replace all the copper coins in Daming with this new Tongbao within one or two years Hundreds of such punches are not enough!"

Uh, this is true, the amount of folk copper coins is too scary.

How to do it?

There is only so much rubber left at this moment, and a hundred punches can't make it out!
Wang Zheng thought for a while, and suddenly had an idea: "Your Majesty, why don't we make silver coins to exchange for copper coins? Generally, coins weigh about one penny. If one tael of silver is made into copper coins, it will be ten silver coins. According to the calculation based on the exchange of one tael of silver for a consistent copper coin, one silver coin can be exchanged for a hundred copper coins. I believe many people are willing to exchange it, because the consistent copper coin is a little hard to carry in their pockets, but it is much easier to exchange it for ten silver coins. Yes. Moreover, there is another advantage of exchanging silver coins for copper coins, that is, we can melt the exchanged copper coins together and use them to cast cannons and so on.”

That's a great idea!

Taichang couldn't help giving a thumbs up and applauding: "Very good, let's do it like this!"

Immediately afterwards, he began to discuss with Wang Zheng how to modify the structure of the punch press to facilitate mass production.

There is actually no need for the punch rack to be one foot high, a height of seven or eight feet is enough. Moreover, the wooden plate does not need to be placed so far away, it can be placed next to the rack. There is also a boiler for burning steam, so there is no need for a punch press With one, one boiler with five punches is not a problem.

With such a change in the punching machine, it is much easier to make, and it is much more convenient to carry.

(End of this chapter)